What is the biggest freight train you have seen/operate

Last week, I saw a CNdash9, Sd50F and an SD60F screaming, revving at 10-20mph, pulling lumber,pulp and paper 257 cars long! I could not believe it, it extended from west of the city, right past the other side. Biggest freight train Ive seen yet on this line. Why was so much paper headed east? Guess the thieves (liberals) in Ottawa needed it in the bathrooms I guess.Rory.

Lined and locked in the reversed position:)

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RE: What is the biggest freight train you have seen/ope, RAILDOG, Jun-04-03, 10:00 AM, (1) RE: What is the biggest freight train you have seen/ope, ssw_96, Jun-04-03, 04:08 PM, (2) RE: What is the biggest freight train you have seen/ope, smp11512, Jun-04-03, 06:00 PM, (3) RE: What is the biggest freight train you have seen/ope, heffed, Jun-04-03, 06:25 PM, (4) RE: What is the biggest freight train you have seen/ope, ssw_96, Jun-04-03, 10:03 PM, (5) RE: What is the biggest freight train you have seen/ope, imprezzed, Jun-05-03, 00:37 AM, (6) RE: What is the biggest freight train you have seen/ope, smp11512, Jun-05-03, 01:09 AM, (7) RE: What is the biggest freight train you have seen/ope, ASR_Q301, Jun-05-03, 03:59 AM, (8) RE: What is the biggest freight train you have seen/ope, plainsman, Jun-05-03, 04:35 AM, (9) RE: What is the biggest freight train you have seen/ope, Magick_maker, Jun-05-03, 08:36 PM, (11) RE: What is the biggest freight train you have seen/ope, smp11512, Jun-05-03, 08:41 PM, (12) RE: What is the biggest freight train you have seen/ope, Texas Eagle 550, Jun-05-03, 11:25 AM, (10) RE: What is the biggest freight train you have seen/ope, NSFAN, Jun-06-03, 10:42 AM, (13) RE: What is the biggest freight train you have seen/ope, metraup, Jun-06-03, 05:36 PM, (14) RE: What is the biggest freight train you have seen/ope, ssw_96, Jun-06-03, 06:35 PM, (15) RE: What is the biggest freight train you have seen/ope, cn_bayview, Jun-06-03, 11:15 PM, (16)

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Longest train I have ever seen....Was one that had 10 Engines,164 cars all 10 Engines running including what looked like a restored CB&Q E8 Just an extra long Freight train..It was a site pulling out of the Siding!
Jeremy Smith West Plains,MO
BNSF Engineer (In Training)

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5-26-94 3 SP C44-9W's, 1 GP60, 2 SD45T-2's and 207 cars. The train was the PBHOQ. Oh what a sight it was. It had trains held up behind it because it was only making 30 mph. Only one siding could hold it and it was 12,500ft. I've never seen a train that long anymore. But the CN is known for running huge trains.

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Well I don't know about the largest Freight I have ever seen but the largest engine block ( alot of locos hooked together ) in opperation was 13 UP dash 9s and Dash 8s My website for MSTS Pic's www.msnusers.com/shanestrains

If everything tastes like Chicken then what does Chicken taste like ?

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>Well I don't know about the largest Freight I have ever seen
>but the largest engine block ( alot of locos hooked together
>) in opperation was 13 UP dash 9s and Dash 8s I believe UP has a regulation against more than seven engines. (including helpers)My brother used to run helper service on coal trains through a canyon. One train already had six locos, and dispatch wanted them to couple 2 helpers. The lead engineer was very adamant against it and said the only way he would allow more than seven engines coupled to his train was if the dispatcher would accept all responsibility. (which he wouldn't)This might not be the case anymore. Or it might only apply in hilly terrain.-Jeff

Union Pacific is my drug.

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You can have 202 units, but not as long as it does not exceed the number of "powered axles". Powered axles means how many are pulling.
Down here the limit is 32 powered axles which is 7 units. Now if there are a lot of engines, such as a light power move of 16 or so, you will notice that only two or so will actually be "on line and loading", mean actually throttling up and pulling. It has something to do with trying to keep too much head end power from pulling the train apart.

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Largest one I've seen was two years ago in southern Ontario. 3 CN Dash-9's, 1 Dash-8-40CM, 1 CP AC4400's, 2 CN EX UP SD-40's, 2 CN GP9's, and 2 VIA F40-PH. That was a lot of power.

I wanna highball it through Woodstock, Ont. on none other than...THE TURBOTRAIN!!!

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>>Well I don't know about the largest Freight I have ever seen
>>but the largest engine block ( alot of locos hooked together
>>) in opperation was 13 UP dash 9s and Dash 8s
>
>I believe UP has a regulation against more than seven
>engines. (including helpers)
>
>My brother used to run helper service on coal trains through
>a canyon. One train already had six locos, and dispatch
>wanted them to couple 2 helpers. The lead engineer was very
>adamant against it and said the only way he would allow more
>than seven engines coupled to his train was if the
>dispatcher would accept all responsibility. (which he
>wouldn't)
>
>This might not be the case anymore. Or it might only apply
>in hilly terrain. Well I don't know if they were all on but there were 13 coming from Mojave Heading to Cajon Pass and not a single car
My website for MSTS Pic's www.msnusers.com/shanestrains

If everything tastes like Chicken then what does Chicken taste like ?

