Got a couple of questions. Looking for a 2nd loco for the Christmas layout. With adding operating cars, the 4-4-2 that came with the set is incapable of handling the additional weight. I have a couple of possibilities and need some help please, if someone could answer some questions. 1. A K-line Pacific for $90 in excellent shape. How good of a puller are these? 2. A Lionel Christmas Mikado for $150. Same questions on pulling power as the Pacific. Thanks ahead of time!
I don’t think there are many O-scale people at TrainBoard that care much about Christmas trains. I’ve had to go elsewhere for answers about my Christmas trains. I wish I had an answer for you, sorry.
JohnnyB, Its not that we aren't interested, I'm not familiar with the engines in question so I don't post a remark. swdw, Some more details about the added cars would be helpful. Are they free rolling? As an aside, the last 4-4-2 I had any experiance with could pull a dozen cars IIRC. Does your 4-4-2 have traction tires? Also do you know if the K-Line Pacific is die cast metal or plastic? Greg
Since this post, I’ve learned a lot in the last couple of weeks. I’ve really gotten the “O” bug and bought a few more trains from eBay to run all year long. I’m having so much fun with O scale that I haven’t even looked at my N-scale trains in 2 months. All the 4-4-2 locos I've seen in the past month have one traction tire. My 4-4-2 is pulling 10 cars. It is a 6 or maybe 7 year old set and the grandkids have really tested with dents to proof it. I did have a traction problem last week so I tried oiling the cars. I was very careful with the Loco but not so much with cars. I found out that the excess oil went on the tracks and the loco was slinging it up into the loco body which was dripping down on the wheels. The oil had somehow got up into the traction tire. It took a lot of cleaning and now it’s back to normal, but I don’t think it will handle much more the 10 cars. There is a guy on YouTube that’s pulling 12 passenger cars using Bullfrog Snot. I have ordered some for myself but I don’t expect it to get here until after Christmas. I love my PolarExpress and just added 2 more cars to a total of 5 plus the tender. I noticed another one on clearance at the LHS and I may pick it up today. I’m not familiar with sets you have in question so I can’t be very helpful with those. When I get home from work today I will try adding cars to my 4-4-2 to see how many I can pull.
It turned out that I could only add 1 car before it started slipping, so I can only pull 10. I did notice that some cars produced more load than other cars so depending on what cars I pull it might be possible to go twelve.
IIRC the 12 cars we pulled behind the 4-4-2 were 9700 series box cars from the early 1970's. Also the caboose wasn't lit and free rolling. That engine was a jack rabbit and the only way we could slow it down was put as many car as it could pull behind it. Greg
I don't know which K-Line Pacific you are looking at, but the one I picked up recently for around $250 (never unsealed, but from 1994 or therabouts) is cast metal and weighs 7.5 pounds, and has one can motor. Once I removed 15 years of tarnish from its electrical pickups, it was a very sweet runner and it pulls hard - it will take 20+ cars up a 2% grade very easily.
