>> I thought anything above a certain length had to have another loco pushing from the
>> rear to prevent the couplings being over strained?
Its more about the total amount of horsepower (and grip - getting it onto the rails) to get the stuff moving, (gently to prevent coupling knuckle breakage) mostly the yanks like to multi head the power units. (for multiple unit control from one cab) You don't even need a lot of power units to stop better, the train brake (almost always air these days) has much better stopping power than the engine brake, so thats why you intersperse locos in very long trains, not for power but for air - as the air in the brakes runs out!
You can see why Yanks like to jump x-ings, I have seen one film of over 400 flatcars taking 10 minutes to pass. Biggest haul in the uk was a class 59 with over 50 stone wagons - total load over 2000 tons.
Longest I have filmed was the same class 59 but with 42 wagons. Here is one of interest filmed recently, a load of Fords, a rare sight as most are carried in covered wagons,
www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfxRhDtNCVs
Last edited by: Zero on Sat 5 Apr 14 at 20:09
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