an empty coal train is a totaly differnt beast then a loaded one... your talking about alot less tonnage ....the only thing that makes an empty coal train a pain is drag.... with no ladding in the cars...300 or what ever number hoppers the train is acts like 300 parashots...alot more air drag...but it is a bit more forgiving with its train handeling...you still woudnt want to do anything to radical to fast..but you can do some things with it that you wouldnt be able to do with a loaded one
csx engineer