NOw THAT's a train!

Woodie

Active Member
Iron ore train breaks record for length.

PERTH, June 22 AAP - It took 10 hours and four minutes, but the longest and heaviest train in the world won a world record for BHP
when it pulled into Port Hedland after a 275km journey.
But the 7.353km long train did not go without a hitch on its journey as eight AC 6000 engines and 682 iron ore cars carried about 82,000 metric tonnes net between Port Newman and Port Hedland yesterday.
BHP Iron Ore spokesman John Crowley said the train's run was halted for four hours and 40 minutes when two couplers broke between carriages and had to be replaced.
Mr Crowley said the successful record run was set up to test the train's capacity using new engines.
BHP operates nine trains a day, usually with a load of about 224 cars carrying more than 26,000 tonnes of iron ore.

For the "unmetricated" thats 4.56 miles long and 95,000 tons on a journey of 170 miles.

For the "mathematically" minded, how long is that in each scale????

I'll try and find a pic.

TOOT!
 

Pitchwife

Dreamer
Don't know about N, but in HO it works out to 276' 8&15/16" or 553' 5&7/8" in O.

Now to find scale engines that will pull it.
wink.gif
 

roryglasgow

Active Member
I believe that's 150.48 feet in N scale. It would be kinda neat to see if it could be done with models...providing that we could find a layout with a mainline that's long enough!

-Rory
 
W

wt&c

I wonder if CSX tried to see if they could haul half that much? Yesterday evening I saw 4 CSX AC uits (122,456,424,&,227)pulling 185 loaded 100 ton 50' hopper cars with West Virginia's finest. heck that's 18,500 tons of coal, to BHP's 95,000 tons, it'll take 950 of the hoppers here to match that load. (then again Iron Ore is heavier than coal)

[This message has been edited by wt&c (edited 06-25-2001).]

[This message has been edited by wt&c (edited 06-25-2001).]
 

Woodie

Active Member
Should point out that this was achieved in the Pilbarra of Western Australia. Up north, Kimberly area, if you look at an atlas. There is nothing there, just flat scrub, so they have no hills or anything to contend with. Maybe a few curves, that's about all!

TOOT!
 
We run very long ore trains here in South Africa All my books are packed so I do not have details but have seen one train 13 miles in length. Shishen to Saldana Line. But think on this..Starting those trains rolling is not too difficult if you have enough Motive power but Stopping it is alltogether another matter
 
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