Lengths of trains, and how long it takes to clear a crossing

ok...the other day i sat for a good 15 minutes trying to get across the grade at dock rd. in marlboro,ny to my marina. how long are these trains on average! holy crap man!

they vary from train to train, some trains can just be an engine or they can be a half mile long, a rail train last week in Mass. was a half mile long, and i have seen freight trains 60 cars long, take 10 minutes to go through a grade crossing

MBTA F40PH-2C 1050 wrote:they vary from train to train, some trains can just be an engine or they can be a half mile long, a rail train last week in Mass. was a half mile long, and i have seen freight trains 60 cars long, take 10 minutes to go through a grade crossing

Most freight trains are well over a half mile long, some of them are
around two miles or maybe a little more. I am talking seven years ago,
they haven't gotten any shorter.
Noel Weaver

Moderator's note:

I changed the title for better clarification. Hope no one is offended.

Thanks,
Charlie

It's been my expeirence since working for CSX that most average frieghts in NY can be between 6000 to 12,000 ft long. Speed restrictions of 10 mph which can be put up due to track conditions. An 8,000 ft train can take 9 minutes to clear a crossing.

Also some trains are short on power for some territories (i.e. ckimbing the Berkshires with 9000 tons and only 2 or 3 engines).

Speed restrictions of 10 mph which can be put up due to track conditions. An 8,000 ft train can take 9 minutes to clear a crossing.

At what speed? 10?

I know that a 34 car freight trains (like the ones I see at Braintree thru Middleboro, those clear in two minutes, at speeds of 35-39 mph, but 200 cars could take up to 15 minutes!

The trains can be half a mile to more than a mile long? It's amazing how one engine can pull so much metal and so many cars. Wow. I learned something new.

Not one unit usually...MU'ed (multiple unit) locomotives.

ALthough, when I lived in Jacksonville, I remember that CSXT and the FEC would think nothing of dragging 70 or 80 car transfer drags through town behind a single MP-15 or GP-9.

If you have a scanner, you can listen to the trackside detectors on the road frequency of 160.980 MHz. They give an axle count. There in Marlboro, you can hear the Roseton for northbounds and Hercules for southbounds. It will among other things give an axle count. Now depending on the consist, there will be various car lengths. But if you multiply the axle count by 10 and 20, you will have a rough range in feet of the train's length. For example if the detector says "axle count 404", the length is somewhere between 4040 and 8080 feet in length. If the train consists of all well cars, then it might even be longer than that.

WebInfo wrote:
Down in PA, WVA, and OH, it is also common place to see 18,000 - 20,000 ton coal trains powered by only 2 of their big "Heavyweight" AC4400s.

I might be wrong but ive never saw any non-DP coal train over 14 thousand tons. Even with DP about 110 cars is about the limit i think. Maybe CSX does, but i really doubt it.

I like when they run the Coal trains on the River, 12 - 13k tons with only two AC4400's. It's absolutely amazing how much those AC44's will pull. Coming out of Selkirk it usually takes a while (Catskill) to get up to track speed (50).

UPRR engineer wrote:

WebInfo wrote:
Down in PA, WVA, and OH, it is also common place to see 18,000 - 20,000 ton coal trains powered by only 2 of their big "Heavyweight" AC4400s.

I might be wrong but ive never saw any non-DP coal train over 14 thousand tons. Even with DP about 110 cars is about the limit i think. Maybe CSX does, but i really doubt it.

14,000 tons, why that is a light weight train on CSX!

Don't doubt it. CSX runs 18,000 ton trains all the time. And they don't use DP either.

n2xjk wrote:If you have a scanner, you can listen to the trackside detectors on the road frequency of 160.980 MHz. They give an axle count.

I'll try to listen. I live about five miles from the nearest rail track.

There are different freq's for different lines.

http://railfanswelcome.com/Railscan.htm <-----Check here