Check out this monster train. I think there are eight engines and 298 cars. Maybe it's nine engines and 300 cars. I'm not sure. Count them yourself.
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I have a Union Pacific main line within a quarter mile of my house. Twice in the past week I have seen "double trains". They have consisted of about two or three engines on the front, then about 90 cars, then two more engines, then another 90 or so cars, then one or two engines on the rear. Fortunately, both have been rolling right along at high speed. Imagine getting stuck at a crossing when one is creeping by.
Wow! It is unbelievable for me.
I have "VlÌÁrska drÌÁha" train line about 1 kilometer from my home and this is the biggest train, which I can see.
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That's massive.
Interesting - counting sheep!
In town you'd complain bitterly if sheep were baaing all night and you'd probably taken matters in hand.
However trains rumbling past would not cause you to stir in your slumber.
Opposite in country. Cows, plovers, sheep, tractors anything agricultural.
Take a country bloke into town and those wretched contraptions on iron wheels would drive you bonkers at night.
Best we can do here in our neck of the woods is this
Many years ago when Missouri Pacific (MoPac) and Southern Pacific merged to form Union Pacific (I call them UnPac), one or some of their bean counters convinced those in charge that if they reduced the number of engines on any given train by one, they would improve their "return on investment". The little town I live in has all northbound trains except for the local and is at the top of a 230 foot rise in elevation from the creek bottom 5 miles south of town and a long curve in the north half of town..
One day a train coming thru stalled blocking every crossing except the farthest north crossing. The engines were dumping sand at the wheels but it was not enough to keep traction. The local police told them they had to do something so they disconnected the back half of the train, pulled up far enough to put a bunch of cars on the side track, and finally got going again. The engineer told the Chief they had already dropped some cars in Spring because they couldn't pull them.
After that, all the long trains had 3 engines again.
JaRo,
Call me a geezer but I can remember when I was too young to go to school that breaking the train in half was a fairly common occurrence on the track near my house. Similar problem as what you describe but it was only something like 70 feet of rise in a bit more than a mile. There is a side track at the top of the hill. They would stop, break off the back half, pull the front half onto the side track, go back to get the back half, go past the side track, then back up to reconnect, thus making the front half of the new set of cars what had been the back half of the original set of cars.
Can I just say that I love trains?
The shack here in Norman is less than 2500' from the BN&SF RR Co.'s N-S mainline. Although not entirely owned by the BNSF, this track can be traced from the Arctic Circle to the Gulf of Mexico (and yes, they are generally ALL wheat cars at certain times of the year). The average number of trains per 24 hour period is almost thirty. Four and five engine trains are not uncommon. When I get caught at the crossing sometimes I count cars (it gives me vertigo) for a buzz. 50 cars is an average one, I have counted over 80. There are two 1 mile long sidings, one at the north end of town and the other south, I believe.
The Heartland Flyer leaves the Norman depot at 9:05 AM every morning, headed for DFW. It comes back and makes a whistle stop at 9:35 PM. It's whistle is so distinct I can tell it from the passing freights.
Norman is on a hill, downhill both ways. Southbound freights really strain to make it up the hill...if the wind is out of the east I can tell when they've almost made it over the hill...you can hear the coupling hands smash the car in front as the weight of the rear of the train starts pushing, instead of getting pulled.
Trains are cool. I can't sleep at night sometimes UNTIL I hear a train....
I have lived within earshot of the railroad pretty much all of my life. There is something very soothing and comforting about the sound of the horn and the rumble of the rails.
