N-Scale at Tehachapi Now I have two Trains on my Layout. The Santa Fe up hill has fife Locos and 34 double stacks and spine cars. All real heavy stuff from Walthers and Alen Curtis. The mixed UP down Hill 27 cars.
Here's what I did on my layout; 3 hidden staging tracks that can hold 20 car trains with 2 locos and caboose. Passing sidings can accommodate 2 locos a caboose and 10 cars. Most trains are limited to this length, for now. The yard has the same 10 car capacity on the Arrival/Departure tracks. Through trains that do not require any yard time can be up to the 20 car limit of the staging. This way I can have some fun with locals while allowing my through trains to be long enough to satisfy that desire. I do like the way the scenery extends the perceived length of the train as was mentioned earlier. Here is an old picture with 11 cars (to big for the siding) which shows that it is a good length for my layout. If I were to do it again I would have 5 staging tracks minimum with all my sidings a little longer. Of course after a spell I would want them even longer again.
I'm still working out the numbers as my layout is "in-progress", but it looks like 18-22 cars and two locos should be the norm with locals being shorter.
I have a layout that is only 8.5' long main so I run between 5-12 cars. I'm in the process of adding on a 2'x3' piece on to the side making the layout into an "L" shape. The "L" portion will be for Passenger service I hope.
My layout will be able to run say 8-10 cars but with my layout i would say 3-4 cars at any one time. Timber camps have from pic's and websites 2-4 cars at a time with the Shay pulling or pushing.:tb-smile:
You know John I never looked at it like that but I think you're right. I have been running a 22 car consist plus three locos on my layout since I like long trains BUT it really is too long for the size of my layout (4' X 8') Think I will start cutting these consists down to about 14 cars + locos or so. Will look more realistic. Even my California Zephyr is almost too long... 11 cars + two locos. Nothing I can do about that though.
Like everyone else, I vary depending on the layout. On my home layout, generally 20-25 cars (including the caboose) for a mainline freight behind an NKP Berkshire; 10-12 for a local, usually with a Kato Mike on the front. On our club layout, I've put 70 2-bay coal hoppers behind a single Walthers 2-8-8-2 and often run 50 reefers behind a 3-unit lashup of GP9's/RS11's. John C.
It depends what I'm running The Metrolink train is usually one loco, four cars, one cabcar. The Virgin Pendolino is a fixed set, four cars Thomas the Tank Engine only hauls Annie and Clarabelle Mixed freight is about 20 cars; essentially all I own.
depends on the type of train..... for coal trains i mostly use two sd90mac (one pulling, one pushing) and up to 80 cars. or 3 sd40-2, 70 cars. (all coal cars are a tad heavier than what nmra recommends) tank car train usually uses 2-3 ac4400 and 50-70 cars. mixed freights use any kind/number of units. 5-60 cars. passenger trains : one loco, 5 cars (rocky mountaineer) up to 3 locos, 15 cars (via rail 'the canadian'). however, the longest train i've run so far was 2 ac4400 , 147 coal cars, 2 ac4400.......
My layout is rather small, and still in the construction phase. (It is HO Scale) Because of the 4 % grades and short straight runs, I plan to run 5 to 7 cars. However I also plan to have up to eight different trains running on a schedule. 4 frieghts, 2 passenger, a logging train, and an ore carrying train. The frieghts service the logging and mining concerns, and the passenger trains are just part of railroading.
I just redesigned my under-construction layout with passing sidings and storage tracks able to handle a 7-foot train. This translates to 21 40-foot cars and 13 inches worth of engines, plus 1 inch extra. Layout is a 15 x 8 foot "L"-shape. Scenes vary in length from 4 to 10 feet. Era is around 1955. The reason for the above change was to allow for the possibility of a train which was longer than many of the scenes, as in real life. (You can't usually see the entire train from one position in the real world). I'm not sure whether this will matter once I start operating the layout, as the operating scheme is untested at this point, but I guess I can always fall back to shorter trains. Mark
Running 5' consists, passenger or mixed freight, in N-scale on a dbl main configuration ... works well, appearance & operations ... use a dbl trak passenger platform with plenty of room for the Superliners to be served ... 4x12 layout space ... when reconfiguration to be done, trying to work out better staging/assembly plan and true passing sidings ... layout plan attached ...
Our Ntrak club sets up different size layouts at various shows. Some are small, some large. A rule we adopted is that a train cannot exceed the length of a yard siding. This seems to work very well for us and is a rule I intend on carrying over to my new home layout.
My early 70's mainline freights,mostly 40-60 foot cars,and some larger,as big as 89',[autopart boxcars,TTX flats,ETC] are 50-65 cars,locals and tranfers can be anywhere from 1-20 cars.
With my current layout an average mixed freight with 3 or 4 locos pulls 30 to 40 cars. I am hoping to expand here in the near future so I suppose that # of cars and length will increase too.
I try to use short cars. IMHO trains look longer the more cars you have, and with a given maximum length more short cars are better than a few long ones. Currently, I have only a temporary layout, I'm just about to start a permanent one. Maximum train length will be 6' at the staging and about 4' for the layout sidings. So I can run a longer train, but most trains will be limited to 10 cars. At my grain elevator I will have to break up a 10 car train into 2 x 5 cars for loading. Gives me a nice opportunity for switching. The new Amtrak set with P42 and 3 Amfleet/Viewliner will be just fine for my passenger service. A 10 car Superliner train is too big for a 2x10 layout... jpd
