Mile long train passing through town

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Dec 12, 2002
Messages
43,886
Location
'Stralia
a few weeks ago...



Didn't see it personally, just could hear that something was taking an awfully long time to pass through
 
Pretty train. All similar cars and no graffiti.

Its been a while since I observed long trains out west... Im not sure if they put locomotives in intermediate locations on the train in the USA. Id guess so, unless this is a much heavier train due to what its carrying...

Thanks for sharing.
 
SSR are a quality run outfit.

A mate stated that the intermediate locos are to prevent (IIRC the term correctly) "stringlining", where a long, unloaded train going around curves can be derailed in the middle by the "tension" of trying to drag the whole show...it tries to (and can) pull itself straight and skip the tracks on the inside.

Just for info...with that coal in that region, in a typical thermal power station, the 5,000 tonnes would produce 10,000,000kWh of electricity...would take my station half a day to eat it.
 
That length wouldn't be unusual in western Canada. They normally have all the engines (3, 4 or even 5) at the front. I don't recall ever having seen engines interspersed with the cars like that. Controlling them must be a challenge.

We lived near a train track when I was a child. The sounds of a train approaching and passing at night are quite comforting to me. They never woke us up either. I suppose there was some danger but we never had a derailment anywhere near us. We didn't worry about it anyway.
 
That is impressive to see, with all new cars and engines. Interesting on the mid engines. That seems to be an awful lot of engines for the train.

I'm curious though, what is so significant about needing to test a 100 car configuration. When i was a child in the mid '60's, my friend and I would ride our bikes to the train depot, and sit on posts and watch the trains go by. We would count the cars. My recollection is that trains with close to or over 100 cars, was the norm. they weren't all coal cars as shown here. They would be mixed loads of iced cars, box cars, flat beds carrying tanks and trucks (the Vietnam War was in full swing), tankers, gondolas.

So i'm just curious what the significance is. With 6 engines, that SSR train has to have plenty of power compared to the old diesel electrics that were running the tracks when I was a kid.
 
Played golf a couple months ago and the course was next to rail road tracks. A train rolled by while I was playing and it was still rolling by a few holes later. Had to be a good 30 minutes. Made me wonder just how long trains get. This train was not uniform like the one in the video; it had all types of cars and it smelled like asphalt.
 
Originally Posted By: BHopkins
That is impressive to see, with all new cars and engines. Interesting on the mid engines. That seems to be an awful lot of engines for the train.

I'm curious though, what is so significant about needing to test a 100 car configuration.
.
.
.
So i'm just curious what the significance is. With 6 engines, that SSR train has to have plenty of power compared to the old diesel electrics that were running the tracks when I was a kid.


We are at the top of the Blue Mountains near Sydney, and the grades are quite steep either way...getting out of town is a climb, then there's some massively steep descents around Katoomba and the like.

If you look up "the zig zag railway", you'll see that in the early days, they laid a line that zig-zagged down the side of a hill into town, which was the only way in until they built a massive number of tunnels.
 
I drove a train out of Aachen and into Antwerp port. I had 2 type 51 locs (1450 kW each) up front, but sure was glad the germans gave us a push with one of their big (8000 or so hp) electric locs for as long as the the track was electrified. Steep gradient going out of Aachen, even with the push I was glad to do 40 kph at the top, and we got pushed up to 80 kph!

The length limit was about 400m, and had to do with the stations we passed. The train has to fit inside the station.

The trickiest part was going from a braking situation to applying throttle, it was quite easy to pull the train apart as the last cars braked for longer.

http://www.railpassion.org/reeks-51.html
 
Having engines in the middle and/or the end is common procedure over here, especially with heavy loads. The strain on the couplers on the front cars can be overwhelming if all the power was just up front. Just imagine a 15,000 ton coal train having all the power up front, that first coupler would have all the weight of the train pulling on it.
 
I've seen trains with engines front and back, I'm sure for that reason... It's the middle ones that are interesting. They may well run that way, I've just not observed it.
 
Coal and potash trains in western Canada weigh 25,000 tons (not metric) without counting the 210 ton locomotives.
"286 loading" means 143 tons per car. Add a couple feet of wet snow on top of an 8,400 foot coal train, and your climbing 1% grades at 6mph.
 
Originally Posted By: userfriendly
Coal and potash trains in western Canada weigh 25,000 tons (not metric) without counting the 210 ton locomotives.
"286 loading" means 143 tons per car. Add a couple feet of wet snow on top of an 8,400 foot coal train, and your climbing 1% grades at 6mph.
I love watching the big trains pull grades like that. Hearing the engines roar on run 8 with amp meters pegged just crawling is just awesome to see, especially up close!
 
Nice video! I was always fascinated by trains. My son had some time off and made a trip from California to New Mexico with a friend a few months ago. This was somewhere in Arizona, he said it looked like it went on forever.

It looks like the birds and bugs were out in force that day.

[/img]
 
how are the engine synchronized with each other? since multiple engines have been common for at least hundred years, this could not have been done with any high technology. I genuinely do not understand how it is possible. Can somebody explain it?
 
Its called distributed power. Spreading the power through the train, whether in the middle or both ends does a lot of things that help minimize the strain on the whole train. Lessens the strain on the coupler/drawbars, makes handling the slack in the train easier, and makes the brakes more responsive and recharge faster by spreading the air distribution out, rather than it all being on the head end. You may find the units added to the middle, end, or both, depending on operational needs.

Info on one system is here:

http://www.getransportation.com/railconnect360/locotrol-distributed-power-systems

Unit coal trains in the US are normally between 100 and 110 cars, with some pushing 130. Roughly 1.5 miles long.
 
Originally Posted By: Vikas
how are the engine synchronized with each other? since multiple engines have been common for at least hundred years, this could not have been done with any high technology. I genuinely do not understand how it is possible. Can somebody explain it?


each engine has a driver. the brakes are operated by the first engine, but the rest is done manually by each driver.

That's how it works here.
 
Last edited:
No, no; I was asking how does both the drivers know how much lever to push at every second? I was also very particular in pointing out that this has been done for 100 years if not more, so providing that high tech URL was not what I had in mind!

If the engines are not perfectly "aligned" the engines would be fighting with each other if they are not exactly in sync. Am I thinking too much??

Most Google explain in terms of MU which unfortunately implies electrical connection between the multiple engines. Multiple locos have been used from steam era and before the invention of electricity.

One example given is that if you had a stout fellow pushing your car from the back and added a child to help him, the push gets added up "automatically" as long both of them are pushing. Exact same thing happens with multiple locos but I am still having hard time buying that explanation.
 
Sorry to have upset you with an answer. Jetronic is correct in the days before. All done by feel and knowledge of the line being run.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top