Bill

My bad again -- I was quoting lbs-TE per ton not horsepower !!

So a loco with 22,500 lbs continuous TE on a 2% grade could lift 500 tons,
or about 10 "average" STMFC era freight cars.

The SP for example would assign five 2-10-2's to lift 50 car trains north
of Dunsmuir CA. A cab forward could take almost twice as much as a 2-10-2.
An ABBA F set could lift about twice as much as one cab forward.

On flat lands of course relative performance was very different than on
steep mountain grades.

Tim O'