As I was Sitting in the emmissons line one day and I saw a frieght train come on by
and. I counted. 8 or 9 engines on this train so I would have imaganed the train must of had 100 or more cars with it. But then again it may of only had 75 cars who knows. But any way the shortest train. I have been stopped by. Was one engine and one car.
The longest train I ever saw was an empty coal train on the C&O in 1967.It had close to 300 cars.The shortest was a Santa Fe local in San Bernardino.It had one GP with one car on each end of the loco.
the longest ones i have had ran where the trailer jets… around 10000 feet or so… the shortest was nothing but a set of light units…
csx engineer
The shortest I have ever seen was two engines and one car.
The LONGEST train I ever encountered was a 168-car, 19,000-ton soda ash hauler making its way from Green River, Wyo. to North Platte, Nebr. Union Pacific tried running these gargantuan monsters a few years ago with distributed power placed about two-thirds of the way back in the consist. Operationally between crew change points they were a success, but they suffered from three major drawbacks: 1) they were so long that they couldn’t fit in any of the crew change points without tieing up a CTC crossover at one end or the other, 2) from Paxton, Nebr. (M.P. 426) to North Platte (M.P. 287), they couldn’t stop anywhere without blocking a road crossing, and 3) the eastbound North Platte hump did not have a receiving yard track long enough to accept the entire train. Whenever one would arrive, it was a Cecil B. DeMille production involving “a cast of thousands at a cost of millions” to yard the train, double the head end over to a second receiving track (and sometimes a third) - all the while blocking the run-through mainline, and then gather the power for a trip to the barn. On paper it looked great, but the secondary ramifications made it a nightmare.
The SHORTEST “train” I ever rode was from Crystal City, MO to Sainte Genevieve, MO on the Saint Louis - Southwestern. It had a headlight, the required markers, and was operating as an “extra” with the required clearance and running order. The MoPac’s Illinois Division Superintendent was the hoghead, I was the flagman, and the Eastern District General Manager was the passenger. The train consisted of a 1972 AMC Ambassador passenger car equipped with high-rail wheels.
Yes, I’ve ridden a motor car for about 130-miles across Texas, and that’s certainly shorter than a full sized automobile. But the roadmaster and I were running on motor car lineups, so we weren’t really a train!
D.& R.G.W.'s trains nos. 9 and 10, “The Yampa Valley Mail,” ran with just an F9 and two cars during September 1967, and I’m pretty sure that I’ve ridd
Longest- 12000’ CN autorack train stopped in Charlotte, MI. Talked to the crew thats why I know it was 12000’.
Shortest- GP38-2 light engine run on the Huron & Eastern from Caro to Vassar, MI.
one of the shortest I’ve seen is a local with 2 engines and caboose.one of the longest is a 7 engine csx train going south to lima from deshler. 5 units were dead in tow. then north of lima another engine died. so 1 engine had to deal with a 6400 ft train.
stay safe
joe
I agree with Bob-Fryml on the CTA, both the Skokie Swift and the Evanston shuttle (especially when the staitons were unmanned at night and the motorman had to collect fare[and make change]). It was also interesting when Evanston was trolley pole service only north of South Blvd. The motorman would go to the rear of the car and put the pole up or pull it down depending on direction of travel.
Still seen every Thursday in Chicago: CPR runs the Peerless job - an MP15 with a single tank car or covered hopper from Clybourn Junction to Peerless Confections at Diversey and Lakewood.
Rode the Western Pacific ZEPHYRETTE a single RDC-2 between Stockton and Salt Lake City that might be a single unit record for distance.
The shortest train I ever operated was a Boeing Special Missoula to Yardley. One GP 35 and a single 60’ covered flat. Total length of about 125 feet. Upon arrival we left the ‘train’, one car, on the mainline and took the power, one unit, to track 1 where it sat for more than two hours…
I have had a few light engine moves between stations with a single unit but I don’t count them regardless of what the rule book says.
The longest I ever operated was about 9,400 feet.
The shortest train I saw was in a yard. Their was one car traveling to a train without an engine.
Lightest was 3 DMIR engines making a hospitaal run over the NSSR to Proctor in 2004.
CN intermodal train 154 heading east to Buffalo. 1 Dash 9 and a 89 foot flat with 1 20 foot OOCL container…exciting yes?
The longest train i have ver saw was a grain train with about 160 cars, the shortest two sd40-2 and two boxcars, the Z train the other day had 9 engines on line and only 41 cars!!!
The longest short train I ever saw was a move of about 50 UP locos (I didn’t get a chance to count), no cars, on the old WP main line through Marysville CA.
Hey guys, you are violating the ground rules. Skokie Swift might count because at one time freight trains did use the North Shore tracks, CTA also handled freight. Otherwise, of course a single streetcar or a CTA shuttle of any type can be called a one-car train. I agree with the auto with markers and headlights. It was carrying passengers on a track also part of the National Railway network, so it counts. Even though it wasn’t a revenue move. An SF cable-car doesn’t count. wrong gauge, not connected to the National network, a specialty operation. However, the Staten Island Rapid Transit did have freight service with B&O camelback steam locomotives which I saw as a kid in operation, and the South Beach branch had one-car trains, with headlights and marker lights, mu electrics otherwise not much different that BMT subway cars (they were built to be compatible in case a tunnel to Brooklyn was ever built), with a two-man engineer and conductor crew. The Skokie Swift would be considered similar. But I suspect today those are one-man operated? I never rode the Skokie Swift except on a fantrip and of course many, many times the same tracks on North Shore trains between Chicago and Milwaukee. The North Shore also ran some one-car trains, particularly on the Mundelein Shuttle, and ditto the Roarin Elgin (CA&E) on the Batavia Branch. Single car trains on the Chicago Elevated included the Stock Yards and Kenwood branches at times. In Brooklyn, the Bay Ridge Branch of the 5th Avenue Elevated (abandoned in 1940) had one car trains, usually attached to a Culver train for the trip downtown or over the Brooklyn Bridge at 36th Street Station. Then there are all the single Budd car (RDC-1, etc.) trains, including that on the Western Pacific that was the second train on the California Zephyr route. I rode a single Budd car once on the Boston and Albany main line all the way from Albany to Boston. Front platform over the Birkshire mountains, thanks to a kind engineer. At one time the New Haven seemed to hav
Just 1 loco would be/ [:p]
[quote]
Originally posted by railfan619
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Shortest train had one unit and one car (Los Angeles - Portland) and the longest was 200 cars at Tehachapi with 17 units (includes helpers).
My shortest train was a Fiat railcar demonstrator running by itself on a Rock Island suburban run at Blue Island.
one car one diesal locomotive from meadville to Jamestown NY on WNY&P