What are some of the similarities and differences between Poweder River Coal railroading and Australia's Pilbara Iron Ore railroading? Both are pretty extreme in terms a the weight and train length.
Modeling the Pennsylvania Railroad in N Scale.
www.prr-nscale.blogspot.com
Lots worse weather in Wyoming.
Iron ore is a lot denser.
PRB coal trains eventually have to mingle with other traffic as they disperse around the country.
PRB has lots more road crossings.
Lots more infrastructure (roads etc.) was in place in the PRB than in the Pilbara. By the same token, lots of rules and union agreements on how the railroad could be run. Railroads had been in the area for over 100 years before the PRB really took off. Pilbara was pretty much developed from scratch since the late 60's.
One other thing. PRB railroads are common carriers, they will haul for any online operationfor pretty much equal terms. Pilbara railroads are pretty much captive to the mining company that owns them and generally don't haul for competitors.
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