Train Lengths

[Willy2]

I notice that a lot of times there will be a 20 or 30 car train that will have five engines on the point. Then there will be a big 120 car coal train with just two engines lugging it. I've seen this happen a lot more than one time while watching trains.

Why do the railroads do this? I would think that if they were moving power to where it was needed, they would put the engines on a heavy train, not a light one.

One other question. One time I saw a picture where 12 engines were assigned to a local switch job. This seems unreasonable. Has anybody ever seen a like situation like that and what may have been the reason for doing that?

Willy

[mudchicken]

Either they were moving engines around with the 5 engines or the old BN guys near Omaha still have no faith in GE's (as in only one of the five still runs?) Usually the dispatcher will underpower the train akin to using the manufacturer's over-rated/ inflated sales pitch on what the engine can really pull....

[JoeKoh]

Willy
Power moves are made on whatever train is available.I saw 3 engines pulling an 18 car train on Csx.
stay safe
Joe

[dehusman]

Power moves are made on trains that go to yards. Coal trains tend to go through teh yards so they aren't prefferred to move power. A train whose power is going into the service track by design is a much better choice.

Also coal trains tend to get the most powerful engines and are powered at a much lower rate. A coal train may only have .8 hp per trailing ton, while a high speed intermodal train might have 3 hp per trailing ton. A 10,000 ton coal train might only need 8000 hp of AC's while a 2500 ton intermodal train might need 4 SD40's.

Dave H.

[edblysard]

Hi Willy,
One of the reasons is because the engines have to get to where they are going, usually needed ASAP, and they cant wait for a large train to be built for them to haul back home.
So they cut them in on the first train headed that way.
Count on only two or three of them being on line, the rest will be dead in tow.

As for the 12 motors on a switch job, it may be that the locomotives them selves are the freight.
We rountinly haul two or three SW9 and 12s out to industries.
They purchase them from several different companies, and we treat them just like a boxcar, just one more car to spot.

Last week, we took 14 ex BN GE C30-7s out to Texas Terminals, where they were loaded into sea going ships, on their way to China.

From trackside, the train must have looked vastly overpowered, two MK1500Ds, followed by 14 GEs, then 60 plus cars.

Stay Frosty,
Ed

[kenneo]

QUOTE: Originally posted by edblysard

Hi Willy,
One of the reasons is because the engines have to get to where they are going, usually
..................
Count on only two or three of them being on line, the rest will be dead in tow.


Stay Frosty,
Ed

Ed, if they are repositioning power, you are correct about 2 or 3 only being on line. The balance will still be running (idle), but isolated (off line), so that their wheel slip controlls will still be active. Flat wheels on an engine are worse than flat wheels on a passenger car. For your units going to China, the most certainly would be dead, probably with wheels that should be condemned, or nearly so, also probably without traction motors.

[dharmon]

Ahhhh ..... Confucius say ......sly dog he who take Yankee deisels to motherland; we take part, make new.....in ten year, all China have new Chinese Chee E deisels. Make big smoke like dragon!

BONG
[bow]

[espeefoamer]

a while back I saw 10 units running light eastbound,and about 10 minutes later,saw 10 units running light westbound.

[dharmon]

QUOTE: Originally posted by espeefoamer

a while back I saw 10 units running light eastbound,and about 10 minutes later,saw 10 units running light westbound.

Ten yankee imperialist engines come face to face with chinese Chee E units breathing smoke and fire....run away like cowards they are.....

Bong

[corwinda]

QUOTE: Originally posted by espeefoamer

a while back I saw 10 units running light eastbound,and about 10 minutes later,saw 10 units running light westbound.

Where was this? Could they have been trading out several sets of helper locomotives for fuel/maintenance?

[Anonymous]

east hand knoweth not what west hand doeth

[dehusman]

I doubt the export units were stripped, they were probably fully funtional units. Why would you buy engines that need a whole bunch of repairs and have missing parts and move them thousands of miles from the nearest source of parts to repair them.

Dave H.

