Two Mile long 900 axle train, REAL Horsepower

[afleetcommand]

OR is it torque? Either way three lead locomotives, and three more DPU mid train to motivate this properly. Longest I have ever seen in this part of the world.Even long for out west

 

[Boomer2230]

There's your keystone xl going.

 

[Powerstroke Cowboy]

Very neat! That's one long train! Must be transporting empty cars?

 

[hacskaroly]

OR is it torque? Either way three lead locomotives, and three more DPU mid train to motivate this properly. Longest I have ever seen in this part of the world.Even long for out west

That is pretty cool to see. A majority of the long trains headed through here in North Idaho usually have 3-5 locomotives in the front and 1-2 in the rear. I guess it depends on the grades they will see along with the length as to whether they put the pushers in the middle to push-pull or just on the rear to push.

Cool to see the travellift cranes in the background, is that a rail yard or port? I used to work at the BNSF intermodal ramp in Fresno and Stockton, California. I got to operate the Mi-Jack 750 and 800 travelift cranes and Raygo-Wagner PC-90 piggy-packer. I also worked at the KCS intermodal yard in Kansas City and they had Letourneau packers there, I could not get the hang of using them with the articulated center.

 

[IffykidMn]

I always enjoy seeing the last car when sitting at a crossing.

 

[SCHallenger]

I'm a Big Boy or Challenger or Allegheny fan. Diesels just don't do anything for me. Big steam is like a living beast coming down the rails!

 

[afleetcommand]

To those from the west, the line this was on is the ex New York Central "Water Level" route, famous for not having much grade .... anywhere. So lots of locomotives either means a power drag ( moving locomotives ) or a really long and or heavy trai8n

 

[Mad Professor]

How many cars is two miles?

 

[Wilhelm]

How many cars is two miles?

3.218 kilometers worth

 

[Mad Professor]

3.218 kilometers worth

How many inches worth?

 

[Wilhelm]

How many inches worth?

321868.8cm

Inches are Your department!

But hey, I am flexible.
126720"

 

[Wilhelm]

3 orange & 3 blue loco's, 216 wagons

Give or take one or two, but I did count 216 twice.

Who else counted, or tried to?

Yeah, it is raining all day, I am just doing nothing...

 

[hacskaroly]

Who else counted, or tried to?

I stopped counting cars when I quit working for the intermodal side of the rail yard. I had to count cars (actually hitches and wells) to get what I needed to load the trailers and containers.

You have to be careful when counting intermodal cars as they may appear to be three or five cars, but are actually one:


This DTTX is what we called a "Three-Packer Well Car". The center section shares a truck with the two outer sections. They do not come apart. This is one car.


This TTAX is what we called a "Five-Packer". Again, the sections share trucks and do not come apart. This car was great because it could hold five trailers or five containers (the hitches drop) or a combination of both.

When I first started working at the intermodal yard in 1994, they were phasing out 10-Packers, they ended up being problematic due to their size and if the car was tagged for repair (due to a bad hitch or something else) then it was 10 slots out of commission until it was repaired.

 

[Wilhelm]

I stopped counting cars when I quit working for the intermodal side of the rail yard. I had to count cars (actually hitches and wells) to get what I needed to load the trailers and containers.

You have to be careful when counting intermodal cars as they may appear to be three or five cars, but are actually one:

View attachment 457692
This DTTX is what we called a "Three-Packer Well Car". The center section shares a truck with the two outer sections. They do not come apart. This is one car.

View attachment 457693
This TTAX is what we called a "Five-Packer". Again, the sections share trucks and do not come apart. This car was great because it could hold five trailers or five containers (the hitches drop) or a combination of both.

When I first started working at the intermodal yard in 1994, they were phasing out 10-Packers, they ended up being problematic due to their size and if the car was tagged for repair (due to a bad hitch or something else) then it was 10 slots out of commission until it was repaired.

Do You guys have to make everything bigger and more complicated than the rest of the world?!

 

[Powerstroke Cowboy]

Do You guys have to make everything bigger and more complicated than the rest of the world?!

Well, when you are 1600 plus miles wide and close to 3000 miles long you have to do something to haul freight as efficiently as you can.

 

[hacskaroly]

Do You guys have to make everything bigger and more complicated than the rest of the world?!

That is what makes it so fun. Another fun fact is on the double stack well cars, you can stack an 80,000 lb fully loaded 53 foot container on an empty 48 foot container, neither are locked down to the car and the two are only connected by four twist locks...

 

[IffykidMn]

Do You guys have to make everything bigger and more complicated than the rest of the world?!

Perhaps moving product over an area 3,531,904 mi squared vs 21,612 mi squared has something to do with larger train cars here in the USA, my rough math just dividing by 50 states the average state not country would be over 3 times the size of Croatia.

 

[cowroy]

I work CSX in Nashville and it seems like they get longer and heavier by the day. I understand trying to be efficient but there has to be a line drawn somewhere. Thankfully technology is a big help to keeping operations safer even when trains are overweight / under powered.

 

[afleetcommand]

Yes that was over 200 cars. 216 sounds right. Go by axle count, each locomotive has 6 and there were 6 locomotives. That's 36 axles...so 900 - 36 = 864 axles of rolling stock. 864 / 4 =216.

Since I caught that one, others have seen a few more like that train which essentially is one train tagged to the back of another with the second set of Locomotives DPU. Ridiculously long trains