Eastern Railroad Discussion > NS 257: Johnstown to Elkhart at 35 mph avg in snow - 1/5 - 1/6/25

At 1705 EST Sunday 1/5/25, NS N&W Heritage unit #8103, leads IM train 257-05 (Harrisburg to UP Global 2 at Chicago) past the live cam at the Johnstown PA  Amtrak station.

And at 0514 EST Monday 1/6/25, 257-05 passes the Elkhart Live Cam. That's 12 and a quarter hours to run approximately 420 miles for an average speed of 35 mph which, according to the NS Train Symbol descriptions at railroadfan.com/wiki, includes a stop at Pitcairn PA.

Seems pretty quick for an container train that doesn't handle priority shippers like FedEx, Amazon, or UPS.

---

---

That's seems like a pretty good average speed when you factor in stops and of course, areas where they run are lower speeds.

You have to remember that trucks will not average speeds of 70mph over long distances either. They have to stop for fuel and food and of course on long runs, they have to stop and sleep.

Posted from Android