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i caught the last half of the train (300 hoppers) it was powered by all 8 of BHP's AC6000CW's in IDP mode. it took 45 minutes to cross the level crossing doing 10km/h i only saw the last half of it though apart from that.....on the Indian Pacific in South Australia some years back...we crossed NR121, NR76, NR32 and NR33 on a HUGE double stack train, it would have been 110 cars long!!! Cheers
Mike"What would you do if I sung out of tune? Would you stand up and walk out on me? Lend me your ears and I'll sing you a song, and I'll try not to sing out of key, oh - i get by with a lil help from my friends....." (The Beattles)17 year old train fan from Perth West Australia.

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The reason for this is simple, in real world RRing, a coupler can only take so much load. There are two grades of couplers, but even the strongest is limited to less than 500,000 pounds of force driven VERY carefully. The rated shock (you jerk the train some way instead of having smooth application under tension of pull), is much less, about 360-375,000 pounds. Now 3 CW60AC units can generate over 550,000 pounds of pull, which would pull the strongest coupler apart if you max everything out. Thus the engineer would be unable to apply full throttle to start the train. Now however, above about 12 mph, the 3 CW60AC units will only be capable of about 450,000 pounds of pull. At 70 mph, the pull will be much less than that. Thus on a light fast train, these units might be useful, if the grade is flat. But even 5 heavy SD40-2 units would be at the limit of coupler strength if operated at very slow speed, and 6 SD40-2 of any type would be breaking couplers if operated at full throttle below 11.5 mph. (83,000 pounds of pull @ 11.1 mph x 6 = 498,000 pounds, and the engineer is going into a full sweat at 450-460,000 pounds because not all the couplers are going to be factory fresh.)
Now if you put some locomotives in the middle and som at the end, you could use all 8 CW60AC, which would be capable of a combined pull and push of over 1,500,000 pounds.
Bob

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Ah! 13 engines and no cars? that's easy to explain.Conrail called this kind of consist a "Pool Power" move. Down here it's usually tacked onto the head end of a slow short freight moving around, but the idea is the same. Sometimes, a railroad will get a surplus of locomotives at one end or yard on the line. Now, they don't need all these, and if they're (the engines) there, that means they might be needed somewhere else. Well, they could just run them out in trains as helpers but that'd take a while, so they just bundle them all together and head out like that. You usually have only 1 or 2 of them actually on line, and the rest have waybills and are treated like cargo.The extras are dropped off at various spots, stations and locations that need the engines, or just carried to one particular spot and left. I've thought for a long time, this would make a fun activity for msts, if there were some of the new sd's without .eng files. (maybe make one a .wag) and some Dash 9's and GP-38's to match.

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>Ah! 13 engines and no cars? that's easy to explain.
>
>Conrail called this kind of consist a "Pool Power" move.
>Down here it's usually tacked onto the head end of a slow
>short freight moving around, but the idea is the same.
>
>Sometimes, a railroad will get a surplus of locomotives at
>one end or yard on the line. Now, they don't need all
>these, and if they're (the engines) there, that means they
>might be needed somewhere else. Well, they could just run
>them out in trains as helpers but that'd take a while, so
>they just bundle them all together and head out like that.
>You usually have only 1 or 2 of them actually on line, and
>the rest have waybills and are treated like cargo.
>
>The extras are dropped off at various spots, stations and
>locations that need the engines, or just carried to one
>particular spot and left.
>
>I've thought for a long time, this would make a fun activity
>for msts, if there were some of the new sd's without .eng
>files. (maybe make one a .wag) and some Dash 9's and GP-38's
>to match.That would be cool
My website for MSTS Pic's www.msnusers.com/shanestrains

If everything tastes like Chicken then what does Chicken taste like ?

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It was in 2001, I saw a 137 Car Train Being Pulled by 6 CSX AC4400's and Had a Dash 9 Helper at the end of the train. It was passing through Florence, South CarolinaChris
Projects:
Conrail Toledo Line:19% done
Pacific Parlour Car:1% done

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The longest train I ever saw was back around 99..on the way home from my dads house we caught an NS Mixed Freight 457 at Karo M.P. H 69.0. He had 4 units one of which was a CSX and from when the dispatcher was talking to him earlier on he said he was over 12,000 ft. long...I thought that train was never gonna end...he was movin along pretty good considering the length of his train...about track speed. Another longggggggggggggggg train I seen was 227 he was over 10,000 ft long...227 is a stack train that runs from Norfolk, VA-Detroit, MI. The area where I live, Front Royal, VA. is known to have all these trains that are over 2 miles long. Mostly because half of them are intermodal trains and they usually run that long.

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Hmm. Longest I have seen is when I was at a camp and saw a RR bridge in the distance. The bridge was short, and was the only area of the train you could see. The track is flat. I saw a train with 5 engines hauling %100 empty container cars, the lightest kind of car. The bridge was so small that you could only see 2 or 3 cars at a time, so I didn't quite get how long it was. All I know is that it was going very fast, so I quickly lost track of the cars. It took forever to pass, however.Thanks!
METRAUP

Chicago-Geneva Metra Line

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Conrail had it bad about runnign extremely long trains. Also a lot of eastern roads such as N&W, SOU, etc. back in the 50's and 60's ran long trains. 4 SD-35's and 300 coal hoppers, i wish I could have saw that. Also the big boy used to pull killer trains.

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Nice!
the amount of lumber cars was prolly cuz of the derailment out in bc.
Prolly got the line back running and sent the backlog on one train.Longest train ive seen prolly has to be tonight! 2 GP9's doubling a 100 car cut. ALL 89 ft auto racks.
Now that was long!

Rob.
Mile 21.0 CN Oakville Sub.

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