[jeffhergert]

Priority trains also maybe overpowered so that if one unit fails, they can still do their maximum speed.

[Willy2]

Thanks to all of you for the replys! Trains are a mystery for me, but all of you just revealed one of the things that I found most mysterious.

Willy

[Anonymous]

Messgage from China motherland

Engine will be taken apart and parts re-sold to make opperating garbage truck.

Oh and Dan whats a Chee E unit?

Chian mother land also wnat to advise of Big accident... all Ge's made in China were made to chineese standards, ...not they fault if you aren't gentle and don't rub them down in an oil bath twice a day

"Me sho solly"
sais GE President.

Signed by the Chineese Ge president

S. T. Wong

Sum Ting Wong

---------------------------------

On a more serious note,

I've seen 5 locomotives and 3 cars on Cn last year, most of the locomotives were yard switchers, and the cars were all bashed up.. but its not that rare to see that..

[Anonymous]

Some years ago, when I was stationed at the US Army base, Fort Eustis in Newport News, Virginia; I witnessed a 140 car, loaded, coal train being pulled by 1 AC4400 unit! Talk about crazy!

Glenn

[edblysard]

Hi Eric,
Your correct, the GEs were minus traction motors.
My though was, if they were not going as scrap, (which makes little sense anyway) then the Chinese were going to install their version of a GE traction motor.
Would bet BN wanted the motors as rebuilds or trades and parts.
And yes, with motor moves, they are idleing, but isolated.
Ed

QUOTE: Originally posted by kenneo

QUOTE: Originally posted by edblysard

Hi Willy,
One of the reasons is because the engines have to get to where they are going, usually
..................
Count on only two or three of them being on line, the rest will be dead in tow.


Stay Frosty,
Ed

Ed, if they are repositioning power, you are correct about 2 or 3 only being on line. The balance will still be running (idle), but isolated (off line), so that their wheel slip controlls will still be active. Flat wheels on an engine are worse than flat wheels on a passenger car. For your units going to China, the most certainly would be dead, probably with wheels that should be condemned, or nearly so, also probably without traction motors.

[Supermicha]

Here in germany its the same. When an engine must go into the facility, the railway tries to put it on a regular train, so it need no extra engeneer and the route, which has maybe a high frequency of trains, is not overloaded. sometimes you can see passenger trains with 2 cars and three or four engines.

[CShaveRR]

QUOTE: Originally posted by gfjwashdc

Some years ago, when I was stationed at the US Army base, Fort Eustis in Newport News, Virginia; I witnessed a 140 car, loaded, coal train being pulled by 1 AC4400 unit! Talk about crazy!

Glenn

Glenn, that one's not as crazy as you may think...Once the coal gets into Virginia on that line (the old C&O), it's downhill nearly all the way. Even in the old days, a coal train that required five GP9s in West Virginia needed only two east of Clifton Forge (and they ran trains of 160 cars back then...the cars were smaller, though). I'd prefer to see two units on any train, but there really isn't any way you could say that that train was underpowered.

[dharmon]

QUOTE: Originally posted by kevinstheRRman

Oh and Dan whats a Chee E unit?

chee ee like cheneral electric

[Anonymous]

I was watching a CN train and it had I sd40-2w and a gp38 haul around 90 cars then i saw a train with 2 dash9s with around 25 to 30 cars I was confused why would this be

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by dharmon

QUOTE: Originally posted by kevinstheRRman

Oh and Dan whats a Chee E unit?

chee ee like

Don't you mean cheneral eretric?[:D] But seriously, we shouldn't make fun of the Chinese! They still have steam engines (for all you nostalgic folks) and they put a man in space![#offtopic]

So back to what we where talking about, power moves. Norfolk Southern usually does a power move every two weeks from Asheville to Knoxville over the Southern RR S-Line. I have very rarely seen a power move going toward Old Fort (probably my timing).

[Anonymous]

Hi Willy I saw a 10 car piggyback track with 8 Locomotives 1 of them MRL