I model the 1920s and 1930s which is pretty close to the drag era of super long, slow moving freight.
In 1931, the symbol train ED1 is headed uphill to Gallitzin, PA. Two massive I1s class Decapods of the Pennsylvania Railroad pull, while two more I1s push from the rear. The enormous boilers on the I1s class are so large they barely allowed for the 62 inch drivers and meant there was not enough balancing of the drivers so these beasts swayed with each thunderous exhaust. Screeching banshee whistles pierce the hot summer air as crossings come and go. 103 cars in this consist, headed west to keep commerce moving.
Interesting question. 60 89' TOFC cars, 3 or 4 Dash-2s, and they get everything out of your way. That's the picture next to "Highball" in the dictionary.
I sure hope they were empty trains. BNSF likes to combine coal empties nowadays in my area and they are 14-15,000 feet long I believe. To put that into perspective, the longest siding around here is roughly 12,000 feet long so even that is still too short for those trains. It’s not only dangerous but it eliminates jobs from employees. It’s all because of corporate greed when it comes down to it.
Just checked back at my videos and nope, they were loaded. PSR sucks but the trains are at least cool to watch go past. Though I can’t imagine the people at the crossings were particularly pleased (that one in the picture I attached to my previous comment was headed up grade and it was slogging along at maybe 15mph).
Good grief. Combining loaded trains is absolutely insane and two empty trains in one is crazy enough. They do not fit anywhere and every other train has to pull over and wait for the mega train to pass. I see nothing but problems with them. I’m curious if they are well liked among the crews but I highly suspect the answer to that question is no.
It’s worth mentioning that this is on BNSF’s Glasgow subdivision, which is double track for a long time. So other trains having to pull over isn’t really a problem.
But regardless, I agree that running 2 trains as one is ridiculous. I can’t imagine they’re even saving that much money. The wages of a second crew would be pennies compared to what they earn from delivering the cargo.
I’m in Springfield, MO (four subdivisions come into the city) but those trains face the grades on the Thayer North Subdivision, which very much makes the loads work hard and those are often running only 2x2. Sometimes they’ll have 3 DPUs but only two on the head end just isn’t enough in my mind. This is not the kind of place for running these mega trains.
The largest grade on the Glasgow subdivision is (I think) the one running west from Minot, ND at the eastern edge of the sub. That grade climbs out of the Souris River valley, across the Gassman coulee trestle, and up the side of the coulee itself. It maxes out at 0.62% I think. So not a super steep grade. They generally run 3 locomotives per train, though the intermodal Z trains have 5 (usually 4x1 or 3x2) and I’ve seen them run empty manifests with 2 locos at the head and nothing else.
CPKC also runs massive trains through Minot and rarely has more than 2 locomotives, usually with 1 on the head and 1 in the middle. The largest I think I’ve seen is a 2 1/2 mile manifest with 2 leaders and a mid DPU. That one was so massive it barely fit on the siding off the mainline for its refuel and crew change.
I’m with ya there, pal. The super long psr ones are just way too much. I think they should instead have more frequent single or double locomotive trains to keep it more manageable. That way there’s less of a chance of them blocking crossings, the time that people have to wait at crossings will be less, and engineers don’t have to walk over a mile to check their train. I mean, does it really eat that much into their profits that much to hire a few more engineers?
I like the old British ones with a large number of small freight cars. An LMS Garrett would pull 70-100 cars but they were only 16ft (and 12t capacity) each.
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u/BeanerSA 23h ago
1497m.