My coal train will eventually be this long and that’s what this set of locomotives will be for. I was curious to how it would operate and I had some free time. So, I brought out some freight cars.
How big is the grade?
I always try to move each train by hand up hill and on the steepest grade I have. It shows me how hard the engines will work. I can add engines for heavier trains and keep things from wearing out in the hot weather.
Do you have the extra weights in the Dash 9s? If not, they would probably slip long before you had troubles as long as they’re lubed up. I get a kick out of users that try big trains with a single diesel engine. I like to ask them if they’ve moved the train by hand. I feel it’s surprising, just how hard these scale engines will work when asked. They’ll wear out fast when overworked severely. I think the heat makes it worse.
Anyways, nice train. I love the detailing. Very realistic.
I wonder if they’ll ever make sound equipped cars in G scale again? Like the ones in HO and O scale now.
Joe, it’s only 1.5%. The curve is super elevated too. It’s a fairly long stretch up the grade. It starts just north of the church. There’s 5 foot of straight into five 20’ diameter curves that is on the grade. It’s 1.5% in the spot just past the church going up around my storage shed. Then levels out. That being said, it really doesn’t require the dpu’s. But they look cool, especially pushing a loaded coal train up it. 
Thanks for the compliments! You are correct at how heavy these trains get!
Rocky Allguire has made a sound car. He used an aristo cattle car and animals in it. I’m not sure what he used to make the cattle noises.
Such a good looking and sounding train. The weathering is terrific and really adds to the realism.
Matt there are companies that make sound cards for many different things such as http://www.ittproducts.com/
I think this Winter I will finally pull the trigger and get some sounds for my stock cars.
Thanks Todd!!
I wonder if that’s what Rocky used? He brought it to one of RLD’s open houses a while back. I run more modern equipment. So, no stock cars for me.