# A Coal Train that's NOT a "Drag"!



## Tom Lapointe (Jan 2, 2008)

Recently we flew out to St. Louis, MO (my younger brother & his wife live there) to celebrate my parent's *60th wedding anniversary *







. We were actually going to Branson (got a rental car for the 4-hour drive down the following evening), but we stayed the 1st night at a hotel near the St. Louis airport; the next day, while the others were preparing for the drive down, I had a few hours *(not as many as I would've liked!*







*) *to visit the *"Museum of Transportation" *







(mostly *railroad-oriented, *but they also have rare autos, a C47 WWII-era transport plane, & even a *tugboat *







over there!). The backside of the museum is *directly adjacent to the former Missouri Pacific mainline *(now operated by UP) & sees somewhere between *30 ~ 43 trains a day! *







They even have an *elevated train-watching platform *







; while watching the museum staff work on a little Plymouth "critter" (the engine was running), I heard a train approach on the main; it turned out to be an *empty Union Pacific unit coal train, *heading back for another load; what surprised me was *the speed he was moving at!*


















Granted, the train appeared to be *empties, & heading on a slight downgrade - *but *WOW! *
















*Tom*


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## Robbie Hanson (Jan 4, 2008)

Sorry Tom...but that's on an up grade.

And it's five minutes from my house










That's about average speed through here--BNSF runs a bit slower, but they don't have a grade separation like most of the UP main does.


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## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

Looks like about 60 MPH.


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

13 cars in 10 seconds calculates out to about 47 MPH. I see them regularly doing about 75 or more (speed limit is 79!)


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## aceinspp (Jan 2, 2008)

Maximum speed is 50 for most coal trains loaded ior emty. You will never see one doing 75. Later RJD


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## San Juan (Jan 3, 2008)

Posted By Semper Vaporo on 18 Sep 2009 08:41 AM 
13 cars in 10 seconds calculates out to about 47 MPH. I see them regularly doing about 75 or more (speed limit is 79!) 
75! No way. 

I didn't think any freight trains were allowed to travel over 70mph max. 79 limit is passenger. If there was some form of automatic control, like ATS, Cab Signals, etc... then passenger trains can exceed 80mph. But freigts are limited to 70mph even in automatic control regions.

Here is a 70mph freight:

BNSF Fast Freight Video 


Here is Amtrak's Southwest Chief at 90mph! One of my favorite YouTube videos:


Southwest Chief at 90 






Tom,

Thanks for sharing the video. I've always wanted to go to the Museum of Transportation. They have a great collection.


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

I tried pacing a west bound freight today but the Sheriff's car in front of me was only doing 66 (in a 55 MPH zone!) and I could not keep up with the train. My speedometer registers about 4 MPH faster than I am actually going (based on my GPS receiver, which I did not have with me at the time) so I assume we were actually going about 62 MPH. The train was a mixture of various Double-Stack "well" cars in 1, 3, and 5 car sets and it was passing us at about one car per 3 seconds. The cars varied in size from holding only 1 40-ft container each (a few of the cars) to a full 53-foot container (most of the train) so the cars are actually over those measurements by some amount. But since I do not know the actual lengths of these cars I must guess at the speed; assuming an average length of 55-ft passing me in 3 seconds, I would add a speed of 55/3 =18ft/sec or an additional 12 MPH added to my estimated speed of 62 MPH = 74 MPH.

I am just glad the Sheriff didn't look down at his speedometer before I decided that slowing for the curve (where the RR and highway separate) was a good idea!

If it weren't for the fact that a Sheriff is often parked along this stretch of road with a radar gun it would be a good place to pace trains.


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## San Juan (Jan 3, 2008)

Those dang police always get in the way


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## aceinspp (Jan 2, 2008)

Well now you have change the name of the game. Now your talking regular freight and not coal trains. So make up your mined as to what trains you want to set up a speed for. When you go into inter model trains now they can operate at 70. Different trains different speeds. And I'll guarantee RR do not want to maintain there RR to a higher class of track than what they need to. Later RJD


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