Any suggestion on locos with good pulling power? I am trying to pull a 40 car European freight train on flat no grade. Apparently all my locos slip.

Both steam and diesel. I used BR44 39889, BR216 3074 and BR50 3084. All slipped. I do not use mfx+ features.

Hi

Sorry for the list below:
- it is very important that traction tires are new (purchased and installed recently) and never used on oily track
- the track (I use C track) must be very clean and not oily
- it is best to avoid small radii (from R2 is ok) as slippage is increased by sharp length difference between the inner rail and outer rail.
- avoid using small radius turn-outs as they have contact plates, raising the wheel such as to reduce adherence of traction tires. Alternatively do not run too slow on those.
- make sure all your rolling stock has good bearings and receive a tiny drop of oil before first use as recommended by Märklin
- if you have illuminated coatches, make sure the slider(s) and ground-return blade are not over extended. Ideally a 2 pole coupling kills all drags
- some locos have only 2 tractions tires (one each side) which may be too little

With the vast majority of my recent Märklin cars, my problem is more to be sure the track is perfectly horizontal otherwise cars start rolling with as little as 1° incline.
Many BR 50 Märklin (goods loco) have very decent pulling power and I believe a 40 cars won't be a problem.

Note: avoid older Märklin cars especially the "blunt axles" around 1950
Here is a short video of Märklin pulling 17 bogie tank cars


Here is an extract of the 1964 catalog showing the BR E 94 pulling 60 2-axle tank cars in operation during the Nürnberg exhibition stopping at a signal and restarting without derailing.

This loco has 4 traction tyres and some newer locos have at least an equivalent pulling power and 1964 goods car were with metal bearing (much bigger resistance) so it should not be a problem.

Cheers
Jean

Wheels are spinning. If I run at higher speed it can run, but doesn't look nice at starting and stopping when you see wheels spin.

Just tested with 40 mixed freight cars and three different Marklin engines (Nohab diesel, BR 80 steam museum and a tenderless OBB steamer - all modern dcc). They were all able to pull it off (pun intended) with no problem, and could probably have pulled a few more.

Problem is that cars have to be mixed and matched, because lighter and shorter cars will have a tendency to be pulled of the tracks in certain places with curves when the draft from the cars behind gets too big. A problem that also is in the real world in places like horse shoe curves.

Coming back to the OP original question my experience of pulling 28 cars (consisting of car types such as 47058 and 47808 (which is considered as two cars)) of up to 5% grade (variying grades on the climb) with two 180 degrees turn roughly 1.5 meters apart:

Prioritized with the best pulling locomotive first:

SBB Re620 37327 (about 650 gram) (believe has two traction tires)
DB BR120 37527 (about 650 gram) (believe has two traction tires)
BLS RE465 39462 (about 600 grams)
SBB 37446 (about 550 grams) (believe has four traction tires)
The new Vectrons (DB, SBB and ÖBB) (about 500 grams) (believe have two traction tires)

In a relative test comparing the locomotives (without factoring in the quality of traction tires and the cleanliness of the tracks etc.) with the same load done at about the same time the following four locomotives; SBB RE620 (best), DB 120 (best), BLS 465 and SBB 482 hardly slow-down in the top bend, when the lenght of the train is on the entire grade and pulling force of the wagons are the highest, and pretty much maintain the same speed on the entire grade, whereas the new Vectrons, which are lighter and with only two traction rings, tend to slow down somewhat in a few seconds before start regaining speed on the subsequent straight part of the track. My test is no more than a visual test but the differences in performance is clearly distiguishable.

To me it seems that the SBB 482 (lighter but with four traction tires) almost have the same performance as the SBB RE620 and DB BR120 (heavier with two traction tires). I am trying, with the help of my local dealer, to see if I can get addititional axles for the new Vectrons so I can add two additional traction tires - totalling four traction tires in total. Curious to see if that would yield any positive effect.

The heavier Soft-Drive Sinus 189 and Taurus locomotives (two axles powered with four traction tires) are somewhere between the New Vectrons and the SBB 37446.

When descending I do not see any differences in performance (maintain the same speed down) amongst the locomitives mentioned above but the DB Br182 Taurus 39840 and certain 189 (four axles powered) seem to drive in a erratic behaviour when going downhill where the locomotive cannot resists the force of pushing wagons at slower speed (the new Vectrons however, seems unaffected about this).

The 36xxx series of locomotives are incapable of pulling the same load on my layout.

Edited by user 05 January 2023 09:11:06(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified