I just finished reading Freight Terminals and Trains by John Droege, and he
includes a lot of information on tonnage as the determining factor for
engine assignments. Of course, he was writing in the steam era (1926), but
you can extrapolate tonnage ratings to diesels. The problem is that model
tonnage doesn't scale, and using the tonnage ratings from the side of
freight cars to match train length to the number of motors is a lot of math
that most modelers won't bother with. The prototype car cards provided
clerks with tonnage information, so the roundhouse foreman could assign
appropriate power to a train. Without modeling the jobs of yardmaster and
his assistants and roundhouse foreman, you can't assign power based upon
tonnage in real time. You can assign fixed tonnage ratings to model freight
cars by class, and make a chart to show the tonnage rating of diesels
relative to the total number of each car types they can pull. Don't forget
to include the waycar in the tonnage total.
Prototype tonnage ratings depend upon a number of variables not applicable
to model railroads, such as weather and curve radii, but they do apply to
grades, especially if a model railroad has grades above 2%. A helix is the
ultimate 'tonnage' limitation on a model railroad because of curve and
grade.
Another less prototypical way to determine power assignments is to model
them from photographs, and ignore the fact that model trains are far shorter
than the prototype.
Nelson Moyer
-----Original Message-----
From: CBQ@yahoogroups.com [mailto:CBQ@yahoogroups.com]
Sent: Tuesday, November 18, 2014 3:03 PM
To: CB&Q Group
Subject: [CBQ] Diesel operation
I admit I am not the most knowledgable about diesel operation on mainline
trains. In mainline usage how many "motors" were typically used on a train?
What got me thinking is I recently got two of the U25c's. Now recently they
have been bringing in engines with two different numbers. So on a typical
train are two engines enough, would one do or do you need to mix in other
engines?
Tonight I am planning on using the two U25c's to pull a long coal train (33
cars) at the club and plan to use the two new engines.
Ken Martin
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Posted by: Kenneth Martin <kmartin537@surewest.net>
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Posted by: "Nelson Moyer" <ku0a@mchsi.com>
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