An interesting idea and I wonder why we don’t see more use of rail lines like this. I seem to recall Stirling mentioned using horse or ox drawn wagons on rails in the first 2 or 3 of his Emberverse series, before it went too fantasy for my liking. I think he even mentioned sped/capacity at some point. Oxen would pull more for longer I think, but would be rarer.
The weight sounds about right for the carriage; it varies depending on what the carriage is fitted for, whether it has its own motors, toilet etc, but 50t is a good average. If the carriage is pretty much being used as a one-time ambulance, then leave it as is. If however it is a conversion that was/is/will be used regularly, then you can shave some of the weight from the 50t. A half decent engineering team might be assigned the role of moding some carriages to serve in the new conditions.
There are a lot of things that are unnecessary in this environment. Based on a little knowledge of UK rolling stock I would suggest it be stripped to bare bones; remember this is Warpac and comfort was never likely to be a major concern anyway, let alone now. Ditch anything that is unnecessary.
Much of the function of train systems relies on connection to the power car and there is little independence in each carriage. There are a lot of pipes and cables that run the length of a train that won’t be needed anymore.
Remove most/all seats. Lightweight rig to hold litters, and any seats left don't need to be heavy enough to withstand the stress of high speed or crashes. Bolt in the lightest ones salvaged from a ruined factory mess room.
Remove the toilet possibly, CET tank definitely! A CET tank is Controlled Emissions Tank and holds whatever goes into the toilet until it can be emptied at depot. It is often to be found slung under a carriage, on the underframe. I doubt anyone will be worrying about effluent going on the tracks when weight can be saved or when horses and oxen are adding their own anyway (side image, locals rushing out when a horse drawn carriage or two goes by to collect the fertilizer!).
Remove anything to do with lighting, heating, p.a. systems. All rely on the power car to work. Lots of pipework and cable runs through a carriage for these. Generators and transformers are slung under the carriage and could be ditched too unless you can power them (generally they are either linked to the power car or use a dynamo system off the bogie axles, but I doubt they’d work at horse drawn speeds). Standby batteries underneath are heavy and useless unless they can be charged.
Much of the underframe equipment for brakes could be ditched; large air tanks, pipework (probably metal), heavy duty callipers and brake shoes. Remember these are designed for stopping not just the 1 carriage but to aid stopping the whole train weighing several hundred tons running at speed. Again, they need control and power from the engine or power car. Carriages have a default, if connections fail then the emergency brakes come on automatically. That would need to be overruled or the horses will be trying to shift the carriage with brakes locked on. Replace with something simpler, such as a simple pneumatic system to cope with any inclines.
Couplings between carriages can go as you're probably running each carriage singularly.
Any weight saving makes the horses job easier and allows you more wriggle room when you work out your speeds. Unless you have a rolling stock engineer in your group, no one’s going to quibble if you say that's a 3t or a 10t saving.
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