Follow on from Diesel horns thread..

Even older tom · Follow on from Diesel horns thread..

Not wanting to hi-jack the thread, I've started a new one:

Seeing Erhard's vid, it made me wonder how do they start such heavy trains off? Lifting that weight of stock must need a very, very heavy and very, very powerful loco to get the traction but the locos don't seem to be either of these things.

Do they close the wagons up as much as they can so the loco has chance to get going or do they employ a 'pusher' to get the thing moving?

I'm probably going to kick myself when someone comes up with the answer but there you go.. nothing ventured etc. etc.

upnick

Cant be sure Tom might be down to sheer grunt Erhard may be able to set me straight but the vid looks like two SD60'S (3,800 HP each ) and an SD40 (3,000HP) or three SD60's, weight of the locos averages out at 167 tons each

bando1_de

Hi lads,

The leading unit was a SD70M, trailed by UP #2876, SD40T-2 (Tunnel motor) and UP #7916, SD40-2. So that's plenty of power and weight.

Before the engineer can go into drive, he has to "stretch" the train in "crawl" - mode because otherwise, he would simply rip the couplers out of their casings. Depending on the train's length and weight, this can take up to quarter of an hour!

I watched another train at this grade crossing but didn't capture it on video, only took still pictures of:
An asphalt train, consisting of 83 50' gondolas. Lead unit was SD60M #6252 (3.800 hp). followed by UP 7549, a GE AC6000CW (6.000 hp) and her sister UP 7532, plus UP 2245, another SD60M. So, all in all, some 19.600 hp were needed to pull this train...
Erhard

Even older tom

upnick

Thanks for clearing it up Erhard

i did spot one of the locos there as an SD40

mi lamps arent what they were is my excuse for the others

Must admit i was wondering about the 'crawl' up to speed now you can see why locos dont stop at crossings with all that weight behind them.

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Will

In England, when a 66 is on the 'Binliners', the rakes are not massively long but when powering up, you can see the couplings lift from their 'saggy' possition and make sounds like they are going to snap until gradually gaining momentum.