For those of you that count the number of rail cars that a train is hauling, what is the longest train you’ve seen?
Mine is a 177 empty grain train that Canadian Pacific hauled through the middle of west side of Saskatoon. Of course this was during the rush hour so you can imagine the line ups of traffic as the train went by.
An honourable mention is a Canadian National general frieght that was 171 rail cars in length. This was at the southern edge of Saskatoon.
I’ve never counted any that long but I did run a train with 156, cars once. I never again wanna here the detector say “total axles 6-4-8,” at least we didn’t here you have a defect! The train was right around 9400 feet long, 11,000 tons, 4 motors, monster train, as expected we didnt have to go in any sidings. While it was intersting to have the train, and it was a valuable experience to run a train that long, I really don’t have any desire to ever have a train that long again. Most of the trains we run max out at 7000 feet, grain trains usually around 110 cars and 6800 feet 15500 tons.
The longest freight train I ever counted (and I count them all) was on the FEC. It was pulled by four engines, three 700 class SD40-2’s and one 400 class GP40-2. The train was a fully loaded northbound rock train that consisted of 156 40’ 100-ton Ortner hoppers and measured approximately 6,500’ in length. Pretty long by Florida railroading standards.
I think the most number of cars I have ever counted is around 140.
I usually don’t think to start counting until most of the train is past and by then it is too late to get anything close to a valid count. “Gee, this is a really long train, should’a started counting the cars.”
Conversely… “Here comes a train. Oh boy, 6 engines, think I’ll count the cars… 1… 2… 3… 4… 5… 6… 7… 8… 9… EOT… well, that was a waste!”
Besides, if the train is going fast I get dizzy trying to count the cars and if it is going slow I lose track of the count due to distractions.
I only count them when I am bored, or curious as to how long a coal drag, or grain drag is… but, the longest I ever counted was a 137-car CN manifest on the Indiana Harbor Belt, he was doing about 15 miles an hour, and it took him forever to clear 31st St. Of course, I don’t decide to count, usually until the first 1/2 dozen or so cars have gone by, so my counts are +/- a couple of cars…
Up in the 180 area - it’s been a long time and I can’t remember now. It was two unit coal trains worth of empties on the ICG, headed south and back to the coal fields. Just two units, on the head end, earning every bit of their keep…
A real railroader gets counts that high just walking back to find what set off the detector. [;)]
The times I was counting as a railfan I lost track of a number of cars whilst untying my shoes.
Now start counting stack trains, where four to five wells make up one car. I’ve seen these trains come thru in the 12,000’ to 14,000’ range. So actual car count doesn’t mean much anymore.
162 cars on an Eastbound manifest out of Altoona once. the irony was it had 3 SD40-2s for power vs the outgoing Westbound that had 3 SD40-2s, 2 geeps, 2 AC44s, and a big mac for power. yet only 70 cars in tow
Yeah, but not all of those units were “on line”.
The longest I’ve seen was IG1OA (stack train) at @12,500 ft. coming out of Global II (Proviso Yard) on a Saturday afternoon a number of years ago when I was still living in Elmhurst, IL. IG1OA was running @10,000 ft. coming out of Global I (Chicago) with Omaha DS 11 already concerned because of the limited number of places to hold a train that big (this was before the triple track from Geneva to Elburn). Then, the engineer informed the dispatcher that they still had to make a pick-up at Global II for another 2,500 ft. My scanner didn’t pick-up a response from the dispatcher and I don’t think that there was one (at least not one that was broadcast). If I remember correctly, the dispatcher lined the monster stack train out of Global II behind west bound bird ZCSLT.
CC
Maybe big by FEC standards, not Florida standards. A number of years ago I got repremanded by the Supt. for running a 170 car train as being too small.
Since I’m usually not close enough to distinguish where one multi-well car ends and the next begins, I count the containers/trailers instead. I also track them in TEU’s like the container industry.
The longest I have counted was 192 empty coal cars in Marion,OH. I remember counting it at 70 and saying it is still going. I was dissapointed it didn’t make it to 200.
Here’s the train
6/29/03
EB Empty Coal
NS 5438(CR)
NS 9277
The next day a train with 187 empty coal cars was seen with a single catfish.
Kevin
I honestly did not count the cars on this train, but it was a long one (for me). At least 120-130 cars; a solid double stack train. Nothing like that here in Massachusetts. This was at Northtown yard in Fridley, MN. Here’s the kicker though. Two GP40s (at best, don’t remember if they were 38s) dragging the whole thing. Every other train I’ve seen through there had at least 2 six packs.
The longest train I ever seen, pulled by a single locomotive, was an 89 car train plus a caboose in Chicago about 35 years ago. I saw it at a distance and noticed the solo loco (high-nose, probably a GP7 or GP9) was pulling a long train, so I started counting the cars. Since it was going slowly and I was far away, I was able to catch up on my counting. It must have been a transfer of empty cars to be able to pull that many cars by itself. I recall it being all boxcars.
I enjoy watching the engines and looking for special cars, so I normally don’t remember to count until too late.
About a week ago, at Joliet Union Station, I caught a northbound train of empty spine cars, pulled by one locomotive (SD70 I believe) . I have no idea how many cars there were, but he was going about 30mph or so, and it took him (roughly) 7 minutes to clear the diamonds. I thought he was going to take forever…
At least you’re a fan and were enjoying a passing train. Imagine all those poor souls for whom the wait was “forever” and were delayed seven minutes in their rush to get where they were going… [}:)]
A 5-unit articulated well car is counted as three cars…the end units, and the one in the middle. You can think of the other two as really long couplers.
I was stopped by a 200 car train of coal hoppers at a crossing in Lee Hall, Va in 1971. It was really moving, but still took a while to pass, and disappeared in a cloud of black dust. The crew in the caboose musta got black lung disease on that trip.
A coal train on the N&W I watched and counted had 225 cars. In fact, we counted pass two hundred on several trains that week and might have exceeding that a time or two.
Cheers