longest train I ever seen
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URL: https://www.allischalmers.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=162777
Printed Date: 25 Jul 2025 at 12:19pm
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Topic: longest train I ever seen
Posted By: darrel in ND
Subject: longest train I ever seen
Date Posted: 13 Jul 2019 at 11:02pm
| I don't know if BNSF railroad was just running an experimental train, or if this is going to be the new normal. But when me and the son were going to the hay field tonight, we seen a BNSF train, that was without exaggerating, at least two miles long. It had two locomotives on the front, two in the middle, and one bringing up the rear. No doubt the other trains have to side track for it, because they don't have a side track long enough for it. Darrel |
Replies:
Posted By: JohnCO
Date Posted: 13 Jul 2019 at 11:29pm
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I saw something similar last week on the BNSF track past my farm. This train was also a good two miles long with two power units in front and two in back and SIX, count um, six units in the middle. It was all empty coal cars, I suspect they were just moving equipment around, they were heading north. In the last two days I have had to wait for 3 long trains, either I'm just unlucky or they are moving more trains. BTW, there have been some interesting trains go past my place over the years, several times there have been 737 fuselages, no wings or tail but the cockpit is on, some painted with the Southwest colors, probably heading from Kansas to Washington state. If It had been this summer, I'd figure they were Max's and Southwest was hauling passengers! LOL Several times a year there will be an entire train with nothing but wind turbine blades heading south from the Vestas plant in Windser, CO to wind farms in Texas. One train, a few years ago, looked like an entire Army construction battalion heading somewhere for training. Occasionally I'll see a luxury private car attached to a freight, gotta cost a bunch of bucks to get a car pulled somewhere. ------------- "If at first you don't succeed, get a bigger hammer" Allis Express participant |
Posted By: tomNE
Date Posted: 13 Jul 2019 at 11:39pm
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Around me here in NE, the shag trains can get overly long. reg trains seem like 110 cars is normal! ------------- AC from the start of my families farming career till the end! |
Posted By: jaybmiller
Date Posted: 14 Jul 2019 at 5:31am
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maybe the faster second train caught up to the slower first and got connected ? hehehe... they have loooong coal trains in BC to get CDN coal to China faster.... special unloading ...cars have rotatable couplers. each car gets turned upside down over a chute. really neat to see.. and fast. ------------- 3 D-14s,A-C forklift, B-112 Kubota BX23S lil' TOOT( The Other Orange Tractor) Never burn your bridges, unless you can walk on water |
Posted By: steve(ill)
Date Posted: 14 Jul 2019 at 7:17am
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Rail road needs to cut cost.......... Keep looking into OPERATOR LESS Locomotives.... Possible that in a LONG train with 3 LOCOS in the middle, that only ONE Operator ?? .... Lot of equipment is going to Wireless Operation. ------------- Like them all, but love the "B"s. |
Posted By: Clay
Date Posted: 14 Jul 2019 at 8:18am
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They need to put a limit on the length of the trains. Quite often they are so long they block several crossing. 5 or ten minutes, I can understand. lt is not unusual to have the same train block the crossings for hours at a time. Even had them block the crossings for two days. That is total Bull squeeze. How is someone supposed to know when the train is going to keep the crossing closed? Having to back up farm equipment and turn around is not a safe or easy event. Driving and extra four or more miles to get around the damn train. Having to get out on a couple of busy hiways sucks too. In the old days, the railroad would break the train at the crossing.
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Posted By: KJCHRIS
Date Posted: 14 Jul 2019 at 9:05am
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2 Trains each 1.4+ miles long in BNSF yard in Sx City this morning. 2 engines on front 1 on rear. The south bound had A semi fuel tanker pulled alongside each engine. A box car hooked to engines both trains but all other cars are tankers, the kind they haul bio-fuels out of here with. 1 headed south and 1 headed north. Guessing south is the loaded tankers, north normally are the empty heading to NW IA. plants. They had 3 intersections blocked over 2 hours while fueling. ------------- AC 200, CAH, AC185D bareback, AC 180D bareback, D17 III, WF. D17 Blackbar grill, NF. D15 SFW. Case 1175 CAH, Bobcat 543B, |
Posted By: DMiller
Date Posted: 14 Jul 2019 at 9:20am
| Distributed Power is what they call the Radio Control units mid and end train now. Can get away with fewer lead engines with one or more center and another one or two at rear. Also discontinues use of EoT units(flashing red Lamp) that has to be added to the rear most car. Fuel conscious RRs are now watching how much is consumed and at what rates where engines are being spec'd differently for better economy. The belly tank of the Big GEs can hold as much as 5500 gal. |
Posted By: shameless dude
Date Posted: 14 Jul 2019 at 10:01am
| UP is also doing the same thing. one engineer told me the rear engine keeps everything taught and they have less slamming on the cars. the middle 1/2/3 usually help on long steep grades. sometimes we see 4-6 engines all by themselves go by, that is where they need more engines somewhere else. UP has extra engines all coupled together in the desert in AZ. can see a pic on you tube, something like 2-3 miles of just engines sitting. UP has the ability to run all their trains without anyone in the cabs, and they do so in Council Bluffs IA switching cars around. but the govt won't let them go across the country & some states without someone in the cab of the engines. most all the coal cars now are made of mostly aluminum making them lighter and they can return more cars in a single train. |
