I witnessed the longest train I have ever seen yesterday…
A 310 car empty doublestack “BareTable” Train. Powered by 3 SD70M’s…
4878 (Flares, no flag)
4056 (wings only)
4678 (Wings only)
It seemed like this train would not end! Beleive it or not, the next train I saw was the SHORTEST of the day…a High n Wide. Train XM-SLCDUP, Salt Lake City-Dupo, Extra… SD70M 4944…1 Load, 0 Empties…Ironic, know? Has anyone else seen either of these trains, or have seen similar movements?
Yes, I belive I saw that very train here, was it Southbound or Northbound? I’ve also seen caboose hops or 1 or 2 car trains. Anyone else?
Was that 310 count platforms or units? A three platform unit would be (yup, you guessed it) 3 platforms and one unit. Therefore, a 3 and a 5 would be 8 platforms and 2 units (or 2 cars).
HiWides usually run in regular service, a set number of cars ahead of the caboose or behind the locomotive. You can bet the UP earned as much revenue off that one car as it would have a whole train. The reason such trains are operated at all is that - I would suspect - this load was REALLY wide and needed special - extra special - Tender Loving Care. Including such a car in a regular freight train would be a REALLY BIG operational problem.
Sounds impressive ! - what kind of length does that come out to in feet?
How fast was this train going?
the biggest train i have had to run was 11,960ft. auto rack train. no fun at all.
Years ago I saw a west bound z-train one day and the power had like 7 to 10 units(all running)with only less than half the train,now how Ironic is that?
BNSFrailfan.
Hay wabash1 was that your train that came through blair one day and had only 3 SD70M’s? That would have been a good train on vodeo too.
We see some empty table trains through Aurora, IL from time to time on BNSF and they also seem extremely long and are usually handled by one single Dash 9 or SD type unit.
That is sure impressive. The longest train I have ever seen up here in Wisconsin was 143 cars pulled by an SD45/F45 combo, they sure did pull hard with over 100 loads.
Wabash1, Why did you consider your very big train no fun at all? Forgive my ignorance but such a train loaded with vehicles are alot of money involved.
I will always remember how I was really impressed with the sound of those SD/F45 units, they will always remain one of my favorites!
I tell you what,I have seen some verrrrrrrrrrrrrrry long auto rack trains on the UP lately.
BNSFrailfan.
I seem to remember, back in the days when mid-train remote helpers were just being experimented with, the N&W (pre NS) ran a 500 car loaded coal train from Portsmoth, OH to Columbus. I believe they had so much trouble getting the moster across the road they never repeated the experiment.
310 cars ((platforms)) that is realy cool !! Now lets see that loaded up double stack and then you got real train !! I’ve seen 200 platform trains loaded with pig trailers mixed in with single and double stacks.
I had a SD90AC (the real 6,000 horsepower kind) on a BALLAST TRAIN!!! And going 3 mph is a little tricky, slow down Zach, speed up, TOO FAST SLOW DOWN, ok…, TOO SLOW!!! I was so glad to get off that assignment!!!
UPTRAIN what subdivsion do tou work on?
I had one yesterday that was 14,700 feet only making 30-40 mph LOL
Oh man, I thought our old friend Missouri was back.
Cool sighting
Adrianspeeder
I once saw what appeared to be two unit coal trains worth of empty hoppers linked into one behind two Geeps, headed south through Rantoul, Illinois. Those two Geeps were working HARD. I don’t remember the exact car count, but it was well over 180.