International I Hate Sports Club

The USA may have been the first country on this planet to build railroads.

But now, when it comes to really long trains, Australia has us beat.

Please watch the following YouTube video, and comment!

Longest train officially in the world
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LsuNWjRaAo
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Uploaded by vernbale on Feb 24, 2008

Australian BHP Iron ore train, the longest train to ever run in the world, this train is officially in the Guinness book of world records for the longest train.

The record was set on June 21, 2001 in Western Australia between Newman and Port Headland, a distance of 275km (170 miles) and the train consisted of 682 loaded iron ore wagons and 8 GE AC6000 locomotives giving a gross weight of almost 100,000 tonnes and moved 82,262 tonnes of ore, the train was 7.353 km (4.568 miles) long.

BHP iron ore did this to test locotrol which is where locomotives are evenly placed along the length of the train.

The locotrol setup was 2 locos-166 wagons, 2 locos-168 wagons, 2 locos-168 wagons, 1 loco-180 wagons then the last locomotive on the back.

This very long train is controlled by only one driver.

Certainly makes an awesome sight, enjoy!
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The video lasts about 8 minutes.

Watching it is almost hypnotic!

Rofl I can't help but think what it would be like for someone to wait for that Train to finish so they can cross.

Indurrago wrote:Rofl I can't help but think what it would be like for someone to wait for that Train to finish so they can cross.

HEY Indurrago!

Long time, no see! Good to see ya again!

Well, I love watching trains going by, so I guess I wouldn't mind being in my car (if I had a car) at a railroad crossing waiting about 8 minutes for that train to go by.

To me, it would be a special treat, and arriving at my destination a few minutes late would be worth it.

I love trains.

When ever I take a bus to go to my favorite Walmart, I always take the express rout which goes past the railroad yards, hoping to see lots of trains on the way.

Trains are beautiful and truly awesome!

To me, even rundown old railroad yards are beautiful.

I was born in Minnesota, and lived in a small railroad town. There was a track running past my back yard in the neighborhood where I lived, and for a small town, it had a fairly large railroad yard.

I hated that town where I lived because of the crummy schools, and the bullies I had to put up with in my neighborhood.

But I enjoyed riding my bicycle to the railroad yard just to watch the trains, and I even made friends with some of the men working there.

One elderly gentlemen, a huge fat man in his late 60s or early 70s once invited me up into his office up in a tower so I could get a better view of the railroad yard. I was about 10 years old at the time.

We climbed the stairs up to his office, which was elevated about 50 feet above the railroad yard.

He showed me the control panels that were used to work the switches on the tracks to switch the trains from one rout to another. On his desk was a telegraph key, and there were panels on the walls with flashing lights on them. It was quite a setup.

So, I use to hang around the railroad yards just to get away from my neighborhood.

The longest train I ever saw was one of those iron ore trains that came down from Northern Minnesota past my town. It had 5 locomotives, 350 gondolas hauling iron ore, and 2 cabooses.

I tore through the railroad yard at 90 miles per hour, non stop!

So, that particular train was about half as long as the one in the YouTube video.