I don't usually have more than 6 Madison cars pulled by my steam engines on our year round 8 x 5 display. On this years 8 x 5 Christmas display we're pulling 7 of the Polar Express passenger cars and it looks pretty cool when the train hits the O36 sections on the spirals.
Not in practice, I tend to start with a power unit and caboose, usually adding a car, or two each "lap" till things are uncoupling, or the loco begins loosing the battle. But in theory, I feel limiting to 3/4 of the length of the longest straight looks best.
Short trains are not ignored though. Small passenger, passenger/freight combos, local freight, and even work trains, seldom see a change in their normally assembled consists.
Originally Posted by GG1 4877:
It all depends on the layout size for me. At my operating club, the Paradise and Pacific, I've run up to 75 scale freight cars with either two or three powered locomotives. Usually two as the grade is minimal on the loop I run them on. The total train length was about 80'.
However, yes, there can be some operational difficulties with a train that long. the biggest is simply being vigilant to make sure that cars aren't derailing which can lead to messy crashes. I find that 25-40 cars can run for hours without a lot of concern.
Of course, I run quite bit of old Roco-Atlas, old Weaver and other lighter cars at the back of the train. While the modern offerings are so much better in terms of detail, they can make a train a lot heavier real quick.
For passenger I've run over 20 cars, but prefer to keep my trains to about 12 cars and two powered locomotives. It looks about right for that layout.
At home, it's a different story. On my modular 16x7 layout I have about 20 cars on the freight train now and an 8 car Canadian set on the other mainline track. I'll be switching those out though for shorter trains. Both trains are a little too long for that layout.
Finally, if I ever get my 2 rail layout built, I'll limit the passenger trains to about 5 cars total and the freight trains to 10 or less. That's just based on the room size I have.
Here's 47 cars operating for about 4 continuous hours from a few weeks ago in Scottsdale.
I was there are RailFair this year and that's a nice layout there. I don't think I saw any that long , but I wasn't able to look as closely as I wanted as I was trying to keep track of my 1 year old. But I do remember just how quiet it was. So I have to ask, how is the track laid so that the track noise is the lowest I've ever heard?
Sinclair - My first guess is that it is Atlas track which I think is very quiet compared to most.
Art
Sinclair - the Paradise and Pacific did a lot of experimentation with various bench work techniques and sound tested them. The final solution as I recall was a combination of Atlas track on top of foam roadbed on top of a thin layer of Homasote and then supported by composite plastic material, I think Trex, built like a traditional bridge with beams on either side of the track and cross braces every six inches or so. The fasteners for the track don't penetrate any material that can transmit sound to the bench work.
It has worked well for 3 years now since the building opened.
Here are two videos showing my Canadian set at 8 cars. They do illustrate how quiet this layout is.
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Ladies & Gentlemen,
Sense Lee honestly answered this question, with his answer that his Wallet limits the size of his trains, I commend him highly, my original Williams UP City of San Fran and and few big silvers mixed in, take up over 26' of track, and if I had more money to burn,
those big double engines could handle twice that many passenger cars, course I would need to purchase a bigger home to run the train.
PCRR/Dave
I have 2 loops around the wall that will handle long trains however I do not push my engines to their max. I add another if needed.
Jonathon - That is really quiet! Very nicely done.
Art
Atlas track is actually pretty quiet just screwed directly to plywood. That's all I have right now. Will soon be installing Flexxbed (vinyl roadbed) between the track and plywood. The RR club above (GG1 4877's post) has really gone all out with the added Homasote and other material they used. Probably won't get any quieter than that. It is a pleasing sound.
Great thread! I run freight trains that have 50 to 75 cars...and can two of that length on each of three mainlines. Two of the mainlines have what would be called passing sidings that can accommodate those length of trains.
As far as passenger trains, I usually run the number of cars that the prototype would have run on that particular train so I may have 15 to 20 passenger cars on a train depending on the era, etc....
Alan
A few of you have admitted that your trains are limited by the size of your home . . . 
On my layout, anything longer than 14 cars just doesn't look 'right'. Mostly I run 4 to 12 cars. By limited the cars per engine type I can keep an illusion of differences in power.
I did try a max train once . . . it fell over!
Nathan
I run run pretty short "trains" when I run G scale stuff.
Jeff C
Jeff,
Having lived in Slidell, La for an extended time I love the NO Street Car wish MTH or Lionel would make one in O guage, especially with the French Quarter sound effects!
PCRR/Dave
My layout is 4'x10'. It limits the length of my trains.
