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[Anonymous]

Hi all,I am new here:What is the length of freight trains???

[ndbprr]

There isn't a set length. The limit of cars is based on one of two factors. usually an engine is rated for x tons on a district based on the ruling grade in the district. So say engine #1 can handle 2000 tons unassisted up that grade. Whatever number of cars equates to 2000 tons will set the limit. If they are all empties (MT's) in railroad jargon the train will be longer than if they are all loaded. The other situation is where the railroad has numerous up and down grades where part can be going up while part is going down. Too much of that will cause the train to break in two so sometimes there are limits that way but I would guess well over 90% of trains are based on tonnage limits.

[JoeKoh]

Ive seen 2 engines pulling a 8500 ft train and 4 engines with a 20 car train.we dont have the grade issue to worry about here in most nw ohio spots.
stay safe
joe

[emmar]

I have seen a lot of 60 to 100 car trains out here, but only on the flat ground. Once they get up in the mountains the longest trains I have seen have been 60 cars long.

[CSXrules4eva]

The trains that mostly come throught the greater Philly area are usually a mile or a mile and a half long. However, when you move a little west of Philly the trains end up being about 50 or so cars long.

[GP40-2]

CSXrules4eva, you need to get over to western PA and see some real freight train action. CSX and NS run 100+ freights per day through Pittsburgh and almost everyone of them is 100-140 cars long.

The typical freight in western PA is at least 2 miles long.

[Anonymous]

How high is up?

[dehusman]

Normally the upper bound for freight train length is set by siding length. Typically i have seen lengths between 7000 and 8500 ft as upper limits.

Another consideration is drawbar load. Certain territories may have a limit to how much tonnage can be pulled. For example the old SP line from Shreveport to Houston was called the "Rabbit" because it ran up and down across the hills. There is a 8000 ton limit on trains operating over the Rabbit. More tonnage and the knuckles or drawbars will fail on the cars.

A rule of thumb is that a mixed freight train will weigh about 1 ton per foot.

Dave H.

[Anonymous]

If I did the math right, a 150-car unit train with 70-foot hoppers and a (conservative) five feet in between will run over 11,000 feet, better than two miles.

The more interesting application might be to ask: how many minutes would a motorist wait at the crossing while that 150-car train passes by empty at 45 mph? Or laden at 35 mph? I don't know all about this topic but I do know that several years ago, when the D&ME was setting up its route, it learned that people are quite unwilling to wait more than about two and-a-half minutes.

It's all a matter of perspective, I guess, because my high school had only a four-minute changing period, and it seemed to go by in a wink!

;)

[bkdavidson]

Hi Freighttrainfan,

In the December 03 edition of the Australian "Railway Digest" the following statement appeared:

"...the world's longest train with eight GE AC6000CW locomotives and 682 ore cars operated over 275 kilometres in the Newman to Port Headland section on 21 June 2001. The train length was 7.353 kilometres."

Apparently the ore cars were between 100 and 120 tonnes and the total weight was around 100,000 tonnes. The length in miles is approx. 4.57 miles.

Davo.

[Anonymous]

I have seen quite a few trains about 80-120 car trains at the Cajon Pass. Most are about a mile to mile an a half and have distributed power on the rear of some of the heaviest doublestack or mixed merchendise trains on either UP or BNSF. The trains on the Palmdale-Colton Cutoff use to be very large when SP was operating, but since UP has taken over SP trains have been averaging 60-80 cars but sometimes shorter or longer. There seems to be more UP then SP ever was on the Palmdale Colton Cutoff now.

[Anonymous]

I can't swear to the truth of this but I read recently on a railfan.net board that the N&W once ran a train of 500 hoppers (I presume empty) behind 6 SD40's. The author went on to say the run was such a "logistical nightmare" it was never repeated.

[GP40-2]

Mark,

That is a true story, but I believe there was more that 6 SD40s involved.

BTW, the train was full and weighed over 45,000 tons.

[Anonymous]

100 car coal trains are common going up Weber Canyon in Utah. Needs 4 engines though to pull it with no helpers.

Going up Soldier Summit on Price Canyon helpers on the rear are standard practice, but using visibly shorter trains as well.

[Anonymous]

Around Toronto we see CN running 80-140 car trains, with some as long as 12000'. A while back a CN train from Toledo was 13500'!
CN seems to "underhorsepower" a lot, while CP seems to like to run 8 engines pulling 60 cars. They may be transporting extra power, but a few times, all 8 locos have been on.