What are cool facts about trains?

Question

What are cool facts about trains?

Answer 1

A train can move a ton of freight 220 miles on a gallon of fuel.

Answer 2

They are the next best thing to flying, no struggling to the airport, long check ins,no seat belts,and you can move about freely.EUROSTAR IS PROVING THE CASE,Kings x to Brussells

Answer 3

The Diesel Locomotives are hybrids.

They have been a hybrid since the 1930's.

Huh???

They are powered by a 12 or 16 Cylinder Diesel Engine that is coupled to either an Alternator, (like your car just bigger), or a DC Generator.  

The power is then sent into a large bank of batteries which perfrom two functions.  The first is storage of electricity, but the batteries aldo provide an electrical buffer in the system so the power generated has a clean and consistant voltage.

The batteries also provide additional power backup should the extra load draw ever be needed.

Bob, correct me if I am wrong, but I think the Locomotives currently produce 4400 Horses @ 660 V.A.C., (Voltage Alternating Current).

Union Pacific Railroad uses as much Diesel Fuel as the entire US Navy.  At least that is what I was told.

And... Union Pacific Railroad is now the largest Transportation & Logisitcs Company in the US.

As for my club,

Well, we operate trains every weekend on the last true remaining section of the Transcontinental Railroad in California.

Check us out at:

www.ncry.org

Answer 4

The train I work on is all electric it has a 50,000 volt transformer which is powered by an overhead line. we have three loco's each one has six (1000 hp) DC motors. when going down hill or stopping there is a main air brake system for the rail cars and an Independent air brake system on the loco's and there is dynamic as well ( the motor's act as big generator's that help slow down the train) So you have to use each of the systems at the right time.

Answer 5

Most of the answers above are totally correct, the coolest thing about trains is their efficiency.

There is nothing, absolutely nothing that can move people and the things people need on land as efficiently and cleanly as trains. They are the most efficient land based transportation on the surface of the earth.

Here is a cool fact: trains are extremely high performance, a well powered average train can get from 0 to 60 in it's own length, and come from 60 MPH to a full stop in it's own length also.  

There is not a high performance car in the world that can claim that.

Another cool fact: most railroaders are way cool people :=)

But hybrids??

Hybrid as applied to automotive terminology, where the vehicle is driven by battery power supplemented by a small gasoline engineis not in any way related to the propulsion system used in modern diesel electric locomotives.

The batteries do not provide tractive effort in any locomotive I have been in in over 35 years of railroading, (with the possible exception of the spotter circuit but that is a very very limited application.)

Power from the main generator does not go into any batteries, directly to the traction motors. There is a much smaller auxiliary generator for charging batteries and providing control voltage, but none of that goes to the traction motors for propulsion.

There are some prototypes out there now but nothing in real every day use.

They are diesel/electric but the propulsion is strictly electric generated by a diesel engine, nothing hybrid about that as equates to current terminology of hybrid cars.

Answer 6

They're just more fun to ride around in than a car because you don't have to worry about all that driving, and you get to see lots of pretty scenery. That's just my own little opinion on the subject.

Answer 7

Trains usually have four braking systems available, with one propulsion system.  That is because it is much harder to stop than to get moving.  If the retarding effort available could be transformed into propulsive force, there is enough to put that train into orbit.

An empty car will stop in 1/3 the distance of a load.

An average freight train weighs between 10,000 and 12,000 or more tons, with “unit” trains moving one commodity, such as coal or grain, tipping the scale around 16,000 tons.  These figures do not include the weight of each locomotive, at around 200 tons each.

Even in full emergency, it can take a train a mile or more to stop.  This means if the engineer can see you, it is already too late to stop for you.

A single locomotive puts out enough electrical power to power your neighborhood (probably the adjoining one was well).

Railroads operated responsibly are much more eco-friendly than other forms of transportation, but as an additional plus, the roadbed needs much, much less room than a four lane highway, for fewer scars on the landscape.

Locomotives don’t always pull cars around.  They shove them around, too.  And under some circumstances, the cars are allowed to roll freely on their own.  So, a freight car can sneak up on you without you ever hearing it.

When the crossing gates begin to lower and the lights flash, you have no more than 15 seconds to get out of the way.  IF they are working at all.  They are not fail-safe, though most folks believe they are.  Never trust them.  You can, however, trust your ears and eyes.  Use them.

Locomotive whistles can get clogged and fail in snowy weather.  Don’t count on hearing one in a snow storm.

Where locomotive wheels make contact with the rail the total area is not much larger than a silver dollar.

Everything you used today was on a freight train at one point, in one form or another.  Ditto for the food you ate (fertilizers, feed grain for cattle, hogs, chickens and lamb, etc.).

If out and about and you see something that just doesn’t look right around the rails, tell someone.  It may be something very dangerous.  Or not.  Better to be safe than sorry.

In the length of time it took me to write this answer, it is very likely someone has been injured or killed somewhere around the country.  Amtrak delays are not always because of freight trains sharing the rails.  They hit a lot of vehicles and pedestrians.  It is extremely hard to gage the speed of a train by sight.

A good safety question.  Here’s a star.  Thanks for asking.

Answer 8

CSX Railroad makes the claim that they can move one ton of freight 420 miles on one gallon of fuel.

For an automobile to drive the way we expect it to, it must have around 70 horsepower, for a minimum. That would be a small car of about 2,500 pounds. Or we could say 70 horsepower per 1.25 tons. Due to the low resistance and friction of a steel wheel on a steel rail, a train can move one ton of freight with between 2.5 and 4 horsepower. It depends on hills and curves on the rail line.

Answer 9

they go choo choo!

Answer 10

Without trains, everything would cost so much to ship by truck, you really couldn't afford it. The cost to move 1 ton of freight 1 mile by train is less than $1. Try moving that same ton of freight by truck! Without trains, there would be no electricity. Highway bulk carriers couldn't keep up with the demand for coal. Trains take up less space to move more than any other means of transportation. Tracks can be used either direction.