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[quote user="rrnut282"] The "cushion car" would have to be connected to the pushing unit to shut it down when the slack is completely compressed.  [/quote]Exactly.  The cushion car would send an override signal to the pusher when slack approaches critical.[quote]Again, why is there a need for this?  A TC (or Roadrailer, if you prefer) train comprised of (150) 53' trailers is 7950 feet long without locomotives. (Actually it is longer, I'm not counting the tongue.) Going longer means you start to eliminate potential meets due to siding lengths.  This tends to greatly reduce the capacity of the mainline as trains are held in non-optimal locations.  The costs are starting to outweigh any benefit.[/quote]The underlying point of going longer with the TOW consist would be to take advantage of an implementation of longer sidings as the norm.  Say contemporary siding length is 12,000' in five or ten years, how will the bean counters want to maximize the load factor of TOWs?The other concern for using a mid-train unit in a TOW would be in areas of grade and curvature where stringlining a 150 unit TOW is a possibility.[quote]Go low-tech and run a second section like the good old days.  No cushion car to deadhead back and forth as needed and the conductor doesn't have to walk 4 miles every time the ET needs reset.[/quote]Now we're back to my preference of running shorter faster consists on a schedule rather than trying to accumulate a whole siding's worth of cars before dispatching a train.  However, it seems unlikely the current crop of railroad management would change that line of thought.  Therefore, any chance to save on labor by maximizing train length seems to be the modus operandi for this sect.The other possibility for overlong TOWs might be in combining several TOW consists from disparate locales into one at a logical junction for the long haul to distant points.
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