4 ms·

Swiss firm claims longest passenger train record with 1.2-mile-long locomotive

28 points by _448 4y ago

lukasfischer 4y ago
This is awesome! Just saw that in Swiss News too. Here you can find some nice pictures of the event: https://images.swiss-image.ch/event/de/1/3866/group/instruct https://images.swiss-image.ch/event/de/1/3866/group/instruct...
atonse 4y ago
I’ve always wondered - does the first coupling in a train bear the energy to pull all of the rest of the cars? And each coupling behind has one car less energy on it? Or does it all somehow even out due to some effect named after some 19th century European scientist? :-) In which case, wouldn’t the strain on the first coupling be insane in this train?
- hanoz 4y ago
  I'm not sure about your terminology, and I'm probably not about to do much better, but yes the first coupling must bear the load of the full train, how could it be otherwise? In fact it's worse that that, the first cross section of atoms in the first coupling must bear the full load, but some atoms are pretty good at that sort of thing.
  - klyrs 4y ago
    > how could it be otherwise? In a push-pull configuration, couplings in the back of the train would experience compressive force https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Push%E2%80%93pull_train https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Push%E2%80%93pull_train
    - hanoz 4y ago
      Touché. Although I don't think that's quite what the questioner was getting at.
  - ThePowerOfFuet 4y ago
    >yes the first coupling must bear the load of the full train This is only the case with a standard locomotive arrangement. The trains involved here appear to be EMUs (electric multiple units), which have motors in most of the bogies (wheel assembles). Therefore, the lead car isn't pulling the whole thing. Even when trains aren't EMUs, often you have a "push-pull" arrangement, such as the French TGV which has a power car at each end.
- mbalyuzi 4y ago
  > In which case, wouldn’t the strain on the first coupling be insane in this train? In this instance, this was not the case. There was power distributed along the train as it was composed of many powered units coupled together.
- cl0ckt0wer 4y ago
  You sprinkle engines along the train https://gorail.org/infrastructure/nuts-bolts-why-is-there-an-engine-in-the-middle-of-that-train https://gorail.org/infrastructure/nuts-bolts-why-is-there-an...
- lukasfischer 4y ago
  I read somewhere they used 7 locomotives across the whole 2km train!

28 points by _448 4y ago

This is awesome! Just saw that in Swiss News too. Here you can find some nice pictures of the event: https://images.swiss-image.ch/event/de/1/3866/group/instruct https://images.swiss-image.ch/event/de/1/3866/group/instruct...

atonse 4y ago

I’ve always wondered - does the first coupling in a train bear the energy to pull all of the rest of the cars? And each coupling behind has one car less energy on it? Or does it all somehow even out due to some effect named after some 19th century European scientist? :-) In which case, wouldn’t the strain on the first coupling be insane in this train?

hanoz 4y ago
I'm not sure about your terminology, and I'm probably not about to do much better, but yes the first coupling must bear the load of the full train, how could it be otherwise? In fact it's worse that that, the first cross section of atoms in the first coupling must bear the full load, but some atoms are pretty good at that sort of thing.
- klyrs 4y ago
  > how could it be otherwise? In a push-pull configuration, couplings in the back of the train would experience compressive force https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Push%E2%80%93pull_train https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Push%E2%80%93pull_train
  - hanoz 4y ago
    Touché. Although I don't think that's quite what the questioner was getting at.
- ThePowerOfFuet 4y ago
  >yes the first coupling must bear the load of the full train This is only the case with a standard locomotive arrangement. The trains involved here appear to be EMUs (electric multiple units), which have motors in most of the bogies (wheel assembles). Therefore, the lead car isn't pulling the whole thing. Even when trains aren't EMUs, often you have a "push-pull" arrangement, such as the French TGV which has a power car at each end.
mbalyuzi 4y ago
> In which case, wouldn’t the strain on the first coupling be insane in this train? In this instance, this was not the case. There was power distributed along the train as it was composed of many powered units coupled together.
cl0ckt0wer 4y ago
You sprinkle engines along the train https://gorail.org/infrastructure/nuts-bolts-why-is-there-an-engine-in-the-middle-of-that-train https://gorail.org/infrastructure/nuts-bolts-why-is-there-an...
lukasfischer 4y ago
I read somewhere they used 7 locomotives across the whole 2km train!