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[quote user="nanaimo73"] FM- How familiar are you with BN's Trough Train ? I believe arbfbe posted that one of it's main reasons for failure was all of the special parts and fittings it had. [/quote] Well, I have an artist's rendering of the Trough Train in action, autographed by the inventor himself. I'm not aware of the possible problems related to specialized parts, but if there is validity to that then it fits in with all the other innovations which inherently have non-standard parts (otherwise it wouldn't be an innovation[swg]).  What I remember from my conversations with the Trough Train's inventor is two main operational problems that cropped up over time- (1) there is an inherent problem with long consist type cars, in that if one wheelset needs to be replaced, the whole unit has to be taken off line.  Since coal cars are prone to suffer abuse, it's easier to keep them as single cars, so that if one needs a mechanical fix, you only lose that one, not 12 others at the same time.  That's why we'll never see spine cars and well cars coming in 10 packs and 20 packs.  Whether the Trough Train concept would have as much load factor value if it came in a more operationally flexible 4 pack (like the Southern 100) as opposed to it's originally designed 13 pack I can't say. (2) there is a preference these days for rotary coupled coal gons as opposed to bottom dump hoppers for use in unit coal trains.  The Trough Train concept would be nearly impossible to modify into a rotary dump version. And no, despite the similiarities the Southern 100 was not the inspiration for the Trough Train, according to the inventor.
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