How many freight cars can union pacific ten wheeler haul? Want to be as realistic as possible. P.s. this will be on route that has 3 percent grade on it.
A three percent grade with no helper? Freight cars? Loaded or unloaded? What ten wheeler? Ten on a really good day. Three.
3 percent with no helper. It is the first pic that you put up and it is hauling loaded freight. But, I would be curious about a loaded passenger as well.
If you are cooking up a track plan, and have the equipment and some track to mess around with, I'd suggest some experimentation to see what might work. There're a lot of variables such as curve radius, car length, car weight, tender weight, truck quality (i.e. rolling resistance) and the engine itself (motor, weight and smoothness of operation) that make even a general answer tough. Welcome aboard TrainBoard!
Careful! "1940s-1950s era Pullmans" is kind of vague. Cars built then are streamlined, and weigh half as much as Roaring 20s era battleships. Those were still the majority of the working equipment, and could be described that same way because their appearance usually changed in the 30s and 40s. A UP ten wheeler would almost certainly not haul streamlined equipment. The UP isn't the Rock Island with its short Rockets on level ground and it's 'can improvise' attitude. If your "1940s era passenger equipment" is twenty year old heavyweights with 1940s "betterments" (like air conditioning), I doubt it would haul more than two. Any more than that and the UP would find something less likely to stall.
3% is a stiff grade for models and more so for real trains. I agree with two, if as described above. Maybe, just possibly, three on a good day with dry rails.
What you might do is get some 1x4 lumber, maybe 8' long. Cut it in half so the first 4' is flat, and the second 4' is at 3% or whatever grade you want to check. Lay track on it, connect it to the power pack, and test away!!!
Yes, those are heavyweights, 1920s era dreadnoughts of the sort an old ten wheeler might haul even after the war, particularly on a secondary route or branch line. And that particular one has its clerestory roof rounded off, indicating it has been updated with air conditioning.
Interesting topic. Beautiful vintage photos, BTW. Never seen those. What an age! Some decades ago I built a small portable module with about 4 percent grade using an AHM American type, and it clambered up the grade, slipping a bit, hauling three coaches. I ran the blazes out of it, actually wearing one of the flanges off one of the coaches. I am working on a small Micro Layout ( 34 inches x 40 inches) and substituting grades for trestles, it should perform rather well (see "Hart's Mill Crossing, if you wish, I'd love to trade notes with you). Attached is a video of a ten wheeler, a new in box Mantua ten wheeler I stumbled over, and it pulls easily it's string. Part of your fun will be experimenting to see what your locomotive will do. The free rolling characteristics of the trucks will make a big difference, and metal wheels also improve function dramatically. I add a drop of gear oil to the journal boxes of the cheaper, lower quality trucks, and this helps enormously, too.
