Prototypical wagon loads

[Shiney Sheff]

I am hoping other and much more knowledgeable members than myself can help on this one.

Having just bought the Landship set, what would be the number of tank wagons ( including other wagons all grouped together as a complete load ) would the loco have hauled in real life as I would like to replicate the real thing in it's entirety   

[Bealman]

What an interesting question! Wouldn't have any idea myself, but I bet someone here does, and the responses should be informative. 

[CarriageShed]

At a guess I'd say the answer to that was "as many as possible". You're talking about entire squadrons of tanks being supplied as fast as they could be built.

http://www.thinkdefence.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Mark-IV-Tanks-with-Fascines-on-the-eve-of-Cambrai.jpg

[Shiney Sheff]

I have to agree with you on that one, but there has to be a weight limit that a 4F can physically pull, especially up hills 

[woodbury22uk]

Can't find a ready answer to the original question but around a 500 ton trailing load would seem reasonable - so about 10 loaded wagons plus abrake van. The Farish one might struggle with that on any gradient given the substantial weight of the resin tanks.

[guest311]

might need to get another 4F   

[CarriageShed]

Can't find a ready answer to the original question but around a 500 ton trailing load would seem reasonable - so about 10 loaded wagons plus abrake van. The Farish one might struggle with that on any gradient given the substantial weight of the resin tanks.

If that's a reasonably accurate weight then you're almost certainly looking at double-heading. Train weights on the Somerset & Dorset with its famous inclines were often around the mid-400s in tons. Double-heading there was almost a must, except with some of the last generation of steam locos, but certainly with 4Fs.

I'd say you definitely need two 4Fs 

[D1042 Western Princess]

Given the secrecy surrounding troop movements and so on in wartime I'd say few records were made available during the war and it may be difficult to discover an exact answer.
Having said that it should not be too hard to discover the maximum haulage capability of the loco, the weight of the wagons used to transport the tanks and the weight of the tanks themselves. Adding all these factors together should give you the maximum length of the train.
There is a very rare picture taken in 1942 of 8 (possibly M13/40s) tanks in one train waiting transport to the docks in Tim Bryan's book "The Great Western at war 1939 - 1945" (page 158) while on page 157 a train of 10 - 12 Sherman tanks disappears (literally) into the mist!
I have no idea of the loco types used to haul these trains as they do not appear in the pictures.
I realise this is the wrong railway and wrong war for your question but would suggest that things would not have been that much different 20 - 25 years before.
Good luck in your quest,
Greg.

[Agrippa]

The website of The Tank Museum has a page "Tanks and Trains" describing the movement
of tanks by rail  in WW1, the load was about 12 tanks per train and a 7F  loco was used.

[woodbury22uk]

This is the link to the Tank Museum page:-

http://w.tankmuseum.org/ixbin/indexplus?record=ART3877&_IXMENU_=top

[paulprice]

It sounds like a perfect excuse to double head a couple of 4F's I do this on my layout and I have to admit its one of my favourite trains to watch going by.

I remember reading somewhere that it was not necessarily the tractive effort of the 4F's but the braking power, so they were sometimes doubled up to increase this.

[Shiney Sheff]

I managed to acquire another 3 wagons with tanks from a split set, Oh dear, not a cat in hells chance of going up my gradient with the six wagons.

So out with the weighing scales and on average each resin tank comes in at 23 grammes, so a major attack with the Dremel and hollowed all six out and got the weight of each one down to 15 grammes, hey presto, my 4F will pull all six wagons up my incline along with a brake van so well chuffed 

There is still a bit more that could come out so I'm on the lookout for another 3 tank wagons

[woodbury22uk]

I managed to acquire another 3 wagons with tanks from a split set, Oh dear, not a cat in hells chance of going up my gradient with the six wagons.

So out with the weighing scales and on average each resin tank comes in at 23 grammes, so a major attack with the Dremel and hollowed all six out and got the weight of each one down to 15 grammes, hey presto, my 4F will pull all six wagons up my incline along with a brake van so well chuffed 

There is still a bit more that could come out so I'm on the lookout for another 3 tank wagons

Maybe another answer to the weight issue is to make a tank shape out of expanded polystyrene and wrap in a sheet - a neatly folded piece of aluminium foil with a coat of greybprimer would also provide some colour variation.

[Jonny]

I managed to acquire another 3 wagons with tanks from a split set, Oh dear, not a cat in hells chance of going up my gradient with the six wagons.

So out with the weighing scales and on average each resin tank comes in at 23 grammes, so a major attack with the Dremel and hollowed all six out and got the weight of each one down to 15 grammes, hey presto, my 4F will pull all six wagons up my incline along with a brake van so well chuffed 

There is still a bit more that could come out so I'm on the lookout for another 3 tank wagons

Where on earth did you find a set being split??

[Railwaygun]

or use the Micro Machines Mk1s?

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