Steam power

[buzz456]

So I hitched up the G-trax locos to a ten car lwt train and then the Challenger and both of them spit up climbing out of Larkspur. Couldn't really hack it. I looked at wiki and they said the Northern had 3600 hp presumably the Challenger should have a lot more. I hooked up two F7's which should be 3000 hp and they pulled the load just fine at the speed limit. One of you rocket scientists needs to get on this. We must get our steamers working right for us steam nuts.........

Buzz

[jpetersjr]

I've noticed that before, for what they are they seem highly under-powered. Even with hooking up 3 or 4 sets of them I've still had them stall on me when pulling something like 20 passenger cars or less.

Passenger cars by the way were known for being light compared to freight, so it shouldn't be a problem.

[bwfer]

In my just released scenario, Sherman Hill - Overland Limited the IHH Challenger pulls 16 Gtrax LTW cars up the 1.5% grade at speeds of 30-35MPH which I imagine is fairly close to prototype performance.

I experimented on the Donner Pass departing Truckee west on the 2.3% grade... with the GTrax SP&S Northern and 10 Gtrax LTWs... performance was not good... speeds of 3-5MPH. I am certain the prototype can do much better. OTH the Gtrax GS4 Daylight 4-8-4 managed about 17MPH with 12 Gtrax LTWS on the 2.3% grade. Now this is pretty close to prototype performance as prototype Gs Types were rated at 12 LTWS up the 2.3% Cuesta grade (speed limit 25MPH) out of San Luis Obispo on the Coast Route, even then they frequently had 2-10-2 helpers to Santa Margharita.

Anyway that's my