Post by boxcarwilly on Sept 19, 2014 9:57:41 GMT -5
Boxcarwilly ,I worked on some many railroad divisions .that I can't remember which one ,but there were so many curves and grades in this one stretch . If the train stopped they had to go back and split the cars. Cause if they start pulling from a dead stop it would derail cars or break a bunch of knuckles.
Lol do you have to many curves.
Bob
One of my long grades does in fact have 2 gentle, 13 degree and less curves in it. The other one is a straight rise from 0 to 4 inches over 16 feet. The trains that run through the Rockies here are in excess of 100 cars, and in one area they have to climb/descend a 2.2 grade over a 5.5 mile course that includes 4 curves, one at a 45 degree, and 2 very long 35 degree spirals. To date, I've never heard of any splitting of trains or derailments, even as far back as the steam era. True extra engines used to be added to pull the weight, but they always managed to go from the beginning to the end without problems. I have seen 125 car trains going through this particular area with 2 heavy engines in front, one and sometimes two slave mid train and one at the end. It's impressive when you can see the same train in three different spots on this run but what is even more impressive is they never have a derailment, split, or stall. There is a passing track that runs pretty much the full length of the climb, but it's mainly used for maintenance trains as there are passing, waiting tracks at the top and bottom of this particular grade. My point is, the curves, if they are gentle enough, should not affect the pulling power of a long train. This is what I have endeavoured to model my layout after. Do I have unrealistic expectations of my little guys? I don't think so. Perhaps during the manufacturing or testing of these engines, experiments should be done to rate their pulling power both on flat surfaces and grades. Then for example at GP 38 could be rated to pull 62 heavy cars on a flat surface and 40 on a grade. An SD70 or 75 could be rated for 92 heavy weight cars flat and 60 on a grade and so on all the way through the line. That way we know what to expect from each engine. So in theory, 2 SD75's could pull 184 heavy cars on a flat surface and more of the lightweight cars. But who among us would actually have a train with that many cars?