Article says longest freight ever operated in Europe. Since coupler strength and draft gear not as strong as north American standards might have real possibilities for Europe ?
http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/freight/single-view/view/distributed-diesel-traction-tested-on-europes-longest-freight-train.html
US crews would salivate at having such a small train.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
This may be a stupid question but why do they need DPU for 5000 ft train? We have been running 5000 ft plus trains conventionally for the last 75-100 years. It's less than a 5000 ton train? Once again, we've been running trains heavier than that for over 75, if not over 100 years.
Its nice they have entered the 20th century.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
OMG! Seriously!
DPU's...for 4430 US tons on 72 cars!
SNCF! These are the same people that set a speed record with the TGV in 2007!
They want to figure this out? They need to send their engineers to Tehachapi for a week for Big Train Physics 101 . They'll all go back to France a whole lot greyer and knees shaking.
Better yet...send them to BHP Billiton in Australia.
Mark H
Modeling in HO...Reading and Conrail together in an alternate history.
dehusman This may be a stupid question but why do they need DPU for 5000 ft train? We have been running 5000 ft plus trains conventionally for the last 75-100 years.
This may be a stupid question but why do they need DPU for 5000 ft train? We have been running 5000 ft plus trains conventionally for the last 75-100 years.
dehusman This may be a stupid question but why do they need DPU for 5000 ft train? We have been running 5000 ft plus trains conventionally for the last 75-100 years. It's less than a 5000 ton train? Once again, we've been running trains heavier than that for over 75, if not over 100 years. Its nice they have entered the 20th century.
Wonder if they would feel any different if they were sitting in an auto, first at the crossing, at one of the highway rail crossings around here; while they had a couple of the BNSF 10K' ' Z' Trains pass on the crossing a track speed with four or five units in run '8', and the DPUs pushing hard at track speed? Sensory dynamics are both memorable, and scary !
dehusman Its nice they have entered the 20th century.
I imagine there are European railroaders that would say the same thing about the Northeast Corridor and Acela...
"I Often Dream of Trains"-From the Album of the Same Name by Robyn Hitchcock
I've wondered that myself. Not about the foreign railroads, but UP. Not so much lately, but there are times when they run a 5000 ft or so train DP, mostly it seems because the symbol usually gets a DP. The reverse is sometimes symbols that don't usually get DP'ed get to be 9 or 10 K and would handle better if they had been.
The shortest DP train I've seen had two engines, six cars of coal and a DP on the rear. The reason it was so short is that they had set out 90+/- cars at an intermediate point. It was one of those coal trains that was for one customer (I think it was for ADM) who had multiple facilities. This train would set out blocks enroute to the final destination. Usually though, they would have 30 or 40 cars for that final facility.
Jeff
jeffhergert I've wondered that myself. Not about the foreign railroads, but UP. Not so much lately, but there are times when they run a 5000 ft or so train DP, mostly it seems because the symbol usually gets a DP. The reverse is sometimes symbols that don't usually get DP'ed get to be 9 or 10 K and would handle better if they had been.
A train may be DP'd because its going to pick up down line, or because its supposed to be. They have to send the power set back so it can cycle back. You still get fuel economy and braking advantages even if the train is short.
Jeff:
One of the most noticeable things ( and pretty obvious) is the differences in philosophies between UPR and BNSF.
While I lived in SE Kansas, on the former MKT at Parsons. If UP power was on the Head end, the "Policy" always seemed to be that those trains, if they were DPU'd had just a single engine in that DP position. When a 'run thru' train appeared on BNSF's trackage rights; those trains ALWAYS ran two engines on DP ( Those trains were mostly coal trains going down to a receiver in the Southeast, handed off to NS at Memphis.
When we would see one of those BNSF trains coming back empty from NS they would always run the DPs on the front end. and the tree or so that had been the power going East were in DPU going back West.
Remember the majority of European freight trains have One man crews, just the Driver(Engineer).
beaulieu Remember the majority of European freight trains have One man crews, just the Driver(Engineer).
What a shame. Nobody to BS with and solve all the world's problems.
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.