Hello,
if you go to youtube and do a search for the above title it will call up video clip or here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LsuNWjRaAo&feature=related . It is quite amazing what the GE AC6000 are able to pull/push.
Frank
And I complain about CP 672…
That video is 8:02 long in case you want to stop and order a pizza. How long is the train? When and where did it happen? How many engines. I’m guessing the entire train is ore or coal?
Australian BHP Iron ore train, the longest train to ever run in the world, this train is officially in the guinness book of world records for the longest train.
The record was set on june 21, 2001 in western australia between newman and port headland, a distance of 275km (170 miles) and the train consisted of 682 loaded iron ore wagons and 8 GE AC6000 locomotives giving a gross weight of almost 100,000 tonnes and moved 82,262 tonnes of ore, the train was 7.353 km (4.568 miles) long.
BHP iron ore did this to test locotrol which is where locomotives are evenly placed along the length of the train.
The locotrol setup was 2 locos-166 wagons, 2 locos-168 wagons, 2 locos-168 wagons, 1 loco-180 wagons then the last locomotive on the back.
This very long train is controlled by only one driver.
The train was 4.6 miles long and consisted of 682 loaded ore cars + 8 AC6000s. The train weighed 110,000 U.S. tons (!). It wasn’t slow moving either, the AC6000’s had it going over 50MPH.
Now that is a train that will go out of my way to get stuck at a grade crossing waiting for.[8D] At the risk of starting another mayo thread I wonder if maybe the DM&E could have offered to run only one train an hour. Just make it one of these.[:D][:D]. I would not mind. My only concern would be if I ran out of film/memory card space.
Ungern
Calling all my fellow Canadian railfans. Didn’t the CPR run a much longer train than this between Winnipeg MB and Thunder Bay ON in the late 60’s or early 70’s? It was a unit grain train to the Lakehead when that terminal was still a major player in the grain business. It was a test that ultimately failed because they found the time consumed to marshall the trian and then break it up at port outwighed the gain in running and turnaround time for the car’s. I know it was in the Guiness book back then, but it strikes me it was 11 miles long using SD-40’s or -2’s in DPU mode (Robot’s) when those units were the newest thing. I’ve had a problem with this Austrailian story ever since I first read it.
AgentKid
Boy, I’d hate to walk this train[;)], that or pump air through it for three hours, and do an air test without a vehicle, you’d hog on the air test alone[:D]
Yeah, that was pretty long. Although, technically it’s a single train, I look at it as four separate trains of typical length hooked up together with a single control and suddenly it doesn’t seem so impressive anymore. Now, put all eight ACs on the head end of that 4.6 mile string without distributed power and traverse the entire 170 mile route and not break your train… That’ll impress me.
Anybody else seen that in Guinness?
The book or my fourth pint?
FR NO COMM
[:P]
Is Rochester spreading the same 80 trains in 18 hours propaganda that Brookings, SD is?
Hi,
AgentKid, I have been searching for this CPR grain train on the web and could not find any references to it. It would certainly be great if this train did run, being a big CP fan and modelling the railroad.
Will continue searching and if there is any info on it will certainly post it.
Frank
Thank you Frank,
Referencing the web is how I think the Austrailian story got traction. What I was hoping for was if one of the other forum members could find a Guiness book fron 74-80.
AgentKid
It wouldn’t take long too pump that up. With engines on the rear, front and 3 places throughout, it would pump up quite quickly.
I’ll check, but as I recall the 1976 Guinness cites the N&W 1967 record, as you’d expect.
I think the CPR grain train record is an urban myth, no record or info seems to exist anywhere, think of the logistics of this feat, I doubt if there were anywhere near the facilities to handle a train of this length, and how many crew and support staff would be needed? Also it seems the record never made in the Guiness book, as no one has found it.
Odd.
Why? It happened just as it’s described. There were a large number of independent observers from other Australian railways invited to see the show. I’m married to one of them…
Cheers,
Mark.