Hi there.

I have been slowly collecting Marklin trains for the past few years. It is my favourite brand.

I also know that the heavier locomotives with metal bodies are capable of pulling possibly 100 carriages or so as I have seen on a YouTube video clip where a locomtive was pulling over 70 carriages as demonstrated by a Marklin club on their layout in New Zealand.

But I am curious as to how many carriages a BR216 of item number 36216 can pull. I do know that it is lighter since it has a plastic body.

Keith.

Hi Keith,

My 2 cents:
1- One factor that influence is the motor. For example a 5 pole DCM motor is more powerful than LFCM 3 pole motor and for sure it reflects in a very clear way in the dynamics of the loco
2- A heavier locomotive, if everything else is the same has more grip and it will show when pulling large number of coaches or wagons as well as on climbs

Miguel

I think it often has more to do with the traction than the body material of the locomotive. As mentioned even plastic locomotives tend to have heavy metal chassis. My BR211/212 and 216 have plastic body, they can pull a lot. Even the old tooling plastic body V60 (such as 3065) can pull a lot. I think it has more to do with the traction setup: gearing, axle arrangement and number of tires. My plastic MTH locomotives can pull as much as heavy metal Marklin versions, all axles are powered and 2 out of 4 axles have tires (not that the Marklin models are any slouch). Also, if it's a tender lok the weight of the tender could be a limiting factor, although with many loks it is acceptable to run them backwards in operations (BR44, 50, etc).

Personally I wouldn't worry, I have found for the most part I can pull more wagons than I want to, or more wagons than will stay railed on a corner.

There are always a few that start slipping early (newer BR24 tooling, Kof, Kittle), but really for the most part they are locomotives that wouldn't be expected to pull very long trains, and certainly not up or down steep grades.

-Brandon

My experience is similar to Brandon's in that all my locos can pull more than I need them to.

I am a firm believer in trying to emulate reality as far as possible on my layout. Real railways avoid steep gradients and sharp curves as far as possible. While there's not a lot I can do about the curves because of limited space, I've made all my track flat to avoid problems. In the future I would like to add another level, and I would do this by having two totally independent levels so I don't have to worry about the transition from one to the other. It would still allow me to have one train running over another on a bridge or under the other through a tunnel, which is something my layout is lacking at the moment.

If a slope is unavoidable then I would look at the pulling power of the prototype when I decide how many wagons to attach behind my model locos. A Kof II is unlikely to pull a 20 wagon freight train in reality, and even less so up a steep slope!