Giant trains are 7 km long. What is known about them? (5 photos)

Imagine that you are at a railway crossing, and the carriages of a giant train are running before your eyes. A total of 660 carriages. The length of the train is 7.5 m. How long will you wait at the crossing? No less than half an hour. And even more.





Giant train in Canada

Record-breaking trains operate in four countries around the world - Canada, Brazil, South Africa and Australia. But we can remember the train on the Ekibastuz-Tselinograd route, which in 1986 transported ore over a distance of about 300 km. The train consisted of 440 cars, the length of the train was 6.5 km.

But this is history, and this is what giant trains look like in our time.

Australia

Australia has held records for the longest trains for many years. Thus, the BHP ore train consists of 682 wagons. The length of the train is 7.3 km. Load capacity – 82,000 tons. To make it clear whether this is a lot or a little, the weight of the ore that this train transports is equal to the weight of 24 Eiffel towers.



The longest passenger train in the world - "Ghan" in Australia

As for the length of passenger trains, here too Australia is in first place. The Gan train consists of 44 cars and is 1.3 km long. It runs on the route Adelaide - Darwin, the journey takes three days.

Canada





Double-decker container train in Canada

Canadian National Railway uses double-stack container trains to transport freight. The average length of trains carrying bulk cargo is 3 km; for trains carrying other types of cargo, the permitted length is from 3.7 to 4.2 km.

South Africa



The giant train in South Africa is pulled by 5 electric locomotives

In South Africa I use trains that are 3.2 km long. And also mainly for transporting ore. The train consists on average of 342 cars, which are pulled by 5 electric locomotives. Moreover, 2 electric locomotives are located in the middle of the train. The length of the route is 841 kilometers.

Brazil



Loading ore on a giant train in Brazil

In Brazil, ultra-long trains are used to transport timber and iron ore. The average train length is 3.2 km, the distance is 900 km, and the train consists of about 330 cars.

What about other countries?

China was not included in the list because the longest trains there are “only” 220 cars long, and the USA, where train length is legally limited to 180 cars. Long trains are not used due to the large number of settlements. Well, imagine a train that stretches across 2-3 cities at once? Therefore, a passenger train can have no more than 22 cars, and a freight train can have no more than 110 cars.