I finally got me one of these beauties. Puts out some smoke! How many cars will this engine pull, or what is typical. I have 3, was waiting for a good deal on a 5 car set. Adding a 2nd shelf layer in one of my hobby room for HO, and N runs. I saw that KATO has some 13 passenger car sets. Just seems like a big load the engine. So made me wonder the pull cap of the SP.
Thanks.
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I've pulled twelve Golden Gate Depot S.P. Daylight cars with my MTH GS4 on the NJ Hirailers layout and was thinking about adding two more.
I normally run mine (an early PS1 converted to PS2 3V, which has a Pittman motor) with 6 aluminum passenger cars. It has pulled 10 on occasion with ease and could probably pull more without issue.
I have the version decorated for the American Freedom Train. On flat track with 072 minimum radius I have hauled all of the K Line AFT cars (18) plus 2 MTH baggage plus 2 Lionel AFT cars with no problems. Total of 22 cars. You need a large layout to pull this many cars however. With about 3% grades I have pulled 19 cars with the MTH Reading T1 (similar in construction to the Daylight) but was maxing out the power supply (overload light flickering on Z-4000) going up grade with all of the lighted cars. Converting the cars to LEDs is on my list but will be a while.
Rolland
Holy smokes Batman! Dang... 33ft of passenger cars. After my 5 pack add on, be 12ft train. I wanted to see what 33ft looked like. Would start at my front door, and half way into kitchen area.
Wow some of you are really putting your locos to work!
You might be able to estimate the motor current by seeing how many amps the passenger car lights draw without the loco on the track. If removing the loco reduces the total current draw by more than 3 amps, I would say you're overloading the motor. (Allowing about an amp for lights, smoke, sound, etc.)
Those 4-8-4s are heavy, and with rubber tires their starting drawbar pull is enormous. But... the gear ratio is pretty tall. If you're letting it slog along at 10 mph under speed control for any length of time, the motor isn't turning very fast and a lot of power is being dissipated as heat. The later Legacy locos have over-current protection; I'm not sure whether PS3 does. I just wouldn't want anyone to let the "magic smoke" out without knowing the risks.
The 22 car train does not pull much in the way of amperage, 4 or 5 at most. After 2 loops with the 19 car train I stopped and backed off the load to 17 cars and that reduced the amperage to levels the power supply could better tolerate. At 19 cars, the train would hold speed commanded up to 45 smph (checked with measured distance and a timer vs DCS commanded speed.) Above that it would lag going up the grade. At 17 cars the train had no issues with holding 55 smph which is fast as I wanted it to run. After a couple hours of running there was no sign of stress on the motor or other electrical equipment by way of excess heat. In the future I will be using a helper to pull more than 15 cars to reduce the load on the engine. I have not tried this yet and I might be restricted to the no grade regions of the club layout for the full 26 car consist.
Rolland
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