Tractive Effort

According to The Diesel Shop ( http://www.thedieselshop.us/Data44-ton.HTML) the starting tractive effort of a GE 44 Tonner is 27,000lbs at 30% and continuous is 12,000lbs at 12mph.

Feed that into this from http://www.republiclocomotive.com/tractive_effort_and_power_calculations.html - First, a force of 2 to 5 pounds per ton of train weight is required to move on straight level track.  At very slow yard speeds only 2 to 3 pounds is needed while increasing to about 5 pounds at higher speeds.

So a modern freight car can weigh up to 286,000lbs, or about 143 tons. So lets go with 3lbs need per ton. 12,000/3 gives us 4000 tons potential on straight and level track (which track on a shortline rarely is). 4000/143 is 27 cars. Which I really think is on the very high end... you aren't going to be getting any speed at that point.  Going up to 5lbs per ton you get 12000/5 = 2400, and 2400/143= 16 cars, which seems more likely. Still not going to go very fast with it, and forget hills or tight curves.

I got some of the references from a discussion on Trainorders regarding how many steam era cars at 44 tonner could pull.

44 Tonner

Excellent

44 ton

Many years ago Union Freight use to run them in pairs. A single loco could not handle the 15 to 20 car transfer runs between the North and South terminals in Boston, Ma.

That was from a train magazine about modifying the Bachmann 44 ton to sound and modeling for the Union Freight company.

  Below are a couple links about the 44 tonner.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Freight_Railroad

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GE_44-ton_switcher

Rich

NuCor Steel Seattle 44-tonner

Dear Kevin,

Looks like at least 5 heavily laden scrap cars is do-able, at least in Seattle...

Happy Modelling,
Aim to Improve,
Prof Klyzlr

Who said cars in front of the loco was bad?

Dear MRHers,

Not a haulage record for a 44 by any means, but who said you can't top-and-tail a loco with cars?

Happy Modelling,
Aim to Improve,
Prof Klyzlr

More than you'd think

At least on level tangent (straight track). Given a 25 percent factor of adhesion, a 44 toner should produce about 22K lbs tractive force. While there are formulas out there for figuring these things out, a quick estimate would be that a 44 toner would be capable of moving about 2000 tons at relatively low speeds under the level track scenario.     

Assuming each car in the hypothetical train weighed 100 tons (tare weight + load), you'd have a 20 car train for a single unit. It doesn't take much power to move things on steel rail on the level.

I hate smart phones for typing. 44 TONNER, damn it!

Mike

44 ton

They were designed for industrial areas with maybe five or six cars from the research I did a few years ago when I wanted to convert miy 44 tonners to sound. Rolling stock was a little shorter back then.

Rich

new 44 ton Sun, 2014-09-07

new
44 ton
Sun, 2014-09-07 19:44 — lexon
They were designed for industrial areas with maybe five or six cars from the research I did a few years ago when I wanted to convert miy 44 tonners to sound. Rolling stock was a little shorter back then.

Rich

Not true. They were designed for class 1 use to get around the requirement to have a fireman on engines with 90000 lbs on drivers. Industrial users weren't subjected to that restriction.

Mike

My bad

Please post your data. I must be wrong.

Rich

90,000/45-short-ton weight limit agreement

Dear Rich,

I'm not sure it was the only factor, but yes, the "44 ton" weight limit was indeed a deliberate attempt to design an (at the time "new fangled") diesel loco which could be run in accordance with union and railroad agreement with only a single crewmember onboard.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GE_44-ton_switcher

http://modeltrains.about.com/od/locomotiveprototypes/a/GE-44-ton-Locomotive.htm

http://www.utu.org/worksite/PDFs/NATAGMTS/F112743.PDF
(Page 2, section 3a)

http://www.utu.org/worksite/PDFs/NATAGMTS/F22837.PDF
(Page 1, section Ib)

Happy Modelling,
Aim to Improve,
Prof Klyzlr

Union Frieght RR ...

From an article by the late John Pryke in the September 2000 issue of Model Railroader, "the GE 44-tonners were unable to handle trains of more than eight cars, and they were forced to run in pairs to handle heavy steel freight cars."

"Please post your data. I

"Please post your data. I must be wrong."

