Long Train

[goingbush]

Have seen some long trains on the WA mine system but this one in Cloncurry a few weeks ago took 5 mins to pass (was going slow tho)

never seen one with an engine in the middle before :eek:

How Long is this Train !!! (Takes 5 minutes to pass ) on Vimeo

[Homestar]

That is one seriously long train! It took a long time to get going, but can you imagine how long it takes to stop once it has a bit of speed behind it.

I have seen vids in the US and Canada of similar length trains with a loco in the middle, but never seen that before in Oz. did you count how many wagons it had? I started to, but lost count pretty quick. :)

Nice.:)

[Bearman]

There are some big coal trains down this way, 90 wagons, three locos up front and two in the middle, but coal weighs a lot less than that stuff coming out of the Isa.

[drivesafe]

I did my first train spotting trip to North Queensland in 1974 and they were using radio controlled mid train helpers then.

BTW, check out the video in the link.

It’s a UP 295 car ( 618 contains ), 9 unit, 5km long train running at high speed.

Is Bigger Better? 'Monster' Trains vs Freight Trains - Popular Mechanics (http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/engineering/extreme-machines/4345689)

[Tombie]

Not real heavy at 15,500t

Our mainline consists are 160 units, 1.86km long and weight is 11,520t + 4 locos.

[Disco Muppet]

90 wagons in that one.

[pannawonica]

The ones I drive are 167 ore cars, however there are 234 trains are more common within the system. Head power only and at :Dleast 20K tons.

[goingbush]

One of yours ??

just up the line from Pannawonica, ( Was just the engines, no train )
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2013/07/1050.jpg

[Bigbjorn]

In 2011 I counted 134 coal wagons on a BNSF train coming out of the yards in Hardin, Montana, after loading at the Crow Nation's open cut. UP run very long trains of shipping containers across the great plains. Nearly all UP container wagons are double decked and some take four 40' containers. In Los Angeles and Long Beach you see heavy freight trains and the Blue Line commuter trains being run down the streets. Trains have right of way. Might is right.

[87County]

In northern NSW, the trains are only 82 wagons, limited by the grades and the lengths of the passing loops. Each wagon either 100 or 120 tonnes gross, the train being hauled by three locos totalling approx 14000hp. The train is banked (pushed) over the steep grade of the Liverpool Ra by another 3 locos.

The sound of 28000 hp of diesel power coming up the range through Ardglen is interesting

[pannawonica]

goingbush I;m busted !:D

[BMKal]

When I was working at BHP Yandi, the trains were regularly made up of three rakes each of 110 cars. In those days, they were still running the old Dash 8 loco's - used to be two (sometimes three) loco's at the front, another at the head of the second rake, and then another again at the head of the third rake.

We loaded each car at the time with 120 tonnes of iron ore, so payload was 39,600 tonnes per train, plus tare weight of cars (not sure what they weighed each) and weight of loco's.

Before I left there, we had increased loading to 125 tonnes per car (couldn't fit any more than this in as it would spill over the sides), they were changing to the new GE AC6000 loco's (and have since added the larger Canadian SD70ACe loco's) and were increasing the size of the crossing loops so that they could increase the length of the trains. I did hear of trains with around 600 cars on the main line from Newman to Hedland, but don't know if this was the case - and don't know what they are running now. However I believe that the BHP iron ore rail system still holds the record for the longest and heaviest trains in the world.

One of BHP's SD70ACe loco's.

http://img812.imageshack.us/img812/4526/ehdp.png (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/812/ehdp.png/)

Pannawonica - were you driving trains out there when Mesa A was commissioned - might have met you there if you were. I did all the training for the loadout (amongst other things). The driver who took the first loaded train out of Mesa A retired shortly after that - his brother was a member on here at the time, but haven't seen him here for a while now.

[pannawonica]

Yes I was there from the start !

[BMKal]

You might recognize some in this photo .........

http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/6051/ru44.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/41/ru44.jpg/)

[mick88]

I have always been told that the reason for having loco's mid way back through the train is to keep the pull straight in winding terrain such as the Rocky Mountains etc.


cheers, Mick.

[Grover-98]

I drive for Pacific National Coal here in the Hunter Valley and the longest trains we have are around the 1550m in length with 92 wagons and some have 96 wagons (these wagons come to the same total length as the 92 long as the individual wagons are shorter with the same capacity)

We run 3 engines up front with a total mass of around 12,000T

They have looked at running 2 engines up front with 1 at the rear.

James.

[isuzutoo-eh]

I have always been told that the reason for having loco's mid way back through the train is to keep the pull straight in winding terrain such as the Rocky Mountains etc.


cheers, Mick.

I gather there's a couple of reasons, one is that the drawgear of the locos and wagons aren't able to cope with the horsepower and load, so by distributing the power amongst the wagons the load is shared out.
I know back in the days of triple headed steamers and wooden wagons they'd occasionally pull the drawgear out of an elderly wagon if it was marshalled at the front of the train.

[Bush65]

I started my engineering career with the company that has built a lot of the locos in Australia, under license to GE. I remember doing some work on the three large locos for Hammersly Iron. It was my understanding that a centre loco is required on long trains to prevent the wagons from being pulled off the rails on curves. What isuzutoo-eh said also makes sense.

I see above, a mention of Yandi mine, which reminds me I had a lot to do with the design of the train loaders. That was for a different company I worked for years later. Back then we had a monopoly on train loaders, coal and iron ore, and designed and built most in Australia over many years. The designs and rights were later sold to Hatch.