The Anonymous Widower

The Heaviest Freight Train Running In The UK

This is a paragraph from an article on Railway Gazette, which is entitled World Rail Freight News Round-Up.

Genesee & Wyoming subsidiary Freightliner has successfully operated a 4 624 tonne ‘jumbo train’ of aggregates from Merehead in Somerset to Acton in London, which it described as ‘the heaviest freight train currently running in the UK’. This was a trial run ahead of Freightliner taking over the haulage contract for the Mendip Rail joint venture of Hanson UK and Aggregate Industries. As the contract envisages the movement of 8 million tonnes/year, G&W’s Bulk Commercial Director for the UK/Europe Region, David Israel said ‘it was crucial that we tested the maximum haulage capability using one of our powerful Class 70 locomotives’

That is some train for the UK!

A few figures and calculations.

• Compare the weight of 4,624 tonnes with that of a nine-car 125 mph Class 800 train, which is just 438 tonnes.
• Fully loaded with 90 Kg passengers a Class 800 train weighs 494 tonnes.
• The Class 70 locomotive that is mentioned in the paragraph has a power of 2,750 kW and a weight of 129 tonnes.
• Travelling at 125 mph, the full passenger train has an energy of 214 kWh.
• Travelling at 41 mph, the freight train has an energy of 215 kWh

The stone train at 41 mph has a similar kinetic energy to a Class 800 train at 125 mph.

August 5, 2019 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Class 70 Locomotive, Class 800 Train, Freight, Kinetic Energy