They do it big over here in the US

[Tote]

We are currently on a driving holiday in the US, today we drove from Memphis to Springfield in Missouri through the Ozarks which broadly follows a rail corridor. on our journey we saw at least 5 mile long trains with 4 locos on the front. we also saw a couple of trains with bank engines on the rear. No pics unfortunately but I will endeavour to do better in the future. Being a gunzel would be easy here, no waiting 6 hours for a train, they are everywhere.

Regards,
Tote

[Bigbjorn]

If you go to Omaha or Cheyenne, have a look at the Union Pacific Big Boys displayed in parks in both cities. The Big Boy that was in Pomona is now up at the UP yards in Cheyenne for restoration and eventual use in the UP steam fleet.

[Rurover]

Tote,

Haven't yet been to North America, but in a recent trip to Europe, stayed in a hotel right on the Rhine and saw huge quantities of freight (and passengers) moved by rail.
Unlike North America, the trains tend to be shorter and lighter but they make up for that by running them very frequently. There were two line on either side of the Rhine and each line would have had a train on it every 10 minutes I reckon.
And they travel FAST! 100 to 120 kilometers per hour I'd estimate.

Many trains carry semi trailers (minus the prime mover), so they obviously take a lot of trucks off the road, which is great for other road, users, great for the environment and I presume great for the freight companies, otherwise they wouldn't be doing it!

For some reason, here in Australia, we just don't "get" the concept of railways. We seem wedded to road transport, fail to invest in rail networks, run them inefficiently (the Pilbara rail lines are an exception) and assume that rail is always less efficient than road for anything other than high volume bulk commodities over long distances.
So are the Yanks and the Europeans stupid, or is it US??

Oh, and on one of the busiest air routes in the WORLD (Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane) we stuff around debating the viability of high speed rail when the rest of the world just goes ahead and does it and reaps the benefits. Benefits like not having to build a second airport in Sydney perhaps at a huge financial and political expense.

Sorry to hijack your post, Tote, but doing what you're doing really opens your eyes to how WE could do things better. Pity our politicians couldn't see what you're seéing and learn a thing or two.

Alan

[Bigbjorn]

Couple of years ago I was heading north on I29 St. Jo-Council Bluffs and started to overtake a grain train on the parallel rail line. I was doing the speed limit and very slowly overtook the train. I should have counted wagons but didn't. It was enormous. Another time I watched a BNSF coal train pull out of the yards in Harden, MT. It was 134 wagons and they are probably 40-50% bigger than the coal wagons we use here. I really was impressed by what the yanks call possum belly wagons that take double deck 40' containers, four to a wagon, in trains that seem miles long.

[DeanoH]

Way back in 2007 I remember sitting on the veranda of the Parachilna Hotel watching the Leigh Creek coal train going by, the information sign over the road said

..................... The Leigh Creek coal train passes through Parachilna and has 161 carriagesand 3 engines and is 2.8kms long, ..............................

one rattled by as I drank my beer. :)

Beat that 'Yanks'. ;)


Deano :)

[Tote]

We weren't going far enough north on this trip to look at the big boys in Wyoming but I did find one parked at Frisco in Texas. Unfortunately the museum is closed on Tuesdays and the bit where the Locos are isn't open yet. Took a couple of photos through the fence before I was questioned by an ever vigilant retiree from the complex next door who decided that the family in the Jeep must have been up to no good.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y127/toteau/US%20Holiday%202014/IMGP0758_zps59b3f6a3.jpg (http://s4.photobucket.com/user/toteau/media/US%20Holiday%202014/IMGP0758_zps59b3f6a3.jpg.html)


http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y127/toteau/US%20Holiday%202014/IMGP0752_zps432981f1.jpg (http://s4.photobucket.com/user/toteau/media/US%20Holiday%202014/IMGP0752_zps432981f1.jpg.html)


Regards,
Tote

[Bigbjorn]

Way back in 2007 I remember sitting on the veranda of the Parachilna Hotel watching the Leigh Creek coal train going by, the information sign over the road said

..................... The Leigh Creek coal train passes through Parachilna and has 161 carriagesand 3 engines and is 2.8kms long, ..............................

one rattled by as I drank my beer. :)

Beat that 'Yanks'. ;)


Deano :)

I bet it wasn't being pulled at 75mph though. I was doing the speed limit on the I , 80mph, and took forever to catch and pass the train.

[p38arover]

Many trains carry semi trailers (minus the prime mover), so they obviously take a lot of trucks off the road, which is great for other road, users, great for the environment and I presume great for the freight companies, otherwise they wouldn't be doing it!


