I know US freight trains are slow, but recently I did a run on both Sherman Hill and Cajon Pass, and with banking set on and going full throttle, I won't get above 20 mph going uphill. That feels slow even for US freight. Is that realistic? I feel like I'm holding up traffic on the line, and it'd be more efficient to add 1 or 2 locos to make the journey a little faster.
Yes, it is. I set up an emulation of the old “Oil Cans” in Run 8 and climbing up from Bena to the summit at Tehachapi I was struggling to get over 15 MPH, even with 3 HP per ton for the power. I’m guessing hauling such huge loads on unit trains it’s shifting the bulk mass that counts rather than the time it takes, though guess intermodal traffic is faster and more time critical. The one that always gets me is on Sandpatch, where you get that long stretch with a 25 MPH limit even though not particularly steep or curvy. We really need a faster freight route in the mid West to provide a contrast to the plodding mountain ones.
Maximum continuous tractive effort for freight diesel locomotives is usually achieved at speeds of just 10-15 MPH. If your train can go faster in the worst possible conditions, then you have an excess of power, and lose money. Driving non-electrified freight much faster than that only makes sense, if your minimum power, minimum required speed, maximum length or weight of the train, etc are limited by other factors. Basically, if you have too little cargo to move, or if you need to deliver it quickly, or something like that. But if you just need to consistently move a lot of cargo for as little money as possible, you want to have just enough power to be able to climb the worst grade on the route at 15 MPH.
The average overall speed of US freight is about 20-25 mph. The goal of freight railroads is to get there rather than get there fast. However there are transcons which travel at much higher speeds to carry perishables and time- critical goods across country. I've driven on parallel freeways and watched freight trains pass me at 70 mph in Kansas, Nebraska and Southern Illinois, for example. In order to run fast freights, the Class Ones need to invest in better infrastructure, smoothing out the worst grades and curves, and commit more head-end power. This became more possible when the railroads were deregulated in 1980 and they had more freedom to charge higher rates to shippers.
Though it can catch you out on the downhills. My hope is still for a section of the old Missouri Pacific from St Louis to Kansas City, either the Sedalia or River Sub west of Jefferson City. One of my favourite of the old SIAM traffic simulations and I know from that there’s a nice mid up of hotshot freight, slower manifests, coal trains and Amtrak twice a day in each direction.
You're Dutch (as am I), and over here in Europe freight has to make way for passenger trains (except on the very few freight corridors of course). So our freight trains need to be short and fast to prevent them not getting in the way of other (prioritised) rail traffic. In the US, the freight operators have priority on the majority of routes, as they basically own those routes. So they can go as fast as they pretty well please, and then the way-of-thinking that vitmax and Crosstie mention quickly comes onto the table. The goal is to get there at the lowest possible cost. If that means going slow, but burn a lot less fuel or own (and maintain) fewer engines to operate the route, then that's what they'll do.
That' is often claimed, but not actually true. Amtrak by law has scheduling priority over freight. However, the vast majority of track-miles in the US see no passenger services at all. It's also somewhat misleading to look at DTG's choice of US routes as indicative- these are mostly famously tough grades. On the flat - and there is lots of flat here - freight trains roll at 60 to 79 mph. Customers do want their deliveries in a reasonably timely manner, and intermodal in particular runs to a schedule. But nobody is going to climb Cajon Pass with a 9000 ton train at that kind of speed without using 20 locomotives.
It should also be noted that American freight railroads have tended to focus on transporting goods that wouldn't be practical to transport by road, such as large amounts of oil or grain, and have generally been slowly losing intermodal and other traffic where road can compete to trucks.