Pete
For as large as my layout is, I plan to limit my train to 12 - 15 cars. The three limiting factors are:
- I only use one dual motored engine per train
- The grade on the helixes
- The length of the storage tracks
When the upper deck is finished, I suppose I could run a really long train around for show. But for regular operation, the above rules apply.
Originally Posted by Pine Creek Railroad:
Jeff,
Having lived in Slidell, La for an extended time I love the NO Street Car wish MTH or Lionel would make one in O guage, especially with the French Quarter sound effects!
PCRR/Dave
I love the NOPS Perley Thomas cars. I've often been tempted by the MTS O brass model, but the price would be in the $550.00 range once the model is powered.
What I really would love to see would be a properly scaled 1/29 scale model that would look right with the excellent Bachmann Peter Witt.
I love the massive size of large scale trolleys, and the great thing is that they will still run on 15" radius curves, which means that they will work beautifully on an indoor home layout.
Jeff C
Jonathan, no question, that is super quiet. Love the GGD 21" set.
Ok guys and gals... How do you do this successfully?
I set up a 55 car train. One MTH scale GG1 would not pull the load.
So I did a, ahem, lash up (sorry Rich) with 2 GG1s. I had various couplers opening all over the place.
So I modified the lash up to one G in the front and one G in the rear. The train would derail on the O-80 curves.
Built a bigger lashup with an SD70 in the middle Of the train. Derailments still occurred.
I quit for lunch. So what's the secret?
Ron
Originally Posted by Big_Boy_4005:
For as large as my layout is, I plan to limit my train to 12 - 15 cars. The three limiting factors are:
- I only use one dual motored engine per train
- The grade on the helixes
- The length of the storage tracks
When the upper deck is finished, I suppose I could run a really long train around for show. But for regular operation, the above rules apply.
You are making me feel much better about my meager sized layout and storage tracks. 
You definitely have a 'Dream' layout!
Originally Posted by Ron045:
Ok guys and gals... How do you do this successfully?
I set up a 55 car train. One MTH scale GG1 would not pull the load.
So I did a, ahem, lash up (sorry Rich) with 2 GG1s. I had various couplers opening all over the place.
So I modified the lash up to one G in the front and one G in the rear. The train would derail on the O-80 curves.
Built a bigger lashup with an SD70 in the middle Of the train. Derailments still occurred.
I quit for lunch. So what's the secret?
Ron
I don't remember how many cars it was (For sure more than 50, maybe closer to 75.), but once I put all I could on a carpet layout of FasTrack O36 and O48 curves. I was pulling it with my K-Line Big Boy. When a coupler open I put a twist tie around it to keep it shut. Then due to the O36 I kept string lining after I got enough couplers to stay shut. So I tried a 2nd locomotive, my K-Line Allegheny, but once in a lash up the two locomotive wouldn't go the same speed. So I tried different combos of the 4 TMCC locomotives I had, the other two being a K-Line GG1 and a Lionel HHP-8. The two electrics work great together, so the GG1 went at the head and the HHP-8 went mid train. After taking it really, really slow, I did get it moving, and what a sight to see. But physics decided to remind me that there are rules it must follow, and I ended up string lining. It was fun, but you need to take your time and find locomotives that track well together, as well as some wide curves.
This is only tangentially related, but when I was a small boy, I once built a layout with a 90 degree crossover that had a small loop on one end of it. I remember being surprised that I had "painted myself into corner" concerning the max size train that could be run as a result.
The layout I built was different, but the diagram below illustrates the problem:
I.e., you can have all the space in the world, but if you build in a cutoff without thinking too much about what you're doing, you will build in a max size train that can be run.
SJS
Originally Posted by Ron045:
Ok guys and gals... How do you do this successfully?
I set up a 55 car train. One MTH scale GG1 would not pull the load.
So I did a, ahem, lash up (sorry Rich) with 2 GG1s. I had various couplers opening all over the place.
So I modified the lash up to one G in the front and one G in the rear. The train would derail on the O-80 curves.
Built a bigger lashup with an SD70 in the middle Of the train. Derailments still occurred.
I quit for lunch. So what's the secret?
Ron
We don't normally run trains that long, but have on several occasions. On the longest that we run with distributed power, we had two powered units up front, one in the middle and one at the rear. The secret was using all similar MTH engines that ran at the same speed. We did not have any coupler issues, but I have had with long trains with only engines on the front. Hope this helps.
Art
While it is a lot of fun to see how long a train that you can run occasionally, I think it looks better on my layout to run the trains within the 14 foot rule. I haven't measured my longest straight, but my mainline is 201 feet long in total. I realize that means that I can run some pretty long trains, but on normal operating sessions I enjoy being able to run two trains per mainline spaced out so that they can. This means the engineers have to be on their toes, but that is part of the fun in my opinion.
