What sets the limit on your longest train?

I would like to think, aside from the size of the curves and layout, the ability of the engine to pull the cars.  But unfortunately the ability of the couplers to hold seem to be a bigger factor.  BigRail

Our club layout is essentially a 'folded dogbone' of two loops. The inner one has a reverse loop at each end which, although rather large, recently a club member ran an Atlantic Coast Line ABBA set of E8s with eleven cars and they 'just missed' at one end in the loop!

Layout size is not my concern when sizing a train.  I like to run about 10 cars.  I get bored when I watch a train of 20 or more cars.  Some of these guys try to run 30 or 40 cars.  It's like "when is this thing going to end?".  I'd rather see more trains than cars.

 

Rick

I too don't like to see a train stretching halfway around a layout, so when designing my present layout, I set a standard of a maximum of 13 freight cars, plus engine and 7 passenger cars plus engine for trains.  The layout is basically a large single track main line loop with sidings for towns.  The minimum siding length became 16 feet and with 16 feet on the main between sidings.  This way, a train is gone from one town before entering the next town.  

Usually, it's how long of a train I can fit in the sidings. But I have made super long trains just to see how long I could make them!

When i run my 2 Southern Pacific AC6000 Diesels up front, I put about 12 to 14 Freight Cars behind it. If I run2 GP38-2s, I can up it to around 16 cars

 

Zach

I prefer at least 24 cars, unless it is the C&O coal train, then it has 55 two bay hoppers. When operating on our Independent Hi-Railers, Mid-West Division modular layout, then I prefer somewhere in the area of 50 cars. My passenger trains are at least 10 to 12 21" long Golden Gate Depot scale length cars.   

My trains all fit the siding they are parked on.

The Big Boy gets 15 cars on the siding, but it seems short.

Therefore once in a while I have to make the Big Boy work and I stack up a 50+ freight car consist. Couplers can be an issue in this long train. My troublesome ones are wired shut.

This nearly laps the layout but shows the power of the engine well.

Typically 8 to maybe 12 cars is about it.

This is limited by grades that include curves, length of reverse loops, as well as how many cars can be backed into a siding without pesky derailments.

 

Rod

I used to have a U-shaped set up with 2 4x8 sheets and small platform in between.  With only one main line I used to have fun seeing how many freight cars I could keep moving.  My limit was when I ran into the real-world problem of string-lining on the inside curves of the U.  When the train got too heavy It would to pull a few cars off the curves!

Well, since my layout is 13x13, I guess I could fit 30-35 cars in if I ran cowcatcher to caboose. So, I like to run no more than 6-8 cars. Our museum has a nice big layout, and there the sky is the limit. I've run 50, and at least once a couple of guys got together and ran a train of 100 cars. They put rubber bands on a lot of the couplers in the first half of the train. 

No longer than my shortest tunnel.  I don't like to see it coming out before it's finished going in.

depends on the purpose of the train.

 

operating car consists are 5-6 cars long.

 

my passenger trains are 6-11 cars long depending on the specific train.

 

my beer reefer train is 15 cars long.

 

other freights range from 10-16 cars long depending on whim.

 

while i did have a 19 car freight behind my LionMaster BigBoy, a train that long just seems too much for layout balance.

I like long trains; frequently running 40+ cars

 

#1 Couplers. We use Kaydee rubber bands...

#2 Engines Once the trains start getting long, we're running at least 2 powered units.

#3 Setup / teardown. It takes a lot of time to get the cars out of the boxes, on the track and subsequently reversing the process. A 45 car train can take a couple of hours in handling time...

#4 The club modular layout is roughly 20x24'. I do avoid having the engine crew "seeing" their own caboose!

Gilly 

Like others, I don't like to see the caboose chasing the engine.  So to avoid that on my size layout I limit freights to about 8 cars, and passenger to 6 usually.

Answering the thread title question...

 

Were the engineer to be constantly waving to the conductor standing on the caboose rear platform, I think that would be 'the limit'.  

 

...Not likely on our layout (fills the basement).

 

Longest passing siding accommodates 3 F-unit diesels and 8 60-foot (15") passenger cars. 

 

That's enough for us.

 

Besides, a 'string-lining' accident would ruin our day.

 

KD

 

 

 

 

 

Usually 6 or 7 cars as that's what fits my passing sidings.

 Small round-the-room 9x16 layout. Usually limited to 3 passenger cars or 7-8 on freights.

I run an average of 35 cars.

My Trains are about twenty cars. I too feel anything that covers both end turns is chasing my tail. That might be cute for a lost puppy, but not very realistic toy train operation.

On the club layout, I've run more than 50 cars with two locomotives.  The configuration is one really long mainline that eventually wraps back around.  The total running length is well over 200 feet, we haven't measured with all the modules, a task for some time in the future.  Typically, it would be more like freight 15-20 cars or 6-8 passenger cars.

