100 cars or more of a general non intermodal freight train averaging 20 miles per hour?
I would suggest that a drag freight is one that is large and underpowered. A 40 MPH drag freight on a 70 MPH line will be just as big a problem for the dispatcher as anything.
Local nomenclature defines a ‘drag’ more than anything. Baltimore Terminal had interterminal transfer job known as ‘The Drag’. Coal train out of Grafton to Cumberland and beyond are locally referred to as a Drag.
The reality is that any train that is loaded to the maximum rated tonnage for the power that is hauling the train will in fact drag across the ruling grade at 11-12 MPH and won’t make track speed elsewhere.
The reality is that any train that has a Dismal… err… Diseaseal… err… Diesel on it is a “drag”… put a Steam Locomotive on it and then it becomes exciting!
Actually, in my youth, an EL freight accelerating east from Hammond behind a pair of SD45’s was quite exciting, hardly a drag.
A drag freight would be a trio of IHB SW7’s pulling a trainload of steel coils across Hohman Avenue. Drag freight only because of the low speed, the audio effects of three 567 engines were quite impressive.
Within the last year or so there was an entire issue of Trains on this subject. Will try to find the date later on.
- PDN.
And some “coal drags” in my area have been known to require a shove from following power just to make a 2% grade after rounding a curve out of Plymouth. . Stuff happens.
Hey Q 236, can you cut your power loose and give them a shove was commonly heard when I was fanning CSX in Plymouth, , MI. I also see mid-train or pusher DPU’s on BNSF trains into Durand, MI.
Could it be a train with Eddie Izzard at the controls?
With a steam locomotive, it’s a fire breathing dragon freight.
[:D]
Could be a Z train with RuPaul at the controls.
Once we get drag freight settled, can we work on junk freight and slop freight?
Would “slop freight” be another name for hog feed?
Or maybe the ghost of Milton Berle?
I think of both as “jack of all trades” trains - very likely doing local work as well as hauling anything in the yard going their way.