Union Pacific FEF-3 4-8-4 Northern type steam locomotive, by Smokebox

[mrennie]

What Buzz said, plus a 25 car passenger train wouldn't be 10,000 tons...

Someones numbers are very wrong.

What I read was 25 cars, 1,000 tons (which would make an average of 40 tons per car), but as Justin pointed out, the head-end cars must have been express freight, weighing a lot less than the "lightweight" passenger cars.

[mrennie]

You keep talking about 25 cars. I road a lot of passenger trains back in the day and sure watched a lot of them go by and I don't remember them being anywhere that long. More like 12 or 14 max.

I found the details of the consist for some of the named trains hauled by FEF-3s (Los Angeles Limited, Overland (Limited) and Portland Rose) and they were around 15 to 16 cars in length, not 25, but that must've been a test train, or perhaps express freight.

[FourEightFour]

You keep talking about 25 cars. I road a lot of passenger trains back in the day and sure watched a lot of them go by and I don't remember them being anywhere that long. More like 12 or 14 max.

The UP pulled long passenger trains...

http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/fu ... em/rec/140

http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/fu ... em/rec/144

http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/fu ... em/rec/138

http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/fu ... em/rec/126

http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/fu ... tem/rec/17

[NYWhiskey]

The UP pulled long passenger trains...

http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/fu ... em/rec/140

http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/fu ... em/rec/144

http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/fu ... em/rec/138

http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/fu ... em/rec/126

http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/fu ... tem/rec/17

I can't count out more than 14 cars in those pics.

[FourEightFour]

I can't count out more than 14 cars in those pics.

First two pictures are of the same train, The Los Angeles Challenger, broken into two sections. The first section is 21 cars, the second section is 20 cars. The others are in the 17,18,19 cars lengths.

[mrennie]

The UP pulled long passenger trains...

Beautiful photos! Denver Library is a great source of info.

[ColoradoRailfan]

On the Cheyenne Frontier Days Train there is usually 19-20 cars long, are you you gonna model the exact car? Every car is different, one says "Cheyenne" on the side, some others say, "Reed Jackson", "City of Denver", "Colorado Eagle", "Sunshine Special", and many more.

[philmoberg]

What Buzz said, plus a 25 car passenger train wouldn't be 10,000 tons...

Someones numbers are very wrong.

More to the point, someone was half asleep while trying to figure things too quickly, and he got what he deserved. Yes, those numbers don't add up.

A total weight of 1,625 tons would be about the minimum for a 25-car train of lightweights back in the '50s, with 1,700 - 1,800 tons probably being closer, given that somewhat heavier sleeping cars substantially outnumbered coaches on the better trains in those days. These cars tended to run with a minimum of head-end cars, mainly limited to what was necessary to handling the passengers' checked baggage. Mail and express cars, which typically included a good mix of heavyweights and 50-foot express boxes and refrigerators (REA cars were typically 50-footers, as were UP's express boxes) tended to keep to secondary passenger schedules or dedicated mail and express trains, in most cases two a day. In any case, even an express box might typically be grossing 50 tons or more, which is marginally lighter than the lightest of the early lightweight coaches (Budd's earliest coaches for the Pennsy were about 63 tons exclusive of passengers).

[mrennie]

On the Cheyenne Frontier Days Train there is usually 19-20 cars long, are you you gonna model the exact car? Every car is different, one says "Cheyenne" on the side, some others say, "Reed Jackson", "City of Denver", "Colorado Eagle", "Sunshine Special", and many more.

No, the package includes just the usual UP ACF chair, baggage and dome cars, same as in the Challenger pack, except that I've reduced the drag. I'd need a lot more time to recreate all the different cars in the excursion trains.

[mrennie]

A total weight of 1,625 tons would be about the minimum for a 25-car train of lightweights back in the '50s, with 1,700 - 1,800 tons probably being closer, given that somewhat heavier sleeping cars substantially outnumbered coaches on the better trains in those days. These cars tended to run with a minimum of head-end cars, mainly limited to what was necessary to handling the passengers' checked baggage. Mail and express cars, which typically included a good mix of heavyweights and 50-foot express boxes and refrigerators (REA cars were typically 50-footers, as were UP's express boxes) tended to keep to secondary passenger schedules or dedicated mail and express trains, in most cases two a day. In any case, even an express box might typically be grossing 50 tons or more, which is marginally lighter than the lightest of the early lightweight coaches (Budd's earliest coaches for the Pennsy were about 63 tons exclusive of passengers).

I'm finding out a lot of things I didn't know before, thanks

The thing I'm most surprised about (although I suppose it shouldn't surprise me) is just how heavy even the lightweight cars are compared to British passenger coaches. Somewhere I read that the train pulled by Mallard on its record-breaking run weighed 240 tons (and I assume they were talking in Imperial, so that would be about 268.8 of your American tons) and consisted of seven coaches (including the dynamometer car). So that averages about 38.4 US short tons (76,800 lbs) each. Everything's bigger in the USA!

[Rbsanford]

I'd need a lot more time to recreate all the different cars in the excursion trains.

Could they possibly come in a future DLC?

[ColoradoRailfan]

I'd need a lot more time to recreate all the different cars in the excursion trains.

Could they possibly come in a future DLC?

+1 Why? Well lets just say that some of them either havent been modeled yet.

[bpetit]

I've made something special. Mike has to grant approval before I will post it here. Assuming I don't have to add anything else

[DrewG]

I'm going to make an executive decision for mike. Post it.

[mrennie]

I've made something special. Mike has to grant approval before I will post it here. Assuming I don't have to add anything else

I'm just checking something first.