Locomotives

[userfriendly]

Every trip is an adventure:
On my way home (eastward) two days ago, the train 30 miles behind me (114 empty sulphur) had their air compressor fail.
I was instructed to stop my empty (125 car)potash train in a siding, run back with my single GE AC4400 locomotive 30 miles and rescue the disabled train.
I finally arrived in Kamloops 5 hours later with a 239 car 12,600 ft sulfapot train.
Needless to say some motorists were Pi$$ed while waiting at crossings.
I forgot to mention that the AC locomotives do not go through a phase transition (around 22MPH) like the old DC units.

 

[Ron-Indy]

A naive question... What is the limit of a RR coupler?

For example, I'd can't imagine that you could strap 12 locomotives up and pull 2,868 cars could you? Seems the the load on the first coupler would be extreme....

Thanks

[ June 30, 2003, 11:38 AM: Message edited by: Ron-Indy ]

 

[userfriendly]

About 300,000 lbs, or about what 2 4400 HP engines will produce with good rail.
The air brakes are a problem with trains longer than about 10,000 ft or 180 cars unless there are remote engines placed in the middle of the train. Search "LOCOTROL"
The stress is not restricted to the first car.
Think of this scenerio:
You have a 130 car train that is 7000 ft long, 18,000 tons, and has 3 locomotives on the head end.
You have just climbed a 1.2% grade, rounded an 8 degree curve and are now decending a 1.5% grade.
Half of your train is going up-hill and the other half is going down-hill.
Most of the stress is right in the middle of the train, on the curve, and the train will likely de-rail from what we call string-lineing. (pulling cars off of a curve)