With my Carpet Central layout, anything more than seven cars is too long.

At the weekend, we ran a freight train on our club's modular layout. I had 2 and sometimes 3 diesels pulling 12 husky stacks and a couple of Schnabbles. It looked impressive and about as big as anything I would want to run. Passenger trains, I like ten or 12 to be the max.

I like to limit the length of a train to about 8 cars per engine per consist.  For example a doubleheader would be 16 cars. A triple header would be 24 cars. If I place an engine at both ends (push and pull) I limit the cars to 12 total.  If I run extra long cars then I will reduce the number of cars in proportion ( three 40 footers would be  equivalent to two 60 footers) . 

I run strictly passenger trains. My limit is what I have in terms of the number of cars in a particular passenger train set. I do not mix and match from one set to another. The longest train I currently run is A GGD set with twelve 21" passenger cars.

The limit for trains on my layout (O-54 and level) is about 55 cars with newer trucks. Any more than that and I can tell the train will start to daisy-chain about a third of the way back.

 

I can also tell you that, at 55 cars (and about ten minutes), the electronics on my K-line 4-6-2 went south and had to be replaced. Up until the burn-out, I was real happy with the smooth, slow pulling power on that low-end loco.

 

So for now, about 30 cars provides an ample impression of a "big" train.

The length of the passing sidings, so they can make Meets with other trains.   

 

And the length of the staging tracks so trains coming/going "offline" will fit.

 

After that issues like how many cars a loco will pull come into play.

I run what appears to be in proportion to the overall layout. It's the "feel"of the thing, for me, which determines how long the individual ten trains running at the same time are. Does that make sense?

 In the past it was $$. I ran 11 engines and about 75 cars to push the layout.

Now I'm getting the number of cars up higher, I'm losing the nerve I had to run over a hundred cars and several engines. Couldn't stand to think of a major derail. Maybe if there were more people stationed around to watch.

  So I'm happy with 30 some cars and a pair of engines normally, until when, I get bored next winter......... Gotta set the record higher..... What happened to Tom?

I had 47 cars a mixed freight pulled by mth ps2 mohawk.I pulled the same train with a kline mike repainted for the sal rr.I got my ny&ow with locosound pulled it no problem.And last was the sd70ace csx pull the train.Pulled it with no problem.I got mth first railking steamers the berkshires erie and c&o.Some wheel slipage her and there but pulled it.The trick was when to give it more throttle and to ease off.I have a lionel 736 that pulled about 23 lionel cars.That suprised me because its the oldest train I have.I am sure that I am not alone.In being suprised in what a o gauge locomotive will pull.

what sets this guys limit is getting tired of opening the boxes. it is exhausting unpacking Atlas cars be sure to check out the helix scene

 

I like running long freights behind my Rail King Alleghenies and Lionmaster Challengers. It is not unusual for me to set 40-50 car strings of Rail King cars behind a Lionmaster Union Pacific Challenger or Rail King Allegheny.  The semi scale size allows for longer trains on my oval than would be permissible for scale size.  The Rail King Allegheny and Lionmaster Challenger look great on O72.  Occasionally, a car with a weak coupler has to be identified and swapped out or placed near the rear of the train with the weak coupler facing toward the caboose.  I also like running long passenger trains.

 

 

 

 

 

The more the better

 

 

 

 

When I'm finished with the final section of my layout, the longest siding and longest storage tracks will be about the same and will hold a mountain/northern type steamer with 17 cars. So 17 cars will be my normal longest train length.

 

A quick calculation shows I would be able to run 180 40' O gauge cars cow catcher to caboose coupler on the main line.  I doubt the couplers would hold, but it brings up a question: what would be the maximum number of cars I could run?  100 cars has been the maximum so far in the above posts.  I will be able to put 360 watts to the track so I should be able to run enough engines to pull more than that, but if I'm pulling that many watts a derailment might be an interesting light show.  This might be a fun winter experiment when there is nothing else to do.

 

Ron

On the layout, freights do't get any longer than about 15 cars, passenger trains 3 to 7 just to keep things in proportion to the layout size. However, I have an around the room shelf track that is now up to 35 local area related cars, pulled by a Premier FA2 ABA set. Couplers are holding up to the strain for the most part, although there  have been a couple cars that needed to be moved further back in the train because of weaker couplers.

Gee, that one was so large it needed two caboose crews!

After a while, I get bored set up and coupling more cars to a train.  At that point, it is long enough and its time to train the train.

longest train on my 8'x 12'

mobile layout we take to train shows,

was about 35-40 cars in a continuous

loop. The caboose came around and I

coupled the front coupler of the deisel

locomotive to the rear coupler of the caboose.

ran around like that for awhile until one

lady realized there was no end, she says.

"there is no end to that train" after she watched it for about 5min. HA!