# of cars pulled... What's your personal best?

Personally, I pulled a 1960 MGA home when it stopped running.  i used a rope.  

I run a lot of made up cars of characters and I have run 40 cars, with two diesels.

another member ran 107 freight at the club with 3 diesels.

32 mostly scale milk cars and Weaver brass caboose with a Williams Trainmaster. I am sure it could have pulled more if I had more cars as it was hardly breaking a sweat drawing only 1.5 amps.

Pete

I had 33 of my Weaver club cars behind an 0 6 0 and a GP 38 on the carpet Christmas layout. If I had longer straights, and O 72 curves, I could do more. Some day I'll try on my outside suspended layout which has O 72 curves on a 12 X 16 two track loop. I might be able to get 50 cars on the outer loop.

Don

I wasn't trying to set a record but making a point about the low rolling resistance of newer Lionel freight cars at 3 grams each vs 6-10 grams for the other brands. I coupled up 92 cars which totaled about 3/4 pound of resistance. I was able to pull that with one GP9 diesel on the level part of my layout with 108" curves.

 I forgot how many cars I pulled but I know it was a hundred feet long. I can't seem to post a you tube link, but you can Google it. THREE RAIL 0 SCALE TRAIN 100FEET LONG.

Clem k

I've pulled about 50 assorted scale reefers, etc.  I actually think that total weight, etc., is more impressive than sheer number: 35 big cars is more than 50 short tiny cars, etc.  Two dozen passenger cars though, is quite a train and more impressive than 30 -40 freight cars.  I have never run that many, but have done 22.

Here's your video Clem. I'm impressed you even have empty flat cars in the middle of the consist. I'd think they would be prone to string lining even on wide curves with all that weight behind them...

Clem's video:"THREE RAIL SCALE TRAIN 100FEET LONG"

This probably my heaviest train.....30 cars....but 20+ have diecast vehicle loads....it's ONE heavy train!

Peter

My Christmas layout consisted of a LionChief Plus Hudson pulling 21 Hershey's branded cars by Lionel and K-Line.  Captured most of it on video before phone ran out of memory

Great videos guys.   

Clem, My count was up to about 74 when the train passed in front of itself and blocked the end of the train and I lost count. You were probably around 80 cars. 

JohnS, I loved the 93 reefers of ale on the rail.  Do you own all those identical reefers or were they borrowed? Either way, impressive and fun.

Peter, beautiful train I always enjoyed military trains. 

don't have a pic of the train, but do of the board, 8'x 12' board  had a train circumnavigate(big word),

my board and the back coupler on the last car coupled up with the front coupler on

the lead locomotive making a continuous train.

was running it around and some lady watching said, HEY, there is no end to this train,

where is the caboose???

Had two helper locos in the middle of the train helping push/pull.

Had to start her slow or I ended up with all the cars on their sides and had quite the derailment!!

My longest train pales by comparison to most of you guys, but it was 28 hopper cars behind my old 0-6-0 dockside locomotive.

127....

Er, well - honestly, less than 20. But I have a smallish layout. We'll see what happens on the new one!

Good morning

Thank you Matthew B.

Clem k

A Rail King Allegheny with more than 40 cars.

117 cars pulled by a 0-4-0 Weaver and a 0-6-0 Weaver at the AGHR club layout March 2000.

Some of the cars had wire wraps on the couplers but not many, it was a bit slow 10 to 15 Scale MPH and we did 5 loops on the layout which was track lenth at the time was a little over 1000 feet. .It ws a combination of all brands at the time Weaver, Lionel scale and traditional. MTH, K line Crown, Atlas and any car that came walking through the club house door.

40 Lionel Scale Autoracks (each are 23 inches long) pulled by 2 Lionel Legacy CSX SD80MACs.

Very impressive GUYZ!!!  But how many times if any did the cars uncouple?

MTH Big Boy and 53 cars, 1.9% grade. 

Alex

19.  It's the most which would fit on my old layout.  Those of you with the space have run some impressive consists!

---Greg

Very nice videos!

Bob C.

Since I run strictly passenger train operations, my number is small compared to freight service. However, thirteen 21" passenger cars with an ABBA diesel combo up front is not a "short" train. 

The most freight cars, mainly Lionel postwar, I have pulled with one engine was a Williams S-2 Pennsy steam engine, 27 freight cars and a caboose. Wanted to try for more but the train started derailing around curves with more cars.

The most freight cars, mixed Lionel and MTH, I have pulled was with two powered Williams SD-45's, 35 freight cars with an engine in the front and one in the rear. The engines were only two feet from meeting each other or I would have tried for more and another engine, ran out of layout room.

Lee Fritz

I've got one of these little gems too.  They are beastly.  It has pulled as heavy and long a train as any of my "bigger" locomotives.  Actually more because when I swap it in service from my K-Line Big Boy, I can add 2 more cars.

As for my record, IDK.  I didn't count the day I did it.  I had my K-Line GG1 and my son's Lionel HHP-8 pulling everything we could get on the track.  I twisty-tied shut any couplers that opened, and we did get it going, but after a clothes line (I only had O36 curves at the time.) we gave up.  But it did move about 3 feet before the derailment, and there were 50+ cars, freight and passenger.

I pulled 96 cars at the club layout several years ago.  Mostly Atlas O with some MTH, Lionel, K-Line, & Weaver.  Had 3 powered units and 2 dummies.  One dummy unit was part of the consist (not lashup ) while the second dummy unit (an MTH UP SD40-2) near the end as a "helper" unit.   Can't find the video I took of it right now unfortunately.  Haven't replicated it since.

On Sunday, the beer train was 63 cars long. I used a MTH SD70ACE/ES44AC consist to pull it. They were barely working, pulling less than 3.5 amps.

I have also pulled 45+ coal cars with a single WBB Trainmaster.

Gilly

On a floor layout: 61 cars, MPC/LTI with some Weaver mixed in, locomotives were a trio of diecast 0-4-0's and a plastic one. That train moved several laps, but the only documentation is crude RailScope footage piped to a VHS recorder in the next room.

Tried 79 cars once, but it wouldn't move without stringlining.

On the test track: the largest number of cars was a 51-car train of ore hoppers pulled by a single Williams Dash-8. The physically longest freight train would probably be the 24-car train of MTH autoracks. The physically longest passenger train would be a toss-up between my 22-car Three Rivers, or most likely the 37' long 21-car Auto-Train, the latter of which was certainly the heaviest, coming in at almost 48 pounds without locomotives.

---PCJ

Ahhhh, a Lash-Up!

My layout is still too small, I can pull more than I can get on the main line.

My best so far is 115 cars with two Legacy U28C locomotives.

Once saw a HO modular layout withtwo hundred cars, and the caboose was less than a foot from the pilot of the lead locomotive.

But the limit for a single model locomotive must be 844 hoppers behind this N scale locomotive at an N scale convention in Houston in the 80s. They had to limit it at that for the curves it had to go around. Many thought it could pull much more on a straight track. It was weighed down by depleted uranium:

They pulled over 1000 cars with multiple units at another event later...

Thanks  It was actually two Alleghenies and one Y6B

I think it was about 50 PFC reefers behind a Big Boy.

Another fun train was all 5 K-Line Mikados in a consist (not a lashup!) with a large number of cars.

I use the rubber bands that the dentist uses for braces.  Works great.