I know this might be getting old of a topic. But just wanted to know what the most cars it can pull or what the up limit is. How does it compare to an athearn big boy or challenger? Otherwise I would do it my self but not enough rolling stock as my Kato fef-3 was able to pull 47car 12 freight and 35 passenger cars pull the two watertender. Plus two my heaviest diesel on flatbeds walk away no problem at coaldrag speed.
Longest train I have pulled with my FEF-3 is everything I have... 18 MTL freights, a caboose, and 7 heavyweight passenger cars (6 MTL and 1 con cor? with MTL trucks)... up and around 17" radius on a 1.8% grade. IIRC, the FEF-3 outpulls my Athearn Challenger, which slipped when I tried to pull the same train. The Challenger easily pulls all the freights and caboose up the 1.8%, but I can't recall how many passenger cars I could add on before it slipped.
That surprising I would thought the Challenger was more powerful. It a good thing I found one for $239 dcc ready. The fef-3 definitely more powerful. Challenger have pulling issues form what I heard.
I was a little surprised at the tractive effort of the FEF-3. On the other hand, I estimate that the challenger will pull 25+ freight cars up and around my main-line, which sports 1.8% gradients around 17" minimum radius curves. I am perfectly OK with that... as my twice around mainline is still only ~35 ft. Both engines (recent releases) required a little "work" to get them where they are... The wheels/drivers on the Athearn challenger (and tender) were spaced too narrow on arrival... Sent it off to Athearn to be re-gauged under warranty. Got it back 7 weeks later... they replaced the drivers and all (?) wheel sets. 3 weeks after I got it back, the sound decoder died. Back to Athearn. Turnaround for replacement was 3 weeks. All work was done under warranty, and it is running great now. My FEF-3 (#844) came with factory decoder and LokSound... I tested and ran just fine at low speeds, no load... but once I got my mainline laid, it surging when climbing hills under any reasonable load. I found reports of similar behavior with earlier runs that had TCS decoders... but not the LokSound. Talked to Kato USA, and they referred me to LokSound. Eventually figured out that it was the load compensation CV in the B-EMF settings. Turned that down, and it helped a lot. Also had a slight mechanical issue, which I seem to have eliminated following advice from Kato USA. Runs like a champ, now! I can elaborate on the FEF-3 issues in another post of they would be useful to anyone...
