Re: How many cars can Hawaii #12 pull up the Loop?

OK Jason I will challenge your analysis of the pulling capacity of the Kahului #12 for use on the Loop (no flames needed). You stated that the drop gondolas you rebuilt weigh 11 tons. D&RGW folio F-173 lists these cars empty weight as 24,500 Lbs. Now you did describe that you rebuilt them with 2 X’s and plywood and added bench seating so am I wrong to assume you increased the weight of the cars? So even if we use the original car weight we have 12.25 tons per car plus the 4 tons for passengers brings us to 16.25 tons per carload. I will concede if the high side gondolas were to be used (which do weigh 11 tons) then your 15 ton figure per carload would be reasonable.
Rather than using C&S tonnage ratings I will use RGS figures for a 4% grade as you did for Boreas Pass. A C-16 class engine on the climb out of Ridgway was rated at 79 tons while the T-12 class was rated at 67 tons. Further, the RGS would use an adjustment factor on this grade of 1 ton per car. So we then have a total of 17.25 tons per carload. If you will concede that the Kahului would be rated somewhere between the C-16 and T-12 then we you will see that 4 loaded cars will be what this engine can be estimated to pull on the Loop using these assumptions.
Now I suppose CHS could justify this to the paying passengers when they leave several carloads in Silver Plume to double the hill. This would indeed prove that CHS is striving for historical accuracy as the passengers would then be left sitting in their gondola seats feeling like a lump of coal as cars speed by on I-70.
My suggestion to Railstar to counter this potential negative vibe that may envelope the passengers would be have onboard TV screens showing historical video’s of last years operation, this way folks can see how it used to be in the good old days of the GLRR.
Seems to me like Mr. Trottier's and your statement of 6 car trains behind the Kahului will get tested on May 28th (just make sure you get on board the first 4 cars behind the Kahului #12 though). LOL