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Re: [OM] OT for train lovers

Subject: Re: [OM] OT for train lovers
From: Ken Norton <ken@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2009 11:51:26 -0600
150 Locomotives?

That's only 30 5-engine trains, 21 7-engine trains, or 17 9-engine trains.
For a rail system as large as the U.P., that's really nothing.

Also, a very large number of those engines are pretty old and inefficient. I
know that the Iowa Interstate RR has been upgrading to brand new GE ES44AC
units. They are so much more powerful and efficient than their old rebuilts
that they've been able to reduce engine count by half to two-thirds.  I see
ONE engine pulling a string that they had three engines tugging before.
Their long strings were usually nine-engined setups, now three engines tops.

The U.P. has a major east-west dual-track running a couple blocks away from
my wife's church.  The average interval is 15 minutes between trains day and
night.  These are predominantly 9-engine trains--and that's with no
mountains, just 180-220 car trains.  But their speed is also pretty high.
They slow down to 50mph coming through town.  In the open, they're flat-out
hauling.  An acquaintance is an engineer for BNSF and he does a dayly
high-speed run across the state and back (priority traffic) and he matches
the speed of the Amtrack that also runs on the same rails.  But he said that
there are only two (one from Omaha, the other from Burlington) that do that,
the rest have to hit the sidings to let them through.  He said that he
AVERAGES 80mph across the entire state.  He admitted that seniority had it's
benefits.

AG
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