Rail roads and their tracks.

[dodge man]

One thing going for rails is the amount of weight they can carry. What can a rail car carry, 2 or 3 times what a semi can carry? A 100 car train would take a few hundred semis to move the same weight.

 

[MossRoad]

It amazes me how long a RR grade will be detectable. I was working on am emergency road repair on SR 542 east of Bellingham WA a few years ago. I knew that a railroad had run up the valley about ninety years ago to service the gold mines in the are, but I was quite surprised to see clear evidence of it still visible a ground level. In some places stubs of rotting pilings could be seen, but mostly just the railroad bed with 2' diameter trees growing out along the edges of the ballast.

I now live in the Skagit Valley and there are abandoned grades here too. Part of one has been turned into a bicycle, hiking path, but I am sure that the grade must have continued all the way to Newhalem about 50 miles upriver to haul materials for the dam projects.

Look on Google Earth and you'll see the RR scars all over the place. Really easy to zoom in and just slide along at your own pace and look at things along the way. I've found several rail grades around here that I never knew existed that way.

 

[Hay Dude]

One thing going for rails is the amount of weight they can carry. What can a rail car carry, 2 or 3 times what a semi can carry? A 100 car train would take a few hundred semis to move the same weight.

YES! the beauty of those huge hopper cars is they can carry much much more weight and save our roads at the same time.
In my area, I think all the lines that were to be abandoned are done-we hit bottom.
Now I'm seeing reemergence of a few abandoned rails back to rail service. Its very exciting and brings me hope that my little corner of America may be slowly pulling her head from her @rse after many decades in the smelly darkness :laughing:

 

[ArlyA]

You guys are thinking in terms of regional or short side lines. When I resided along a main n line in 1980, the average train that passed there was about 120 cars. Most common car capacity is 100 tons.

------------------------ from the progressive RR web page-----------------------------

Pushing the train-length envelope

UP is adding more sidings to support ongoing efforts to lengthen trains. A number of technologies including positive train control enable the Class I to push train length, UP officials say. In addition, the railroad uses analytics to help determine and increase train lengths.

UP also is advancing a 釘lend and Balance initiative that in part involves long trains. The initiative calls for blending service networks such as automotive and manifest trains and better balancing resources to boost productivity, reduce idle time and improve asset utilization.

Last year, the Class I set a record in all five train-length categories. Intermodal trains averaged 173 boxes, up from 170 in 2016 and 172 in 2015; coal trains averaged 131 cars, up from 130 in 2016 and 2015; grain trains averaged 102 cars, up from 101 in 2016 and 99 in 2015; manifest trains averaged 102 cars, up from 98 in 2016 and 94 in 2015; and automotive trains averaged 71 cars, up from 68 in 2016 and 67 in 2015.
CN's Mainline Trains
In 2017, CN痴 mainline trains averaged about 9,000 feet in length and 95,000 tons in weight.
CN

CN also is making strides in lengthening trains. The Class I doesn稚 stress footage data for long trains; instead, it focuses on train productivity, or gross ton miles (GTMs) per train mile.

CN data shows train productivity increased 3 percent last year from 9,314 GTMs per train mile in 2016 to 9,424 GTMs per train mile in 2017. Prior-year figures were 8,739 in 2015, 8,625 in 2014 and 8,438 in 2013.

Since 2000, train productivity has increased nearly 70 percent as CN continues to operate longer trains carrying more tonnage. Last year, the Class I痴 average mainline train length was about 9,000 feet and average trainload weighed about 95,000 tons.

CN continues to build 10,000- to 12,000-foot sidings and construct more double track to support long trains. Since 2000, the Class I has taken on 188 long siding and double-track projects.

 

[MossRoad]

You guys are thinking in terms of regional or short side lines. When I resided along a main n line in 1980, the average train that passed there was about 120 cars. Most common car capacity is 100 tons.

Oh, those are just the sentimental ones. Here in South Bend, we have Canadian National (used to be Grand Trunk Western Grand Trunk Western Railroad - Wikipedia ) coming from the Detroit area to Chicago crossing over Norfolk Southern tracks going from Toledo to Chicago.

It doesn't look like much on a map, however, last I saw a report, NS was running about 80 trains a day through here and CN another 20. They share trackage for around 1 mile right through the downtown. Fortunately, it's all elevated trackage, so we have underpasses pretty frequently.

https://www.in.gov/indot/files/MAIN-RR-11_V1.pdf

NS has a large classification yard in Elkhart, just east of here. The Robert Young yard was built by New York Central. At one time it was the 2nd largest yard in the world. It is still one of the largest "hump" yards in the country. Something like 5 miles long. Pretty neat place.

So, we get our share of loo-ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo-ong trains through town.

 

[the old grind]

ArlyA and Moss, how often do we see banking locos on these >100 car consists?

I expect them out West, but haven't ever seen many on GT rails that extend down Moss's way.

 

[MossRoad]

I've seen one that I can remember in my entire 59 years here. And it may have just been hitching a ride. It's pretty flat.

CN usually runs 3 engines. Sometimes an old GT paint scheme is in there, and a lot of other lines' engines. Don't know if they're rental power, purchased power awaiting paint, etc..., but they are frequent.

NS usually runs 2. NS line was Conrail line before. Conrail would run 3,4,5 engines all the time. Heck, NS sometimes runs 1 engine. No wonder Conrail went out of business; inefficient!

I do recall one time, maybe Christmas Eve or Christmas morning, my wife and I got stopped at a Conrail crossing. As we sat there in the snow, waiting for what would inevitably be some ridiculously long train, I heard the horns.... LOTS OF HORNS! Looked to my left and there was a line of blue Conrail engines coming. Turned out to be 17 engines, no cars behind them, just flying east towards the Elkhart yards. The cab of each engine had the window open, 1 or 2 guys hanging out, all off them wailing on their horns! Probably going 70. The noise was deafening. And after they went by the cloud of snow, leaves and debris was immense!

It would have made a great Normal Rockwell painting. I'd title it "Deadheading Home For Christmas".

 

[MossRoad]

I have another habit of counting cars on trains. Most are right around 100 here. I've had as high as 180. If you count container trains, many are over 200 double stacked (400 containers). However, many of those cars are 5 cars that can't be separated.

If you're sitting on the west end of town and the trains are heading west, they go by pretty fast, picking up speed. However, if they are going east, you're gonna be sitting a while, as they are usually braking to slow down through town.

 

[ArlyA]

I've never ever, seen the "banking" of a train. That is adding an extra engine or two to push trains. Could be the BN keeps there main lines at 3% so they don't need them. Someone with more knowledge than I might add somehtign to this.

 

[Hay Dude]

Here is one of our sentimental lines with 3 engines and a double crossing in front of me a few weeks ago