Uphill in real life

[CobraLAD]

Hi All

I have an average 2.7% uphill, how many loco's (SD70) would be needed to pull ±16,500 ft (210 double stack wells, 14,500 tons) at a steady pace without losing speed. I have tried a lot of numbers and with 10 x UP SD70M (5 in front, 3 in the middle, 2 at the back) + 5 x UP GE 8500HP Gas, the pace is steady. Which loco would require less numbers to pull such wait.

My question is how many locos in real life will be able to pull this wait on an uphill

[pware]

With or without a tail wind?

[1611mac]

If you want a HP/T of 2.7 you would need 9 SD70ACe's. A lot of capability depends on the skill of the driver. Placement of DPU's depends on many factors. Also, starting on a grade is a lot different than if you have a run at a grade.

With this said.. it's not as simple as HP/Ton vs weight. I also understand that HP relates to speed, not pulling power. Tractive effort is the measure of pulling power.

But, I think if you use HP/Ton of the grade you should be in ballpark. ie: 2.7% grade needs 2.7 HP/Ton.

Search the web for "train HP per ton" and "locomotive HP per ton" for more info.

[Ghost42]

You also have to take note of the braking effort required.

[1611mac]

You also have to take note of the braking effort required.

Excellent point. IRL it can be more difficult controlling a heavy train downhill than getting it up the hill.

[jordon412]

Use SoCalTrains's Train Calculator, which will help you figure out how many diesels you need on the front. Keep in mind that this only contains locos made by JointedRail, so if you're using a model that doesn't have an enginespec made by JointedRail, these figures may be off. I've added multiple locomotives from other content creators to the list to be more accurate in Trainz. Link to SoCalTrains' website: https://socaltrains.weebly.com/?c=mk...cid=91k6_pu61x
EDIT: You need at least 7 SD70M's on the front, with an unknown number of DPU's in the train. These figures include a speed limit of 30 MPH.

[rwk]

There was an incident on the former Southern Pacific (now absorbed by UP) years ago where a long freight train was heading downhill towards San Bernardino and the brakes failed and the train kept speeding up. When it reached a curve on an embankment next to homes in San Bernardino the speeding train derailed and there was a mess everywhere and a few homes were crushed and some people inside were killed, one guy survived in his bathroom and rescuers pulled him out of the rubble. Then, during cleanup one of the bulldozers or whatever struck a gas pipe while digging and soon the pipe burst and liquid started spraying into the air and went onto house roofs and several homes caught on fire. The thick black smoke could be seen for miles. One engineer survived in the lead locomotive and lived to tell about it. His partner was killed in the crash. The grade of that line is pretty steep. I watched a video on youtube about that incident in California.

[Rob]

If you want too much information this is an enlightening heavy read from Al Krug's former site:

https://web.archive.org/web/20050502...acts/hp_te.htm

[Forester1]

Recently, UP calculated to the last decimal point how much pulling power they would need for a 15000-foot train up the grade from Salt Lake to Elko Nev. But they still burned up the lead unit. So leave a little room.

[CobraLAD]

I must say the dynamic brakes works good with 10 X SD70's. I manage to keep the train steady down St. Paul Pass, check out the video