    Right facts but wrong loco :> )  The 45 tonner was the industrial loco,( they are the ones with side rods connecting the wheels) . I've seen photos of VE 44 tonners hauling about 20 reefers which is probably near their practical max. My HO Bachman pulled about 5 cars around a  90 foot (12.41  inch in HO ) radius test  loop before it started to spin the wheels so it should be able to pull at least 10 cars on a straight level track, don't know if it could pull 20 or not so pulling too many to look correct with a Bachman might not be a problem?    ..DaveB

From a practical standpoint

I've done a lot of switching in my career, using almost everything NS has owned in the last 15 years, from SW1500s to ES44ACs.  I've handled long (40+) car cuts with a single SW1500, and I can tell you that it's not fun.  The engine is capable of doing it, but it takes a lot, and it's no fun trying to stop it - or to pump off the brakes afterward.  Given the size difference between a 44 tonner and an SW1500, I would certainly not want to handle more than about 20 cars with a 44 tonner.  Preferably less if possible.

Of course, it makes a huge difference if the cars are loaded or empty.  A loaded car can weigh close to 150 tons, while an empty can be as low as 30 tons.  In very rough numbers, you can handle 4 times as many empties as loads with the same engine.  More cars means more brakes, though, and at some point you reach the limit of what the air compressor can handle.  I don't know how good the compressor is on a 44 tonner, but if it's anything close to proportional, I still wouldn't want to handle more than 20-30 cars, regardless of the weight.

Thanks everyone

Lots of great info. Jeff, Rich and Prof thanks for the links and videos. Just what I was looking for and more!

Kevin

Bachman's

Bachman's HO model will pull 3 cars at around 4oz each. I tried 5 one day just to see what would happen, like could it do it? NO and it burnt out one of the motors. Each truck has it's own motor.

Jack

"Bachman's HO model will pull

"Bachman's HO model will pull 3 cars at around 4oz each. I tried 5 one day just to see what would happen, like could it do it? NO and it burnt out one of the motors. Each truck has it's own motor."

  It depends on when they were made. Mine has one motor with gears to the axles and it will slip the wheels instead of stalling so I doubt it would burn out the motor. I don't have a long enough test track set up right now but when I get time I'll see how many cars it can pull on a level tangent  if anyone is curious? ........DaveB

Love those little things

When I was a teen Keystone Locomotive works brought out a kit for the 44 Tonner. They were brass and white metal kits with a can motor and a rubber tubing driveline to a gear tower. They upgraded the driveline to a plastic U-Joint. It's over 35 years old and runs like a watch. 

I also have a Bachmann unit with the two motor drive but the gears went bad. I am waiting for it to return from repair from Bachmann. They say they have put the new chassis in it and that it runs well. In hindsight with their "nominal service fee" and shipping I could have simply bought a new one for about the same money. Oh well, live and learn.

I plan to use it to switch my layout in progress, an inglenook switcher.

GregW66

"They say they have put the

"They say they have put the new chassis in it and that it runs well."

   Hopefully they installed one of the newer single motor drives. Mine seems to run very well for a small low cost loco....DaveB

Had one of the Bachmans and tossed it.

I had one of the pre-Spectrum models and it was such a poor performer (only pull 2 cars on a level track) that I took it out in my back yard and threw it in the woods on my 1 acre lot.  New regretted the disposal.

Bachmann GE 44 ton pulling power

I have two of the newer, single motor HO Bachmann loc's and they will only reliably pull five ~3.5 oz. cars on the flats (limited by wheel spin). On even 1% slopes they will only pull two or three cars before the wheels start to slip. I have tryed to add additional weight, but given the limited space there is little one can do to improve the pulling power. The N scale Bachmann units on the club layout have even less relative pulling power.

Now my LS USA Trains GE 44 ton loc's with traction tires and two motors can easily pull more than ten heavy cars. But given that they have a tendency to crack axel gears when even moderately loaded and since a set of replacement gears runs ~$60, I generally restrict them to pulling less than six cars.

Just For The Record

The GE seen in the Nucor Steel video's is a 65 ton and not a 44 ton. Note that is has a longer frame with a small platform at each end, which the 44 ton does not have. Comparing one of those videos to the one showing the ESPN No. 44 should show you the difference. It's not unusual to see to see these models misidentified; I even see the 45/50 ton model called a 44 ton. Also doing a Google search of the various GE models will yield a lot of photos of all models; including some that are misidentified

Top and Tail

I top and tail cars all the time in the yard at work. It comes with benefits and drawbacks. Benefits are usually that it reduces the number of moves to be made, or at least makes them more efficient moves. The drawback, at least on the 1:1, is that you are shoving cars both directions, which means a crew member on the ground has to be in a position to protect the movement in both directions. If you can make that work, it can be pretty useful though. It works even better if you can stick cars on one end that the engineer can see over, then he can protect that end of the movement, rather than using a trainman for it.

Prof