In June of 2018, my Dad and I took a trip to railfan Union Pacific's triple track mainline, known as the Kearney Subdivision. This route defies imagination, as it sees easily sees 80 to 100 trains per day! It is triple tracked between North Platte and Gibbon, Nebraska. The line features high speeds, tons of crossovers, and plenty of signals. There are no significant grades for trains to conquer, as it in the Nebraska plains, but the real challenge comes in train handling. The length of trains vary, but several are well over one and a half miles long! The length of these trains means that some of them have mid-train DPU's (remote helper locos). There were several times that I would watch as an intermodal train thundered by at 70 mph with three or four engines on the front and two in the middle. Dovetail has already created top-notch Union Pacific equipment for this route. Another feature that would make this route unique is the world's largest classification yard in North Platte: Bailey Yard. At 8 miles in length (you read that right, 8 MILES), it is far too big to be featured in the route, but a portion of the east departure yards could be modeled. The Kearney Sub is world famous route and would be a fantastic route to have in TSW. Having railfanned it, let me give a piece of advice: if can ever go, GO! It is the definition of big-time US railroading and the heartbeat of the US rail network.
100 trains a day will definitely not defy anybody's imagination outside the Americas. That's three to four per hour on average. Here in Europe we call that Off-Peak service 70 mph, high speed? lol. 1.5 mile long trains, that is indeed impressive though.
U.S. trains are almost exclusively freight and when you are talking about the length, it surely is impressive. Totally tonnage of freight is almost unimaginable. Yes, outside of the US, passenger is usually the predominate traffic, but most of the traffic are of what would be considered short consist. Both areas are interesting to me as a railroad enthusiast. Trying to start and stop a mile long freight is a challenge, just as trying to keep to a tight schedule with frequent stops.
Yes, I always say, both US and Euro rails are good at what they are designed to do: Euro trains are good at being trains, while US trains are good at being container ships that don't need water - slow, but cheap and effecient and enormous carrying capacity.
Wow. I really need to go across the pond. What are the most impressive trains in Europe in your opinion?
Hard to say actually. Impressive is a broad term. The engineering of bridges and tunnels along the lines through the Alps is impressive, but so is the extensive French high speed network. Or the clockwork operation of the Swiss railways which is virtually never delayed, hardly even a minute. Or the winter-hardened railways in Scandinavia. The downright excessive amount of traffic on some Biritish lines. Or, also in Britain, the sheer number of train operating companies that work each different sector of the network from Southern to Scotrail. Or how the Dutch run their entire (electrified) network atvoltages one would rather associate with trams or subways rather thatn ICEs and freight trains. But if I had to choose one particular country, it would probably be Germany. Not because I live here, but because of all of the above, we have at least a bit here. Apart from Swiss puncuality perhaps.
It sounds nice but honestly wouldn't run well at all.With that being said if your on the PC and you have CSX Heavy Haul then you understand,Cumberland yard only has about 40 some tracks across with little to know freight cars in the yard and you get upper 30s for frames per second now your talking about North Platte Nebraskas rail yard which is like 200 tracks across fps would be like 3fps with No freight cars yeah.Don't see it happening Honestly
