Loco/Consist Formula Needed

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barryg

Member
Cab Mode:

Is there a formula for working out exactly how many loco's are required for a given tonnage of consists. I never know how many Head/Mid and Rear loco's to place when pulling long rakes. Usually i go through a trial and error phase which results in swapping in and out of surveyor before i end up with something that seems ok, but probalby is either over the top, or the loco's are below practical efficiency for a given length of consist.

Regards Barry
 
On our club in San Diego we used this meathead (i still use it in trainz and somtime in the modling world.

1 axle = 2 cars (or as i say it 1 car per powered wheel),
a.k.a a 60 car grain train would take 30 powered axels 5 six axle locos should do,
35 car mixed, lets see, round that up to 36 and that 18 axels or 3 six axles OR 5 4 axles.
 
@Ferrous....That looks interesting but somewhat complex for a simple brain like mine :hehe:

@Jimmyp4....Nice and simple idea, but what max weight car does 1 wheel cover? Would it be, a 100T, a 50T, or ? car?

Regards Barryg
 
I jsut guess on the weight, if the cars are light i still add the number of engines by car number. If i think the loads are extreme i'll add a 4 axle just to be safe.
 
Nothing is quite as frustrating as getting suck on a grade, only to find out that two units of your four unit set, are dummies.
 
The way a lot of railroads do it is by "ruling grade". In other words the steepest grade on a route determines how much load can be pulled by a loco. This means if you have a dead flat route with a 200 yard grade of 25% in it, that grade is what determines how much horsepower you need. :hehe:

For my TRS sessions on the PO&N layout of Phil Skene I would find the steepest grade to be encountered and work out the minimum number of locos needed to pull a load. And I don't mean climb a grade at 50 mph; as long as speed doesn't fall much below 10 mph then the grade can be climbed. That also makes it feel more realistic.




Cheers

Nix
 
May I ask a silly question please, how does anybody determine what and where is the steepest grade on a route downloaded from the DLS??

Let's take for example, East Kentucky 2v1 by Dermmy on kuid 2:203465:200020:1, logically speaking, being a coal hauling route, and as it's a rather hilly area to start with, I never use anything less than 3 locos per consist, maybe 4 if it's a big loaded train, but because of the length of some of the coalmine track roads, I limit the number of coal hoppers to say 15 per consist. I have no problem pulling the train anywhere on the route as I theoretically speaking, deem to have enough horsepower. I know that some places on the map may be steeper than others, but how do I calculate it ??
Being a non-route builder, I'm sure many people would like to know how this is done......

Thank you.

Cheerz. ex-railwayman.
 
Last edited:
On the DLS there is a rule made for TRS04 called 'ScanTrack'. This gives loads of info on a layout, but whether it reports the largest grade i'm not sure.

If it doesn't, then perhaps Steven (the author) or someone, could expand on it to include grades.

Regards Barryg
 
Finding steepest grades?

I know this would take time on a large layout, but why not use one of the custom Head Up Displays (HUD), get a reasonable fast locomotive (keep it as a light loco), and keep your eye on the maximum grades you want to run trains on? Probably not the best solution, but it does give you something to go by.

And if it's of a real line, try and see if you can get your hands on a curve & gradient map, or similar.
 
Thankz for your answers guys, lots of things to mull over, if I find anything to the communities interest I'll post back....

Cheerz. ex.
 
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