International Railroad Discussion > rack railways and freight

Good afternoon,

Being fully aware of the Brazilian iron ore traffic being moved down hill
into the port of Sao Paulo, I was wondering how many, if any other
rack railways are moving freight in daily operations??
( I have not contacted the Stadler folks to ask this question)

I love those new centercab electric pantograph Stadlers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In my opinion they only need 2 more axles- (2 three-axle trucks)
or if I really start dreaming-4 three axle trucks on each unit being 48 axles on
four locomotives for electrified mountain crossings.

Oh to dream of it anyway with 34,500 AC 60-cycle power stepped down to 13,800
stepped down to 6,000 volts with regenerative braking with four Stadlers
two on the head end and two pushers on a 100-115 car consist.

It certainly makes one(me) want to invest in small machine tools and build 4 G-scale units
with 24 axles and a big sand mountain pile with two sets of switchbacks with a mountain crossing cut
through the spine of the sand and gravel mountain I would create to prove it would work. 

 Fixed my typo, whoopsie!



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 11/06/15 20:43 by leonz.

No, that's all there is. Everything else has been abandoned, deviated or it's only passenger trains now. I understand there are some underground applications of rack rail technology in mining and construction, but they're either temporary or impossible to access for the interested observer. 

The Matterhorn-Gotthardbahn still has a few freight trains on cog wheel:

http://www.bahnbilder.de/bild/Schweiz~Privatbahnen~Sonstige/118062/eine-lok-der-matterhorn-gotthard-bahn-mit-einem.html

Please someone provide a photo of these 'rack electrics' and are they really taking 100-115 car trains down the incline? I have a Revelation video about 10 years old and the rack trains shown there were very short-6 to ten cars I think. Google shows long trains in Sao Paulo yards; is there another route for them? It also shows a long winding railroad climbing the bluffs to the wes/south of the rack line. I have to research. but think this may be a different gauge.

Thing of beauty isn't it? Definitely drool worthy I think.

The way the MRS logistica ore trains and empties are set up is that they have a locomotive on
each end of the ore train consists of loads and empties returning to the mines.

This is one of the four of the original order from Stadler to MRS logisitica
that replaced the old rack drive narrow guage locomotives on the route.
I believe they have 6 Stadler units in the MRS stable now.
There are some videos on youtube, of one of the units on level ground on a narrow guage
main line without the ABT Lamella 3 rack drive. 

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Yes MGB still runs rack freights in Switzerland, not many, but they are there.
Nick

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