Christmas train question

[Darrenmb]

I know it’s only august, but my Christmas wagon just showed up, and I have a question for anyone else that buys one every year, what are you using to pull them around your tree ( assuming that’s where you run them) I bought the Christmas set a few years back and have been adding a Christmas wagon yearly, the year before last the little loco was struggling, but still was able to pull them all, last year was a no go, had to step up to a jinty that I had laying around ( at least it was green)

so what are you using????

thanks in advance

Darren

[ellocoloco]

I don't have a Christmas set but plenty of other locos that have arrived close to the last 50 Christmas's.

A 9F could also be green and haul the amount of presents I deserve after putting up with a year of obnoxious teenager..........................

[5Dublo2]

If you run some of the wagons without the ceramic load of presents then you can pull more wagons.

[Topcat1707821625]

If you have a circular track around your tree there is obviously a fundamental limit to how many wagons you can have in the train, which is the inner circumference of the track. However, even before this limit is reached your loco will run out of puff because it can't pull as many wagons around a curve as it can on a straight. This is because on a curve the flanges of the wagon wheels will rub against the the inner side of the rails, causing extra friction.

If you are using DCC maybe try adding an extra loco in the middle of the train?

[96RAF]

Add more wagons until the circle is full then the loco will be pulling half of them and pushing the other half, thus sharing the load.

I already have my coat, leaving now.

[Topcat1707821625]

@96RAF

I think you are pulling our legs (hence the Fast Show reference) and this is a tongue-in-cheek suggestion that might be tricky to achieve in reality. Unless you had a definite gap between the wagons at the point diametrically opposite the loco, you would have to complete the circle with just enough slack in the couplings between the two wagons at that point so that the loco was pulling one half of the wagons and pushing the other half. I also suspect that the loco supplied with the set wouldn't have enough grunt anyway.

[Rallymatt]

I think perpetual motion has just been invented… nice one Rob, the world will be truly grateful

[Peter Stiles]

Yes, once you have a few "xmas" wagons with the resin weight the poor Santas Express loco can't cope.

I've tried sawing the bottom off the resin "presents" but its a VERY tough resin, so I've given in and I'm using a 0-4-0 peckett (one of the green ones) now.