Electromotive was a division of General Motors from 1930 until April 4, 2005. 75 years, which included the 1960s time frame that the SD45, and variants was built.
Buff's Place wrote: For the life of me, I can not find (on the net) out what the maximum allowable length a freight train can be. IIRC the Government recently allowed them to increase the length, seems to me it was something like 200 cars or maximum length of two miles. Any facts would be appreciated ….thanks.
With 27 years of railroad experience, I have never ever heard of a maximum a train can be in length. Thats not to say that there isn't something to dictate that, just that I have never heard of such a thing. Having said that, the rule that applied to train crews and maintenance crews or any moving equipment reads "All engineers and operators of ontrack equipment must maintain a safe distance from equipment or trains ahead and must be able to stop in 1/2 the distance of stop signal or obstuction." So that to me is a catch 22 rule, I suppose in theory, you could have a train as long as you want as long as you can control it under the rules set forth. have you seen recently, how class 1 and 2 railroads are putting engines on the rear of trains,or in the middle for that matter, that not only for extra push power but also for braking control to help hold the slack between the cars. The Union Pacific uses this all the time now as they use this method in the mountains and they have nothing on they're minds except moving as much freight coast to coast and border to border in the fastest way possible. You might get an answer to your couriosity by doing a search for the F.R.A., Federal railroad administration. Im sure theres a reasonable length beause how much power would you need to get say a 5 mile long train moving and if you had to stop in half the distance.
Electromotive was a division of General Motors from 1930 until April 4, 2005. 75 years, which included the 1960s time frame that the SD45, and variants was built.
Buff's Place wrote: For the life of me, I can not find (on the net) out what the maximum allowable length a freight train can be. IIRC the Government recently allowed them to increase the length, seems to me it was something like 200 cars or maximum length of two miles. Any facts would be appreciated ….thanks.
With 27 years of railroad experience, I have never ever heard of a maximum a train can be in length. Thats not to say that there isn't something to dictate that, just that I have never heard of such a thing. Having said that, the rule that applied to train crews and maintenance crews or any moving equipment reads "All engineers and operators of ontrack equipment must maintain a safe distance from equipment or trains ahead and must be able to stop in 1/2 the distance of stop signal or obstuction." So that to me is a catch 22 rule, I suppose in theory, you could have a train as long as you want as long as you can control it under the rules set forth. have you seen recently, how class 1 and 2 railroads are putting engines on the rear of trains,or in the middle for that matter, that not only for extra push power but also for braking control to help hold the slack between the cars. The Union Pacific uses this all the time now as they use this method in the mountains and they have nothing on they're minds except moving as much freight coast to coast and border to border in the fastest way possible. You might get an answer to your couriosity by doing a search for the F.R.A., Federal railroad administration. Im sure theres a reasonable length beause how much power would you need to get say a 5 mile long train moving and if you had to stop in half the distance.
I live along the UPRR Chester sub. Recently UPRR started adding DPUs to their stack trains on the Chester sub. There are no grades on the Chester sub, but there are a few curves. I was told they added the DPUs to help "push" the train around corners. It seems some bean counter figured out that they could reduce some of the drag of the wheel flanges on the rail head in corners by pushing the rear portion of the train. By doing this, they could notice a savings in fuel burned, and it also reduces the need to grind the rail as often.
There might not be something in writing about a specific length, but some (maybe most) cities have a time limit as to how long a train can block an intersection. I can remember a few years ago that the city of Holland, MI was having issues with CSX blocking a major intersection on more than one occasion for more than 15 minutes. I know the newspapers reported that they would be fined, but I don't know if they were ever able to collect the money.
I found something on the internet from this summer about a different city: Train Violation
Kevin and my...
Wife, three daughters, a son
and two dogs(brittany and english setter)
2005 Suburban (295HP/335#-ft, 3.42 axle)
1994 Caprice LT1 (260HP/330#-ft, 2.93 axle)
2003 Trail Cruiser C22
With 27 years of railroad experience, I have never ever heard of a maximum a train can be in length. Thats not to say that there isn't something to dictate that, just that I have never heard of such a thing. Having said that, the rule that applied to train crews and maintenance crews or any moving equipment reads "All engineers and operators of ontrack equipment must maintain a safe distance from equipment or trains ahead and must be able to stop in 1/2 the distance of stop signal or obstuction." So that to me is a catch 22 rule, I suppose in theory, you could have a train as long as you want as long as you can control it under the rules set forth. have you seen recently, how class 1 and 2 railroads are putting engines on the rear of trains,or in the middle for that matter, that not only for extra push power but also for braking control to help hold the slack between the cars. The Union Pacific uses this all the time now as they use this method in the mountains and they have nothing on they're minds except moving as much freight coast to coast and border to border in the fastest way possible. You might get an answer to your couriosity by doing a search for the F.R.A., Federal railroad administration. Im sure theres a reasonable length beause how much power would you need to get say a 5 mile long train moving and if you had to stop in half the distance.
The rule that you refer to says..........
"When required to move at restricted speed, movement must be made at a speed that allows stopping within half the range of vision short of:
Train
Engine
Railroad car
Men or equipment fouling the track
Stop signal
or
Derail or switch lined improperly
When a train or engine is required to move at restricted speed, the crew must keep a lookout for broken rail and not exceed 20 MPH.
Comply with these requirements until the leading wheels reach a point where movement at restricted speed is no longer required."
It only applies when a train is required to run at restricted speed, as when running on a restricting signal or in yard limits.
A train may not exceed 20 mph under these circumstances, and any engineer running a big train would certainly be going slower. An engineer running the 500 car NS train (over 4 miles long) would not be going faster than 5 mph at restricted speed. IMHO, train size is not such a big factor in stopping distance at this slow of a speed.
In any case, to answer the original question, there is NO FRA limit on train size.
Electromotive was a division of General Motors from 1930 until April 4, 2005. 75 years, which included the 1960s time frame that the SD45, and variants was built.
Sorry, Engineer, my mistake. For some reason I read it as GE and not GM.
I figured as much. But I still see it as an opportunity to educate some who maybe thought that GM only built cars.
Oh, no, not just cars...
I once worked on an airplane engine, R2600 I think it was (but it might have been an R3350), that had a Chevrolet "bowtie" on the data plate.
In the National Guard, I was issued an M-1 Garand that had been built by General Motors.
IIRC, GM built B-17's, too.
I have changed cylinders on the engine of a SW-1200 locomotive built by GM/EMD.
Yep, GM built LOTS of different things.
Including the M-211 6X6 truck, which was nothing to brag about!
I have a love/hate relationship with the RR, when they block me in or out of my property for hours at a time…I hate them, when they clear my drive I love them. After 10 years of watching them, it still blows my mind thinking about all that power and weigh rolling down the tracks….pretty cool stuff.
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