Very interresting! I wasn't aware of this on the UK railroads. Is the purpose of this beeing to have longer trains (if yes, how many cars?), or only to save working time for coupling / decoupling operations and switching (sorry, in the UK you say "shunting", don't you?)? Dom
The coal trains which are hauled by the GM 66's have knuckle couplers throughout, but the ore trains have link couplers on the outer ends as they are too heavy for the GM's and are hauled by the more powerful class 60's which do not have automatic couplers. Both types are kept in sets, but the ore trains have rotary couplers so they can be unloaded without uncoupling on rotary unloaders at the steelworks (the cars are called ore tipplers). This is a distant shot, but shows the unloading ramp with a rake being unloaded (in the building).
U.S. vs Austrailian & European Trains Some thirty years ago I met two railfans from Australia. Both of them were in awe of the size of the trains here in the U.S. Trains with four or more locomotives and 100+ cars was something they had never seen before. Both said that most trains in Australia ran with one or sometimes two locomotives and just couldn't get over the size of our trains. It is routine to see unit trains of either grain or coal over 100 cars long with three locomotives up front and two pushing on the rear in DPU here on the west coast. There is a unit coal train that goes to a power plant near Chehalis Wn about twice a week and it is usually 116 cars long. Unit grain trains are the same going to ports with grain terminals.
Things must have changed since then, as now some of the absolute heaviest trains in the world run in Australia, for example on the Pilbara Railway. Test runs have been made with a 7-kilometer long and 107000-(one hundred and seven thousands)-ton iron ore train, with not far from 700 cars powered by 5 sets of two GE AC6000 units... Dom
Okay, the iron ore lines of the Pilbara area may have the world's largest trains, but I've seen many shots of 3-4 engine consists on the more normal Australian lines. I've never thought of Australia as being a place for small trains like Britain is.
The iron ore trains are in a very sparsely populated area of Australia; I doubt that many Australians have seen them. The 1067mm gauge coal trains in Queensland are sizeable. In NZ there is a steady change to standard AAR couplers to allow for heavier/longer trains but steep grades, a 20 tonne axle loading and a 3 m wide x 4 m high loading gauge provide limits to very heavy trains. It looks like the coal trains across the Southern Alps will soon be increased to 45 cars and that requires seven 3000 hp locomotives for the 11 km 3.3% tunnel.
My source was an article from "Trains Mag" a few year ago (before the advent of SD70ACe imported in Australia) which was speaking of AC6000s. But I don't remember if it was on the Pilbara Rwy or a neighbouring road whom I forgot the name that also hauls iron ore.... Dom
