Quite a lashup of power!

[joemcspadden]

My understanding is that NS has a system-wide rule allowing no more than
24 powered axles on the front end of a train. BUT--for purposes of this
calculation, modern wide-cab engines are to be figured as having eight axles.

Thus, allowable front-end power could be six GP38s, or four SD40-2s, or
three Gevos.

I think that much more power than this would exert too much pulling force
on the knuckle of the first car. I could be wrong, but I think more power
than this can be used for very long and heavy trains, but it has to be
distributed.

[SchemerBob]

I have video of a BNSF piggyback train in Fort Madison, Iowa with eleven locomotives on the front - it was awesome. The video posted above had a nice variety of locomotives, too - how many paint schemes was that? BNSF Heritages I, II, and III, warbonnet, cascade green, CSX ... pretty neat.

[edbenton]

I am saying what is going to be Next here CSX does ahve some F40PHs for the Business train.  Heck with what they have been running for power would not suprise me to see them up here soon working the local.  The are Numbered IIRC 9999-9995 but I have been seeing GEVO's the Heavies and everything else that CSX can get to run recently here.

[eolafan]

I thought all the FP40 units (I assume it was ex-Amtrak) were scrapped or made into "cabbage" cars....what was the paint job and reporting marks on the one you saw Edbenton?

[edbenton]

I mean an F40PH sorry.  But still when you are on the end of the line and here you are seeing these massive units I am like WTF what is next. 

[eolafan]

An FP40????? Did you get a picture of that one?

[edbenton]

Were in Seneca we are seeing some WEIRD power on the CSX locals.  LAst week the power was 607-108 a C-60AC and C44AC Last Night we had 800 come thru town a SD80 MAC WTF is the power desk thinking anymore.  This track is 112 jointed barel rated for 286 and they are bringing the heavies here.  The switcher used to be a GP15T not anymore Recently been a B-40-8 or GP-40-2 what is next they send a FP40 were.

[Modelcar]

....More power passing thru.  On my way to church this morning I had to stop {again}, for a NS train headed west on the Frankfort line, and it's power was 10 engines....!!  Did not see smoke from all of them but I'm not ready to say how many were on line....just to say there were 10 of 'em....!!  Consist was mostly tanks and covered hoppers....a few box cars.  I was on road 500W so that far out of Muncie it was gaining some speed.

[WSOR 3801]

Could also be a power positioning moves.  The Saturday morning HJ takes 4 GP38s south, to be used as JH power over the weekend.  Otherwise, engines would be trapped in Horicon, only 5 HJ vs 7 JH trains.

[Modelcar]

.....I believe I've mentioned it in the past somewhere but with this discussion it fits:  In Kingman, Az., back about 1970, I watched a train {Sante Fe}, climb up thru there {eastbound}, having 9 engines on the head end and 3 cut in back in the train.  I can't be sure but in recalling  the scene, I believe they were all on line.

[gabe]

If all units were in line, that would be an over 40,000 hp consist.  Wow.

Of course, they weren't.  I think I remember LC telling us once that there is a limit to how much HP or tractive effort railroads will put on a train--or at least NS.  I seem to recall about a story of a train with too much horsepower causing a derailment in a wye.  Perhaps the max was the equivelant of no more than 9 SD-40s?

Gabe

[zardoz]

I bet the engineer was glad to get away from that train!

Why?

All that unused power (see comments regarding # of powered axles) becomes a big lump of dead weight to deal with.  It's almost as bad as having a bunch of loaded old ore jennies on the head-end.  The lousy brakes on locomotives (and ore jennies) makes for some difficult train handling due to the effect all that concentrated weight has on slack action.  Not so bad if you're running on either flat terrain or some other continuous grade profile (steady uphill or downhill), but if you're running in hogback territory, you better have a good supply of spare knuckles.

[Anonymous]

When I was a conductor with NS, we weren't allowed to have more than 18 axles under power. This was on the Piedmont Division- don't know if this was a system-wide rule or not.

[BaltACD]

Normally, when you see 8/10/12 or so engines on a train, what you are looking at is 1 or 2 engines actually pulling the train and the rest of the engines are shopped for one reason or another and are just along for the ride to the shop.  Shop engines are normally sent to the shop on 'secondary' merchandise trains and these are semi-scheduled functions.

[Modelcar]

....Just a few hours ago the wife and I were positioned {first time this season}, at our Mc'D's parking lot having a bite to eat and the NS Frankfort line passes right at it's edge.  As soon as we pulled in with sandwiches in hand, a west bound train passed with 5 engines on the head end.  Thought that was a little surprising in our basic flat country here and miles ahead.

It was a very long train with mostly covered hoppers....tanks....lot of box cars and a couple of cuts of empty flats.  Can't tell you if they were all on line as it was raining and visibility and sound {windows up}, not that sharp.  It was moving right along and seemed to accelerate as it continued out of town....of course that's normal.  Just a bit surprised to see the 5 power units.

[CNW 6000]

I bet the engineer was glad to get away from that train!

Why?

[zardoz]

I bet the engineer was glad to get away from that train!

[Anonymous]

I have a video with 6 or so on front, I think of that 6 only 4 were live, the other two were dead. Or not participating in the pulling.

[tree68]

I'm betting that maybe three of those locomotives were actually on-line. The rest were just along for the ride.

[JoeKoh]

we see bnsf B units on occasion on csx with q380 and q381.wehave been seeing 4 or 5 different bnsf paint schemes on csx trains lately.(on the same train!)

stay safe

joe

[eolafan]

Yes, the BNSF continues to roster some GP60B units as well as some wreck rebuilt SD40-2B units. We see the GP60B units from time to time here at Eola and the rebuilds much less often but they do show up from time to time.

[Anonymous]

Impressive.  I was hoping one of the units would be a "B" unit.  I have some photos of BN "B" units (I believe they were GP9B's?) at home.  Is BNSF or anybody else still using B's?

[eolafan]

http://www.rail-videos.net/video/view.php?id=2098

Now here is what I calla  REALLY IMPRESSIVE lashup of power...ten units on a general merchandise train.  The only time I saw something similar was at Eola about six or more years back and we chased that very short train all the way to Rochelle on the C&I but never caught up to it (only say his FRED a few times as he was going way too fast to keep up to him on Rt. 30).