Posted By: john(MI)
Date Posted: 14 Jul 2019 at 11:49am
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Here in MI they can only block a crossing for 35 min. max. All the freight trains and the tracks are owned by Canada, same as all the oil pipelines. I haven't seen any long trains up here so it must be a prairie thing. I enjoy watching trains, I would really like to see one of those long ones, as long as I ain't sitting at a crossing when I do! ------------- D14, D17, 5020, 612H, CASE 446 |
Posted By: Alberta Phil
Date Posted: 14 Jul 2019 at 2:29pm
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I have to wait for them fairly often at the double tracked crossing going into town. Most trains around here are about 3 miles long with at least four engines; two at the front, at least one in the middle and another at the tail end. Fortunately they're usually travelling at about 50 to 60 MPH so the wait isn't all that long. |
Posted By: DonBC
Date Posted: 14 Jul 2019 at 4:23pm
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Jay there are also looong coal trains from the US coal mines that use the coal loading facilities to ship coal to China, as I understand it, there are no coal shipping facilities on the US west coast. ------------- Jack of all trades, master of none |
Posted By: Ted J
Date Posted: 14 Jul 2019 at 9:26pm
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Here in WI., a stopped train cannot block a crossing longer than 10 mins. Moving? I don't know. I would bet there is something on the books. ------------- "Allis-Express" 19?? WC / 1941 C / 1952 CA / 1956 WD45 / 1957 WD45 / 1958 D-17 |
Posted By: shameless dude
Date Posted: 15 Jul 2019 at 10:30pm
| I did forget to say...like Ted says, here they can only block any crossing for 10 mins. anything more and the engineer gets a ticket from local law enforcement. that does not sit well with the railroad, they do an investigation then. sometimes an engineer can lose his job depending on why they are stopped. |
Posted By: john(MI)
Date Posted: 15 Jul 2019 at 11:04pm
Do they drive down the tracks after them and pull them over!?!?  ------------- D14, D17, 5020, 612H, CASE 446 |
shameless dude wrote:Posted By: JohnCO
Date Posted: 16 Jul 2019 at 12:53pm
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Saw another long one yesterday, only had 4 power units in the middle, 2 each in front and back. All empty coal cars. ------------- "If at first you don't succeed, get a bigger hammer" Allis Express participant |
Posted By: TramwayGuy
Date Posted: 17 Jul 2019 at 8:30am
| I would think that there is a practical limit on how much pull a coupler will stand; or how much it takes to pull a train car apart. That may be another reason for the locomotive(s) in the middle. |
Posted By: jaybmiller
Date Posted: 17 Jul 2019 at 9:50am
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could be going to 2 different destinations.... split the trains at stop #1......then carry on to final. it'd also 1/2 the distance for the air to get to the tanks on each car, could leave the station faster... ------------- 3 D-14s,A-C forklift, B-112 Kubota BX23S lil' TOOT( The Other Orange Tractor) Never burn your bridges, unless you can walk on water |
Posted By: truckerfarmer
Date Posted: 17 Jul 2019 at 9:16pm
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Tramway brings up a good point about coupler strength. ------------- Looking at the past to see the future. '53 WD, '53 WD45, WD snap coupler field cultivator, #53 plow,'53 HD5B dozer Duct tape.... Can't fix stupidity. But will muffle the sound of it! |
Posted By: cottngton
Date Posted: 05 Jul 2021 at 1:42pm
| Do you know how much it would cost a ticket on the longest train? I think it would be a cool experience. I have many more points on my wish list, but this covid pandemic has turned everything upside down. Anyways, before all this chaos, I managed to visit Germany. I booked one ticket for 44€ on https://www.dbauskunft.net/de/" rel="nofollow - |
Posted By: DMiller
Date Posted: 05 Jul 2021 at 3:05pm
| Average coal train thru here on any given day is 150 cars, two engines or three up front, one rough center and at least one rear. As to general freight have seen the similar sets on the N&S North of here on long freights with twins forward and a third at tail or the really heavy Stack Conex trains have two or three forward, one center and one or two rear. Last long one of the N&S I saw pass thru New Florence MO was 124 cars and set up this style. They are yard length and passing track length limited on the single line mains, UP is almost all Dual Trackage thru MO so they can run longer and not a issue. |
Posted By: DougG
Date Posted: 05 Jul 2021 at 5:27pm
| Almost every morning route 3 for Monsanto in Ill and - Sauge in St Louis is backed up by train traffic- as if the railroad is saying - deal with it |
Posted By: DMiller
Date Posted: 05 Jul 2021 at 6:19pm
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Four major lines with five major yards for industrial service from Pontoon Beach down to Cahokia Trains are pulling thru or switching there most every day, not hard to be caught up in them |
Posted By: FREEDGUY
Date Posted: 12 Jul 2021 at 6:21pm
Well I'm glad you asked a VERY similar question as I did and you didn't get "FLAMED" for it   !!
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Posted By: Tbone95
Date Posted: 13 Jul 2021 at 7:49am
Spammer pulls up a post from 2 years ago, couple people chimed in.....
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