I have heard of a Big Boy pulling a 5 1/2 mile long train. I can see getting everything moving, but getting it stopped??? What about slack in the couplers? Any ideas? Had to be some jarring or slapping of the coupler. And air pressure?
My quiestion also, whats the longest train ever? Curious…
Unless they were all empty pig flats (89 footers), I do think someone is pulling your leg. A train that long with “regular” size cars would simply be too heavy - the coupler nuckles near the front of the train could not take the strain.
You would have to prove this one to me!
If my memory serves correctly, I read twice that this was only claimed in theory but never actually done.
I actually read it in a pentrex video add for the big boy. It claimed that there is footage of a 5 1/2 milelong train. But it may be a theory… Hardto beleive myself!
Naturally we assume the story is standard railfan baloney, but remember the UP has lots of nice long downgrades. You could just assemble a 5 1/2 mile train on the main line at Archer and release the brakes-- well, okay, you couldn’t release them, so you’d have to do without air. Maybe the in-train forces would eventually break the train in two, but seems likely they’d coast a fair distance before that.
This is from BHP’s website for their iron ore railways in the northwest of Western Australia, about twelve hours north of my home:
“BHP Billiton Iron Ore’s Newman railway has evolved whereby we now run the longest and the heaviest trains in the world. The trains are up to 336 cars long and powered by 6000-horsepower General Electric AC locomotives. In June 2001, BHP Billiton Iron Ore ran the world’s longest and heaviest train. It stretched 7.4km, had 682 ore cars, eight locomotives, a gross weight of almost 100,000 tonnes and moved 82,262 tonnes of ore.”
7.4 km is a little more than 4.5 miles. So if that was the world’s longest train, one could surmise that it is not likely that UP ever ran 5.5 mile train.
I think the N&W ,possibly C&O, ran the longest train in the US some years ago.At the time it was a world record.
N&W ran a 500-car train in the 1960’s as part of an experiment directed at the feasibility of such super-size trains. It had three SD45’s on the point and three more SD45 slaves two-thirds of the way back. It was decided that the trains were technically possible but not practical.
…That is a great video of the Big Boy series in action. Gives those who never heard a working steam engine some semblance of what it really was roaring past under load.
I just came across this on YouTube…
Between 4:30 and 5:00 minutes it says the 5 mile length thing… Cool little video though…
How munch HP does the big boys produces?
According to William Kratville’s book on the Big Boy #4016 produced 6,200 HP when tested in 1943, but collectively as a class of engines, the Big Boys produced 5,800 HP.
The story of a Big Boy pulling a 5.5 mile long train is pure B.S.
Hello Everybody,
just one more question,
so, what could be the max. tonnage Big Boy would pull?
Something round about 20K tons on level track?
Wonder if they had so strong couplers at that time.
However, I think the U.P did not bother with these ratings,
their max. allowed tonnage was 7000t - 8000t between North Platte and Ogden.
Regards
Lars
Wow…I could watch those videos all night long!!!
Rich
If the train is too long, they can’t release the air brakes. How long is too long? We don’t know-- but almost certainly the engine can easily haul any train that’s short enough for the air brakes to work-- on the level, that is.
If we want to pull the longest possible train, and we’re willing to run without air brakes, then the question becomes: will the train break in two? Maybe on a constant level grade it won’t.
If the train stays in one piece, the question becomes: how many cars can the engine start, from a standstill? We have next to no idea about that; supposedly roller-bearing cars don’t have much “starting resistance”, but solid-bearing cars could have a lot, depending on how long they had been stationary.
If the train is all roller bearing, and if we don’t need air brakes, and if we can start the train without breaking it in two, and if the train stays in one piece for a little while longer, then a Big Boy should have no trouble pulling a 5 1/2 mile train on level track.
Thats a lot of ifs and I don’t think any railroad would try anything like that just for the record/publicity. I can’t imagine how much of a mess it would be when you tried to stop it.
what is the weight for a big boy?
First series, 4000-4019
Engine wt - 762,000 lbs
Tender wt - 427,500 lbs
Total wt - 1,189,500 lbs
Second series, 4020-4024
Engine wt - 772,250 lbs
Tender wt - 436,500 lbs
Total wt - 1,208,750 lbs
Data from loco diagrams in Kratville’s book, Big Boy