How many passenger cars can the Lionel Standard Gauge steam engine manufactured by MTH pull at the same time? I'm using my #6 to pull 3 McCoy TCA Convention passenger cars and I'm having trouble with the engine pulling them. The drive wheels on the engine are spinning a lot. They are not getting good traction. The engine is pictured in the catalogue pulling 3 passenger cars. I would appreciate any advice concerning this matter that anyone may be able to give me. Thanks, Terry
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Most Standard Gauge Engines pulled about 3 cars on average, although some of the more expensive sets had 4 cars. My guess would be that 3 is good enough. Just make sure the wheels are oiled on the passenger cars & the track is clean enough for the drive wheels to grip it. Take care.
Does it have PS-? or is it conventional. The PS-? would have a can motor and possibly traction tires. These should be good pullers. The conventional ones I'm not sure.
Steve
I pull three cars (#29 day coaches) with my Lionel 6-13104 brass #7, and also three cars with my MTH 11-1029, which is the recently released Lionel #6 dressed up as the #999 "Empire State Express".
The brass engine has traction tires on it, and has no spinning problems at all. The #999 does not, and it sometimes spins a bit, but hauls the cars okay. Both engines are traditional open-frame motors.
Traction tires come with the MTH locos, and they do help. Purists don't like to use them, but these are repro engines anyway, so we're not being purist here.
Another alternative that I use frequently is to find a place in the engine for some well-placed chunks of lead. I get 1/4 pound and 1/2 pound lead bars on eBay, and find ways to hide them inside the cab or shell. Extra weight in the engine can work as well or better than traction tires.
Mine is the conventional engine. When I put my hand on the engine and pushed down it did stop the wheels from spinning and gave it traction.
"When I put my hand on the engine and pushed down it did stop the wheels from spinning and gave it traction."
Weight.
As hojack suggests, add weight. Try to center the weight over the front drive axle so some weight is distributed over the pilot truck. If you add weight too far to the rear the pilot truck may lift up and derail on a curve or turnout.
Good luck.
FYI: Here is short clip of an early #6 remotored with a Pitmann can motor. Tons of power.
Slow.
Fast.
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