Art
Elliot - Your layout would seem to be a perfect example of one that you can as long a train as you want. I agree though that it will be a lot more fun to run more shorter trains as realistically as possible.
Art
At Christmas last year my 3 yr old was running 25+ o27 cars pulled by a low end lionel diesel around the tree on o48 curves and having a blast. Once in a while a coupler would open and we'd have to twist tie it up. He only stopped because he ran out of cars. I think he would add cars until the engine is pushing and pulling (the easiest way to speed match!) I think our carpet layout was about 7' x 10'
I prefer to stay at about 3/4 the length of the longest straight on the layout to be able to see the train stretched out at some point.
Usually I run freight trains that are between 25 and 40 feet long, and passenger trains 18 feet long. My sidings can accommodate those well.
But once in a while I run a 50 to 60-car long train (don’t readily know the length in feet) such as this 53-car manifest, which the Big Boy had no problem pulling up the 2% grade. (The entire train can be seen between the 4 and 6 minute marks, but you may like the entire video. It is HiDef, BTW.)
Alex
We once tried for a 1,200' train but the folks that promised to bring rolling stock and help out didn't show up...so we ended up with about 700' on a 1,400' loop.
Originally Posted by Chugman:
Elliot - Your layout would seem to be a perfect example of one that you can as long a train as you want. I agree though that it will be a lot more fun to run more shorter trains as realistically as possible.
Art
Art, the one thing I worry about with long train display running on the upper level is all the 180+ degree curves, as they wind around the peninsulas. There are 5 of them and none are superelevated. A string lining accident would cause "train rain", and that would be no fun at all.
Originally Posted by Pine Creek Railroad:
Ladies & Gentlemen,
Sense Lee honestly answered this question, with his answer that his Wallet limits the size of his trains, I commend him highly, my original Williams UP City of San Fran and and few big silvers mixed in, take up over 26' of track, and if I had more money to burn,
those big double engines could handle twice that many passenger cars, course I would need to purchase a bigger home to run the train.
PCRR/Dave
You must have the shortest, stone portal tunnel EVER!!!
Back in the early sixties, my brother received a Flyer set with track and a 90 degree crossing to make a figure 8 layout. The folks at Gilbert had it fixed just right so that the 10 or so cars and engine just cleared itself at the diamond. Of course after a few years things loosened up a bit so that sometimes the pilot on the engine "just" clipped the end of the caboose. So the limit was 10 cars and still is.
Conductor Earl
Pingman,
Carl my wife says I have a warped sense of humor, comes from working to many military felony criminal cases, anyway you are the 1st guy who ever got the mini tunnel joke, thanks for noticing!
PCRR/Dave
Alex,
I love your BB video! I've watched that one many times on youtube!
Chugman,
I wish I could run one of my trains, not having a layout is no fun!
If I could, I'd like to have a 10-15 car passenger train & at least a 50 car PFE Reefer train pulled by some big UP steamers. Guess I'll need to borrow your fantastic layout some time, OK?
Long enough to push the muti headed train, but short enough they do not over strain.
Well, I tried limiting this years Polar Express to 7 cars, but then I went to a train show today and got a deal on another PE coach. Now I got the Polar Express eating it own tail.
So I guess if I want to limit the length of my trains I need to stay away from train shows.
My childhood passenger set was a consist of 2356 Southern AA's and 2530. -33, and -31 aluminum cars. As an adult, I added the 2532 dome, and 2534 coach. Then I added the B unit. But when I ran the ABA and 5 cars, it looked bad to my eye, so I sold the B unit.
Even with my own train room, I could never get used to an ABA w/o at least 8 or 9 passenger cars.
On our club layout, it depends on what power or how much power is pulling it. If it's a Lionel ES44 and MTH Premier dummy Dash 8, then a consist of about fifteen scale and semi-scale cars is normal. If it's a singular or duo pairing of Montour SW9s or a Pennsy B5/Rio Grande GP40 dummy, then a train of about ten coal cars looks best. Or, like for today's open house, a single NS GP38 pulling about 7-8 cars would look best.
On my 6'x10' home layout, by necessity, then train consists are short, with a single engine for power. The basic rule of thumb is this; if any consist is longer than four Railking Amfleets and a Railking TOFC, then it is too long for multi-train operation.
And Mathew B, I feel your pain. My previous loop had maybe five car-lengths separation between the lead loco and the last car. Too many attractive-looking locos and cars at the LHS and Greenberg's.
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