Train Question

Nightcleaner

Super Member
There is a question I would love to ask a Train engineer. (In the USA) Your freight trains are a mile long. How do the engineers know where the end of the train is in regard of the end of the Train clearing a speed restriction? For example do they use the Mile posts?


Thanks in advance for any replies
 
they do know how long they are and yes the mileposts. used to be so many poles = something, but them days is gone

and only a mile long? since the advent of the really big 2 for 3 loco subs with AC power they are over a mile and with todays distributed mid train r/c power, 2-3 miles is not uncommon in huge areas like out west

(I am not a train engineer except on my own layout, but I do have a few thousand issues of trains, railfan, classic trains etc mags in the store...1940's to appx 2010. $1 each!)
 
There is probably a dispacer that gives the right to pass for the trains.
Here is an old film (ha, I do like old U.S.A. passanger trains and since there is a lot of info about them on the internet is easyer to find out stuff about them then about trains from the old days my country!):

 
2 miles long wow imagination runs wild. So theoretically What your saying Quad-driver is it could be passing through two small towns at the Same time.

Must be a nuisance if your at a level crossing. Best to take sandwiches and a flask :)
 
There is probably a dispacer that gives the right to pass for the trains.
Here is an old film (ha, I do like old U.S.A. passanger trains and since there is a lot of info about them on the internet is easyer to find out stuff about them then about trains from the old days my country!):


Thanks for that: I love Train Cab-Ride Videos. I Download them then play them back on VLC player where i can control the speed of what I am watching. Your country has some amazing Tunnels. I was in one in real time for over 20 minutes. My favorites are the Swiss cab-rides. Such amazing scenery
 
They have many kinds of sensors along the track to detect train presence, hot boxes and speed. The engineer has all that on a heads up display in the newer locos.
 
I saw a train out west somewhere where tbe land was flat back in the 80's. There was a coal train running parallel to the freeway. It was about 2 miles long and had 3 engines in front and 2 at the rear. It was obviously heading for the mountains
 
Don't some of you guys live in a beautiful place. Begs the question Why would any American need a passport. You have everything you could ever want there and a lifetime to see it. Such a beautiful place

See what you mean about Long Trains


18m 10 see if you can spot the camera Drone
 
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Don't some of you guys live in a beautiful place. Begs the question Why would any American need a passport. You have everything you could ever want there and a lifetime to see it. Such a beautiful place

I agree that the USA has a lot of interesting and beautiful places to go to. I've been to a lot of them but there's a lot more to go. I'd like to take a trip across the big pond because there are places there that I'd like to go to but I probably never will. The only time I've been out of the US is a couple times to Canada.

Why would any American need a passport? That's an easy one to answer. To be able to go through Canada so you can get to Alaska. ;)
 
I-40 out of kingman AZ heading west..once you descend a double S curve out of kingman, if your car is aligned, you can remove the steering wheel to just about into needles CA. the tracks are on your left and you can see so far, you will see 3-4 trains separated by the proper number of blocks, each well over a mile long. all at once. look up tehachapi as well, there is/was an alignment where the train would cross over itself....
 
My favorite run is the California Zephyr rolling thru the Donner Pass ... sitting in the diner car, munching on prime rib, thinking about those starving pioneers back in the bad old days ... (sigh)<urp!>

And in answer to the OP's question, all sorts of new fangled measurement devices to basically drive the train for you, and mile markers (as well as knowing the exact position and length of the train at all times) as a last resort ...
 
My favorite run is the California Zephyr rolling thru the Donner Pass ... sitting in the diner car, munching on prime rib, thinking about those starving pioneers back in the bad old days ... (sigh)<urp!>

And in answer to the OP's question, all sorts of new fangled measurement devices to basically drive the train for you, and mile markers (as well as knowing the exact position and length of the train at all times) as a last resort ...



I-40 out of kingman AZ heading west..once you descend a double S curve out of kingman, if your car is aligned, you can remove the steering wheel to just about into needles CA. the tracks are on your left and you can see so far, you will see 3-4 trains separated by the proper number of blocks, each well over a mile long. all at once. look up tehachapi as well, there is/was an alignment where the train would cross over itself....


Thanks you guys for all this.. So looking at your present location, Do you go here ever is it impressive


Horseshoe Curve - Altoona. PA
 
yes I have been to the 'curve' but not in decades, now, we are not allowed to approach the properties after 9/11. there is a strict cordoned off area at the curve but you cant get good shots, you really need to be up on the hills. equally fun is/was bennington (bennys curve) which was the site of the wreck of the red arrow in 47. there was a small cliff/hillside with great shots but the NS police watch that as well.
 
Having worked on an actual Class I railroad being able to run trains ,having both a Lionel and HO layout here at the house ,and being a life long audiophile has fulfilled my widest dreams I had as a boy.
I had the opportunity to run yard power like EMD switchers,GP7,9and GP15-1's,a few F7 (covered wagons before they scrapped them all ) and all sorts of road power right up to GE dash 8's and EMD 4 and 6 axle units.
On the railroad those of us who were also railfans had to keep that quiet because they frowned upon those who actually loved their job!

Bob
 
My favorite run had to be as a guest conductor on the Michigan leg of the Chessie Steam Special ... that was a real hoot, sticking your head out the window and catching a face full of cinders - while trying to keep the passengers from doing the same!

TT04.jpg


Still got the uniform, but it seems to have shrunk some over time ... <G>
 
Skizo Hi ! Was that 1977? check the video, Question when the steam trains there were in their hayday there. Did They start a lot of Lineside fires, Who put them out or was that not an issue there? Do you know what people here have great nostalgia for them. But for me growing up as a boy in the early 60's i saw them being phased out. They were never clean. they were in a awful state. When you go to these preservation lines. there beautifully clean. I personally do not remember them that way. Any one any thoughts on that.

 
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It's a mortal sin that "N.Y. Central" didn't preserved any Hudson locomotive. That should have had preserved 3: one classic, one streamline Dreyfuss and "Commodore Vanderbilt". The fact that they dindn't preserved one (1) from 250 means that theyr minds where really alterated by hunger.
 

I-40 out of kingman AZ heading west..once you descend a double S curve out of kingman, if your car is aligned, you can remove the steering wheel to just about into needles CA. the tracks are on your left and you can see so far, you will see 3-4 trains separated by the proper number of blocks, each well over a mile long. all at once. look up tehachapi as well, there is/was an alignment where the train would cross over itself....

I know that curve! Just a short ride from my house...

I used to do the floors for Walgreen's in Kingman, Bullhead City and Lake Havasu City. I would drive home at 2 or 3 AM along I-40 and watch the trains go by, seeing if I could pass them or keep pace with them if they were fast freights. And when coming down union pass on Highway 68 you can see the lower end of Detrital Valley to the north and Sacramento Valley to the south. You can sometimes count 3 or 4 trains coming up from Needles.
 
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