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Ok, lets supose you have a train of 5.5 miles long. That's 8.8km , or 8800 meters. Let's say you have bigger cars that are 20m long, that's 440 cars. Let's say each car has 60 tons loaded. That's 26400 tons. The rolling resistance on horisontal terrain is about 5 lbs per ton. So you'd have to apply a force of 132000 lbs to keep that train at your desired speed. If you used diesels, then the amount of HP required would be: (force in lbs)x(speed)/375 and that's about diesel 22880 hp on the drawbar When it comes to steamers, they act differently. The are able to sustain their starting tractive effort for a long range of speeds. Big boy already had a starting tractive effort greater than 132000lbs that is required for this, but I don't think it could keep it up to 65mph If Big boy could keep its starting tractive effort up to 65mph (which I doubt, but I don't know for sure), then it could indeed pull a train 5.5 miles long at 65mph. But even if it couldn't, it could do the same at lower speeds. Steamers have constant force as oposed to electrical transmision locomotives that have contant hp but changing( falling) force. In other words, as incredible as it may sound at first, a steamer could pull much more load for the same hp because it could keep its starting tractive effort for a long range of speeds, and didn't have a minimum continuous tractive effort. The reason why a single diesel can't pull 5.5. miles long trains, is not because it is too weak, but because the required trative effort could only be reached at lowers speeds which are forbiden for a DC traction locomotive because the motors would burn up.
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