If the gross weight of a standard two truck four axle railcar is generally 286,000 lbs., then why is it that steel coil trains of 25-50 cars have lots more power than any other non steel coil 25-50 car train? I ask this because I have seen lots of pictures of NS and BNSF (particularly the ones that run over tehachapi) steel coil trains that are relatively short with lots of power and usually with DPU. What makes these trains so much heavier?
A 286K car loaded to its capacity is the same whether it’s coal, steel, grain, or whatver. It might seem as if coil steel trains are more powered-up, if one is comparing them to general manifest freights or intermodal trains which generally contain lightly loaded cars, empty cars, or both, whereas a unit coil steel train is 100% loads to capacity. Compared to the unit coal trains that used to run over Tehachapi, I doubt the horsepower per ton of the coil steel train is much different, but I don’t think there have been unit coal trains operated over Tehachapi on a regular basis for about a decade.
S. Hadid
Certainly no unit coal trains have regularly run over Tehachapi since UP bought SP, but some did back in January 2005 when the LA&SL was washed out northeast of Las Vegas.
The August 1994 issue of Trains had an article about the Oil Cans that ran over Tehachapi. It seems like that article said that the usual power was 10-12 3000HP and 3600HP locomotives, including helpers. That is anywhere from 30000 HP to 43200 HP. I rarely got to see the cans, espicially the loaded ones. I remember the last time I did was an empty set with only 4 3000 HP locomotives, what a difference between loaded and empty.
Please click on the below link then click on the S. California Nov 2006 gallery & you will see a series of pix of a BNSF coiled steel train transiting the Cajon pass summit
Perhaps some of the coil trains change directions, thus needing 2 engines.
For example, NS train 323 runs from Ft Wayne, In to Van Loon yard daily (including Thanksgiving). The train proceeds west with empty coil cars and other cars for interchange with the EJE. At arrival at Van Loon, the engines run around the loaded cars on the siding and returns. Sometimes the train will have only 10 cars, but two engines are required in order to have an engine facing east.
ed