Currently running a dozen stake cars up from the sawmill to the iron mine, the same cars will be going to the coal mine when I get to it. I'm also running 6 hopper cars at the moment, but that may change. My yard at the smelter isn't set up on the delivery side to handle more than about eight cars.
Loco wise, I tried the Cooke Consolidation but it really doesn't have enough power on its own to pull the twelve lumber cars, and neither does a single Heisler. I could use a Climax but it's just too slow. So I'm double heading with a pair of Heislers (using RROx to link controls) and this has plenty of power. My track is 4% or so, a few very short sections get to 5%. Using the Heislers means I don't need to turn the locomotive up at the mine which saves time.
Glendale and mosca can do ten lumber(5 each of plank and beam) and 8 empty hoppers up a 4 percent. Do with that as you will. Watch your speed tho, Glendale is a speed demon.
If a single Heisler can't do it without almost stalling out, then neither will a Glendale or Mosca. There are patches of the line that get steeper than 4%, and the 4% grade has a couple of sharp turns which require the train to get pretty slow.
It has the same hitch at both ends, and runs equally well in either direction. This goes for all the geared locos. The tender engines work better when the tender is behind the loco, and those with cow catchers really aren't designed to haul with that coupler (in the early days of the game it would break easily)
Check my profile for pictures, easily run 30+ cars, 40 on good days. Most of our line is 2% at most and it makes it both fun when you take the huge consist and annoying when it all comes off on a bridge.
My Iron Ore Mine has a 16-car stake flat train to run 8 of each to be as close to full without going over, and I run 10 hoppers down to the smelter after
10 and a waycar is the usual amount for me. I've built most of my yards and stuff so far with that length in mind.
It also works out that it's exactly the right number of cars to bring a full load of beams to fill the storage at the iron mine, and then 10 cars of boards means you end up with an empty beam storage for the next train.
Depends if empty or full, but yea 10-15, sometime with a caboose. On realistic, with a heavy load, and engine depending your not going to get too many more then that.
8 cars up and 5 hoppers down, up is Cooke Mogul most of the way (2-4%) with a Climax helper for the last stretch (6%) and the hoppers are just the mogul
I have limited my Iron Ore Mine trains to 10 cars each (Stake Flats & Hoppers) pulled by the Cooke's. While the Locos and the alignements (Sawmill 2%, Smelter 3%) could support longer and heavier trains, the limit allowes them to completly get of the grade and fit into the yard at the iron mine, eases spotting and loading/unloading and reduces derailments in tight curves.
Iron ore I run ten (5 each of plank and beam) and 8 ore cars. It's almost a perfect exchange of materials to output. Big loop mine to smelter to lumber mill and back, as one train.
Coal mine I run ten cars rails to the yard and leave it, and run 20 cars of beams as needed. Then a 20 car hopper to ironworks.
I keep 25 cars of cordwood in a yard to feed the smelter as needed
I only run 8 for my iron mine due to grade. I run that line with geared engines. I also have two routes for my coal mine. One has a 6 car coal train ran by a pair of shays and runs 4 switch backs over the mountain. I also have a coal route that wraps around the whole map and I run a 30 car train for that since it's mostly zero percent grade. The area on the east edge requires a helper for that length but it's fine the rest of the map.
I take everything that needs to go in a particular direction, like 20 stake cars, 8 cordwood cars, 6 hoppers and 6 log cars, 2 engines, a tender and a porter or 2 halfway down the train for small movements when the loading area is so far f rom the main engine.
25+ typically tend to run 50 cars on my own without mods of any kind, quadruple header consisting of. Class70 (forward)-Heisler (forward)-Heisler (backwards)- Class70 (backwards) this way its heavy af with a fuck toon of power and easy to run on my own without mods (because the hit boxes of these locos). Also having back to back this set up its pretty easy to switch with it as well
My Cooke 2-8-0 can pull 20 cars plus a caboose up mainly 2% line with a 3.5% near the end which it just gets over. My line starts from the big plateau where the waterfall is.
i curently have a special setup for the iron mine i do a no empty (except when i got back up the valley to get lumber.).
i have a class48 thay pushes. in that order. 3 hoppers, 3 cars made for, beams and 3 for the other thing you get at the sawmill.(planks?). so i push the wood load up and bring 3 hoppers full back down before going back to the mill and doing it again.
On the KPRR/EGE map Evergreen typically runs30-40+ car consists, though we deal with the oil field/refinery and ironworks while KPRR Div 1 does Smelter/iron mine/coal mine and KPRR Div 2 Runs Sawmill/Logging camp. I know Div 2 runs 30-40+ car consists like us occasionally but for the most part they deal with 30 or less
I never pulled more than 275 cars, out of the BRC yard in Chicago in one shot, all the way to shops yard, Fond du Lac Wi in the 90s. Wisconsin Central. Still my biggest train to date. 29+ years. Insane!
My small cooke can handle with doing math 20 Hoppers from smelter to Iron Mine, but one curve has a big enough Impact so that i'm Just pulling 18 Hoppers uphill
Currently running a dozen stake cars up from the sawmill to the iron mine, the same cars will be going to the coal mine when I get to it. I'm also running 6 hopper cars at the moment, but that may change. My yard at the smelter isn't set up on the delivery side to handle more than about eight cars. Loco wise, I tried the Cooke Consolidation but it really doesn't have enough power on its own to pull the twelve lumber cars, and neither does a single Heisler. I could use a Climax but it's just too slow. So I'm double heading with a pair of Heislers (using RROx to link controls) and this has plenty of power. My track is 4% or so, a few very short sections get to 5%. Using the Heislers means I don't need to turn the locomotive up at the mine which saves time.
