Greetings All,
I just ran my first train this morning.
Sd60 MTH Premier,I towed 11 late 1950's early 60's Lionel 027's cars.
My New stock is all 0 MTH Premier rolling stock.How many of these would be safe for Mth premiers Diesel engines?
The engine pulled them at 1MPH to 50MPH I don't want to go any faster don't want to burn the motor out.
Do you think that's to much of a load for her?
Thank You
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I don't enough about mth engines but all my lionel engines will pull (not tow) 40 plus cars.
I don't know if it's "proper" to run this much, but I run 20 or more cars behind one MTH dual can motor engine with no problems at all!
You should be able to run about 15 or more post war freight cars behind your MTH engine if the cars are well lubricated and wheels are clean.
I have an MTH steam engine, a 4-8-4 and have run about 17 freight cars behind it.
If it is too much of a load you will know as the engine may slip or spin it's wheels.
Lee Fritz
My Imperial Railking Big Boy will pull 58 cars with no issues.
You will have coupler failures before any issues with a dual can motor engine.
Faster is actually better from a standpoint of damaging the motor. "Lugging" the motor causes it to draw excessive current, which causes it to get hot.
Faster is actually better from a standpoint of damaging the motor. "Lugging" the motor causes it to draw excessive current, which causes it to get hot.
??????? never heard of this before.
Matt is correct, to a point.
DC motors work by flowing current in windings to create magnetic fields.
The spinning of the motor with the brushes limits the amount of time current can flow in one section before it get a break to cool. The spinning also creates more airflow and cooling effect.
There is an effect called CEMF caused by the building of the magnetic field as well. Once the Field is complete, this effect is reduced. This also limits current flow and thus heating.
If the motor is not turning the current flows in excess and will overheat the winding.
If the motor turns slowly the CEMF is very low and the brushes are in contact with a given winding longer, thus the winding can overheat.
The mass of the armature can absorb some heat and limits how fast this can happen.
An engine creeping along for more than a few feet under load can cause this, once you reach a low cruise speed it is not a problem.
The gearing in our engines ensures the motor is spinning much faster than the drive wheels.
Edited for spelling and format
Once you start throwing traction tires, you're probably over loaded.
"towing" 
- not really a RR term! 
Faster is actually better from a standpoint of damaging the motor. "Lugging" the motor causes it to draw excessive current, which causes it to get hot.
??????? never heard of this before.
well I guess this does not apply to my lionel legacy engines because they have never gotten even warm and I pull some long trains, and I go very slow.
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