Longest Train You've Ever Seen

[edblysard]

About a mile, from our receiving track to the main yard, then shoved into a couple of cut holding tracks. One of those yardmasters flashy moves, he just had to have that inbound track clear. I dont think we got over 4mph, but still a little hairy knowing the only brakes you got are the ones on the motor. Ending up switch cut about 30 cars at a time, flat yard switching, lots of kick um, that'll do, stretch em back, you've been there before. Takes about three times as long as needed, but you cant convince yardmasters of that...wore my helper out, wore me out too. And talk about some hot brake shoes on those poor motors. My engineer finally had to call a break, said his arms were getting tired.
Stay Frosty
Ed

[edblysard]

Tim, in yard switching, you dont charge the air brakes, in fact, our car men bleed them off on the inbound cars in our receiving tracks. We then drag a cut of cars out with the switch motors, shove around to the yard, and start kicking. This is called flat yard switching. In a hump yard, the cars would be shoved up a incline, and the pin pulled at the top, allowing gravity to pull the car down the other side and into the track. If the brakes were charged, every time we let a car or cut of cars go, that car and the ones still coupled to the motor would go into emergency brake application. We rely on the skill of our engineer using only the brakes on the locomotive to stop the kick, after I have pulled the pin on the cars we are kicking (switching) into a yard track. Top speed doing this is only ten mph, but try to stop that many loaded cars with just engine brakes...it takes a lot of skill on the engineers part, and a lot of trust on the foremans part. MU stands for multiply unit, two or more engines connected by mu cables that respond to the control stand of only the unit the engineer is on. Wabash, or gdc could most likely give you the correct hp to tonnage to air brake specs. You didnt say if this was on a main line, or inside a industry.
Either way, once the brakes were charged, stopping all of that, although no small task, wouldn't be as hard as getting it all moving again, especialy on a incline. If it was a newer, big motor, SD90, SD70, something like that, one motor could do it easily. An older motor, SD40, or a GP40, or GP38, it would be a lot of work, but still doable...
Ed

[Anonymous]

How far was the move? I suppose you had the independent on. Still must have shoved you some.
gdc

[Anonymous]

It was not small, The long hood was in the back and small hood was forward. I looked up a picture of your trains, this one was bigger. You mentioned "no air" I thought all trains need air for brakes? What does MU mean?
TIM A

[Anonymous]

j, I forgot about air. What you said makes perfect sence. When I see a long train I alway's think of horsepower as in pulling the train. I negected to realize, the longer the train the more air you need. Thank you for that education.
TIM A

[Anonymous]

255 car mixed Frieght in Elkart, IN I don't remember what engines where pulling it but they were conrail

[Mookie]

all of them - after the engines go by! :)

[Anonymous]

153-piggy back with 3 CSX Dash-9's

[BRAKIE]

j,I can't tell these newer GEs apart unless they have the make of the engine under the number on the cab.I can tell you this.They was GEs with wide cabs.Iwas to far away from the crossing to see those letters,I did get to see the numbers which I did not write down the numbers as I normally don't do that. I do know both units was in the 9000 numbers.I did count the cars though.
Sorry j,todays railroads with the look alike GEs and EMDs doesn't do a thing for me even though I still railfan. Now this was seen on the Sandusky line throuh Bucyrus and nothing unusual about 2 GEs or 2 EMDs on a coal drag through town-a very common sight.

[edblysard]

Hi Tim,
Do yo know if it was a switch engine? It would be smaller than most, a cab at one end, long hood forward? We use MK1500Ds, kinda a road engine/switcher. 1500 horsepower each. I have switched 131 loaded plastic hoppers, no air, with these in a MU...lots of work..
Stay Frosty, Ed

[wabash1]

tim most all the train on the ns are govern by tempature. when the tempature drops so is the leigth . that is what the time table says. i personally have never seen this done.as the tempature drops the trains get longer now and tonnage goes up. the reason for this is that as the tempature goes down its harder to get the air pumped back up on longer trains. that is why it takes so long to get a pick up made in the winter as it takes time to pump up a 8000 ft train. the biggest trains i have pulled 10,200ft long 6000 ton intermodel train, and a 7100 ft 14xxx ton freight . the freight had a sd 60 lead sd 70 and 2sd 40s good running train the intermodel train had 2 dash 9s it ran fair

[wabash1]

i have one question . you said you saw 2 big ge engines on a 175 car coal train. what is a cxxw engine

[Anonymous]

Don't think you would consider this a long train but seen a train with 102 empty gondola's. What made this train stand out was it was being pulled by only one engine! Do not know what kind of engine and I do not believe it was owned by a railroad. It was painted green and gray with a X after the owners initials. That engine was screaming. Is there a rule as to how many cars can be pulled by one engine?
TIM A

[Anonymous]

The longest I've personnaly seen is 188 loose cars (no articulated cars) of mixed freight, eastbound on the CN Halton sub near Milton Ontario. It was hauled by three 6 axle Alco type Centuries and two GP 9s. This was in the mid 1980's. Close to this length is still commun today (but not the MLW Alcos). In Buffalo NY I've heard reports of trains of over 200 cars more recently.

[Anonymous]

I'm not sure how many cars it was, but it was at the Tehachapi Loop last year. A WB BNSF unit grain, the head end was at the east end of the Woodford siding, while the end was still inside the loop. About 1 1/2-2 miles long.

Chris

[BRAKIE]

I recall seeing 2 N&W GP30s pulling 250 loads of coal in the 60s.I have both seen and rode on 220 car coal drags on the Chessie pulled by 3 old GP9s in the late 70s and early 80s...

Yesterday I saw 2 NS big GEs(CXXw)on a 175 car coal train.

[Anonymous]

Car count is what I was interested in..thanks

[csxengineer98]

do you mean just in car counts or in feet..you can have a lot of cars, but have a "short" train. some cars are longer then others.. you can have a 100 coal hoppers and be at 6000 feet, and have the same number of auto racks and be almost twice that length...

[Anonymous]

The other day I watched a 143 car train pass and began thinking about how many cars is the longest train that rail fans have ever spotted?

Please share any details you recall such as the year, location and loco power.