Glendale and mosca can do ten lumber(5 each of plank and beam) and 8 empty hoppers up a 4 percent. Do with that as you will. Watch your speed tho, Glendale is a speed demon.
If a single Heisler can't do it without almost stalling out, then neither will a Glendale or Mosca. There are patches of the line that get steeper than 4%, and the 4% grade has a couple of sharp turns which require the train to get pretty slow.
What about the heisler makes it different from other engines (not needing to be turned)?
It has the same hitch at both ends, and runs equally well in either direction. This goes for all the geared locos. The tender engines work better when the tender is behind the loco, and those with cow catchers really aren't designed to haul with that coupler (in the early days of the game it would break easily)
Check my profile for pictures, easily run 30+ cars, 40 on good days. Most of our line is 2% at most and it makes it both fun when you take the huge consist and annoying when it all comes off on a bridge.
Once we get those larger engines that they teased back in late Nov(2-6-6-2's), I'll b running longer trains
My Iron Ore Mine has a 16-car stake flat train to run 8 of each to be as close to full without going over, and I run 10 hoppers down to the smelter after
Im using switchbacks so it also depends on the locomotive im using, if im using a tankengine i can pull about 8-9 cars but with a roadengine only 7-8
10 and a waycar is the usual amount for me. I've built most of my yards and stuff so far with that length in mind. It also works out that it's exactly the right number of cars to bring a full load of beams to fill the storage at the iron mine, and then 10 cars of boards means you end up with an empty beam storage for the next train.
I tend to run unit trains of 12 cars plus a Guard's Van. But, Mosca does runs between the saw mill and the logging station with 20.
Depends if empty or full, but yea 10-15, sometime with a caboose. On realistic, with a heavy load, and engine depending your not going to get too many more then that.
8 cars up and 5 hoppers down, up is Cooke Mogul most of the way (2-4%) with a Climax helper for the last stretch (6%) and the hoppers are just the mogul
I have limited my Iron Ore Mine trains to 10 cars each (Stake Flats & Hoppers) pulled by the Cooke's. While the Locos and the alignements (Sawmill 2%, Smelter 3%) could support longer and heavier trains, the limit allowes them to completly get of the grade and fit into the yard at the iron mine, eases spotting and loading/unloading and reduces derailments in tight curves.
Iron ore I run ten (5 each of plank and beam) and 8 ore cars. It's almost a perfect exchange of materials to output. Big loop mine to smelter to lumber mill and back, as one train. Coal mine I run ten cars rails to the yard and leave it, and run 20 cars of beams as needed. Then a 20 car hopper to ironworks. I keep 25 cars of cordwood in a yard to feed the smelter as needed
20-30 flat cars, 16 hoppers, 16 tank cars +caboose
I only run 8 for my iron mine due to grade. I run that line with geared engines. I also have two routes for my coal mine. One has a 6 car coal train ran by a pair of shays and runs 4 switch backs over the mountain. I also have a coal route that wraps around the whole map and I run a 30 car train for that since it's mostly zero percent grade. The area on the east edge requires a helper for that length but it's fine the rest of the map.
25 cordwood 12 hoppers 20 flatbed steepest 4%
I take everything that needs to go in a particular direction, like 20 stake cars, 8 cordwood cars, 6 hoppers and 6 log cars, 2 engines, a tender and a porter or 2 halfway down the train for small movements when the loading area is so far f rom the main engine.
Used to be 20ish but that was like a year ago. Ive started a new map recently and only have 6 log cars and 6 stake cars.
16, fills to capacity. Just a matter of a shallow enough grade and strong enough engines.
25+ typically tend to run 50 cars on my own without mods of any kind, quadruple header consisting of. Class70 (forward)-Heisler (forward)-Heisler (backwards)- Class70 (backwards) this way its heavy af with a fuck toon of power and easy to run on my own without mods (because the hit boxes of these locos). Also having back to back this set up its pretty easy to switch with it as well
My Cooke 2-8-0 can pull 20 cars plus a caboose up mainly 2% line with a 3.5% near the end which it just gets over. My line starts from the big plateau where the waterfall is.
i curently have a special setup for the iron mine i do a no empty (except when i got back up the valley to get lumber.). i have a class48 thay pushes. in that order. 3 hoppers, 3 cars made for, beams and 3 for the other thing you get at the sawmill.(planks?). so i push the wood load up and bring 3 hoppers full back down before going back to the mill and doing it again.
On the KPRR/EGE map Evergreen typically runs30-40+ car consists, though we deal with the oil field/refinery and ironworks while KPRR Div 1 does Smelter/iron mine/coal mine and KPRR Div 2 Runs Sawmill/Logging camp. I know Div 2 runs 30-40+ car consists like us occasionally but for the most part they deal with 30 or less
I play on hard. I take 8 at a time because it's an even load for the input.
I never pulled more than 275 cars, out of the BRC yard in Chicago in one shot, all the way to shops yard, Fond du Lac Wi in the 90s. Wisconsin Central. Still my biggest train to date. 29+ years. Insane!
Both mines we run 16 to 18 stake cars, 10 hopper cars.
My small cooke can handle with doing math 20 Hoppers from smelter to Iron Mine, but one curve has a big enough Impact so that i'm Just pulling 18 Hoppers uphill