When I used to work in the signal boxes in the Blue Mountains, there was a service between Perth and Sydney that did that. The trailers weren't on flat bed railcars.

They were like these road-railers:

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/

[Tote]

A picture of the US container rail wagons:


http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y127/toteau/US%20Holiday%202014/IMGP1623_zpsa16605b8.jpg (http://s4.photobucket.com/user/toteau/media/US%20Holiday%202014/IMGP1623_zpsa16605b8.jpg.html)

Further to Brian's post about the speed that these trains do, the two pictures were taken 3 minutes apart and we were doing 80 Miles an hour.

Back of the train:
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y127/toteau/US%20Holiday%202014/IMGP1605_zpsb7c8a3ce.jpg (http://s4.photobucket.com/user/toteau/media/US%20Holiday%202014/IMGP1605_zpsb7c8a3ce.jpg.html)

Front of the train:

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y127/toteau/US%20Holiday%202014/IMGP1613_zps7ae311e0.jpg (http://s4.photobucket.com/user/toteau/media/US%20Holiday%202014/IMGP1613_zps7ae311e0.jpg.html)

Another train later in the day trying to get as much as possible in the frame with a 50mm lens:

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y127/toteau/US%20Holiday%202014/IMGP1617_zps796f2107.jpg (http://s4.photobucket.com/user/toteau/media/US%20Holiday%202014/IMGP1617_zps796f2107.jpg.html)


Regards,
Tote

[Rurover]

When I used to work in the signal boxes in the Blue Mountains, there was a service between Perth and Sydney that did that. The trailers weren't on flat bed railcars.

They were like these road-railers:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/12/Roadrailer_Detroit107_MI.jpg

Here's another way to carry semi-trailers on rail. Saw this in Austria about 10 years ago. It's a sort of "roll on-roll" off train. I gather the drivers all ride in a carriage at the front of the train while they and their semis travel over the mountains overnight to Switzerland.


Alan

[Bigbjorn]

Tote, where were those photos taken? Looks like Texas, New Mexico, or Arizona.

[Tote]

The photos were taken in Arizona on I40 not far from the California Border.

Regards,
Tote

[Fatso]

[QUOTE=Rurover;2121481]Tote,
bulk commodities over long distances.
So are the Yanks and the Europeans stupid, or is it US??

With out a doubt it is us .

[Tote]

Whilst we need to invest more in rail population density also has something to do with it. For instance the trains I photographed are on one of the main lines connecting the west coast with the east. The urbanised area of Los Angeles has around 18 million people and this line connects that population with the rest of the country.
There isn't the amount of freight going across the northern line crossing the sierra from San Francisco to Utah.
Compare that with Australia's busiest line linking two cities considerably smaller than the LA metropolitan area (Sydney and Melbourne) and it's hardly a fair comparison.
There's still plenty of road freight in the US, we saw yards full of prime movers at linehaul depots.
Regards,
Tote

[Bigbjorn]

Whilst we need to invest more in rail population density also has something to do with it. For instance the trains I photographed are on one of the main lines connecting the west coast with the east. The urbanised area of Los Angeles has around 18 million people and this line connects that population with the rest of the country.
There isn't the amount of freight going across the northern line crossing the sierra from San Francisco to Utah.
Compare that with Australia's busiest line linking two cities considerably smaller than the LA metropolitan area (Sydney and Melbourne) and it's hardly a fair comparison.
There's still plenty of road freight in the US, we saw yards full of prime movers at linehaul depots.
Regards,
Tote

There are some enormous trucking businesses in the USA. C.R.England out of Salt Lake claim to be the world's biggest refrigerated carrier. Arkansas Best or ABP have thousands of trucks on the road and run worldwide freight services. Some time ago they took over and swallowed East Texas Motor Freight which had 3,500 line haul rigs in service. York are seen everywhere. I don't recall who took over Roadway but Roadway had thousands of trucks on the road and ordered Road Boss 2's from White in the late 70's by the thousand. Ryder once ordered 8,500 body trucks from GMC and followed through the next year with an order for another 8,000. FedEx and UPS have thousands of those short 20' trailers in service and short doubles are seen everywhere and short triples in the western states.

An enormous amount of rail freight is hauled on the northern main line which pretty much parallels I80 from Chicago. You are correct in saying not much goes into San Francisco. The freight for LA and Port of Long Beach diverts south at Ogden and thence to LA via Salt Lake and Las Vegas. In LA heavy freight trains run on lines down the middle of many streets and share the line from downtown to Long Beach with the light rail passenger service.