# WORLD | Freight Railway



## Manila-X (Jul 28, 2005)

One thing I noticed with North America especially The US, Canada and Mexico are their extensive freight rail networks. Its more common to see freight trains in the US compared to commuter ones especially in The West Coast and the Midwest.

Just wondering how bout in Europe, Asia, Oceana or South America? Are there any extensive freight networks? Any picture of freight trains used there?


----------



## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

Freight movement in East Asia is primarily export-oriented, which is heavily favoured to sea, which is why China has invested so much money on container ports in the Yangtze and Pearl River Deltas.


----------



## RawLee (Jul 9, 2007)

Railway density in EU

http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/area...ndex.php?template=3&radioindic=104&idDomain=9


----------



## Coccodrillo (Sep 30, 2005)

In Europe freight trains have to share tracks with passengers, with very few exceptions.

Anyone know the traffic, in tonnes, on one of the principal railways in the USA? And especially on mountain lines?

For comparison, each railway crossing the Alps carry about 10 to 17 millions tonnes of goods a year (without counting the weight of waggons and engines), less than their parallel highways. For example, throught the Brenner (Germany-Austria-Italy) there are about 45 millions tonnes per year, 10 via railway and 35 via road.


----------



## Caisson Boy (Jan 31, 2004)

*Freight Rail in Africa*

Transnet Freight Rail in South Africa accounts for 80% of freight by rail infrastructure in Africa... Here is a brief outline:

(formerly known as Spoornet) bases its core competency on the transportation of freight, containers and mainline passengers on rail.

Freight Rail is currently positioning itself to become a profitable and sustainable freight railway business, assisting in driving the competitiveness of the South African economy. It is made up of six businesses, namely:

- GFB Commercial
- COALlink
- Orex
- Luxrail
- Shosholoza Meyl
- Freight Rail International Joint Ventures

The company maintains an extensive rail network across South Africa that connects with other rail networks in the sub-Saharan region, with its rail infrastructure representing about 80% of Africa's total. The company is proud of its reputations for technological leadership beyond Africa as well as within Africa, where it is active in some 17 countries.
GFB Commercial

Known previously as General Freight Business, GFB Commercial is the largest of Freight Rail's business units, accounting for some 70% of its income and handling some 52% of its freight tonnage.

GFB Commercial manages the flow of material and information between suppliers and customers along sections of their supply chains. It strives to integrate the rail component of the supply chain with adjoining components in order to increase supply chain efficiency and reliability at the lowest-possible cost.
COALlink

Coal is a vital export commodity, generating billions of Rands in foreign exchange earnings for South Africa and rightfully deserving its pseudonym 'Black Gold'.

COALlink is a specialist business unit that provides world-class transport for South Africa's export coal from the Mpumalanga coalfields to the Richards Bay coal terminal. It is one of the world's most efficient bulk export logistic supply chains, and its steam-coal export tonnage is second only to Australia’s.
Orex

Orex is a Transnet Freight Rail specialist business unit dealing with the transport of iron ore over the 861km railway line from Sishen to Saldanha. Following the high demand for ore in the export markets, improvements to the line implemented since 1998 have resulted in the capacity of the Orex line being increased from 18 million tons a year to more than 22 million tons a year. A further expansion is now on the drawing board.

Rated in a recent benchmark study as 38% better than the next best-practice operator in its field, Orex is already achieving both its vision and its mission as an international leader in providing world-class, heavy-haul logistics solutions for a growing market.

Luxrail

Luxrail's primary focus is the operation of the world-famous Blue Train, which caters for a growing international tourist market. Some 250 000 travel agents, in 181 countries, voting for the World Travel Awards named the Blue Train the world's leading luxury train. Crossing South Africa's varied landscape along four routes, the train combines the comfort and luxury of a five-star hotel with unparalleled journeys. Luxrail also manages contracts with other luxury train operators using Freight Rail's infrastructure. These include Rovos Rail, which travels throughout Southern Africa and the Spier, which travels on the Western Cape wine routes.

Shosholoza Meyl

Previously known as Main Line Passenger Services, Shosholoza Meyl provides affordable inter-city passenger rail services to and from South African destinations including Johannesburg, Durban, Makhado, Polokwane, KomatiePoort, East London, Port Elizabeth, Bloemfontein, Kimberley and Cape Town.

Services also connect with other Southern African destinations in Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Swaziland.

Approximately four million passengers a year use Shosholoza Meyl services.
Freight Rail International Joint Ventures

Freight Rail plans to be a global leader in operations on the 1000 mm and 1067 mm (narrow gauge) rail networks of the world, especially in Africa.

Through its railway operations, Freight Rail hopes to become a significant global player in the provision of freight logistics solutions to its customers on the African continent and beyond. The International Joint Ventures (IJV) business is Freight Rail's vehicle for achieving this and other objectives outside the company's normal areas of activity. IJV is responsible for all Freight Rail activities outside South Africa as well as for all non-core activities and joint ventures within South Africa.


----------



## Caisson Boy (Jan 31, 2004)

*Freight Network in South Africa*

This is by road, 










This is by rail:


----------



## elfabyanos (Jun 18, 2006)

As Coccodrillo said above Freight shares tracks normally with passenger traffic. There are quite a few sections of freight only, but these are normally just spurs to power station, factories and ports from the nearest shared traffic route.

Good place to start for info about the UK freight network is on the National Rail website: http://www.networkrail.co.uk/aspx/1530.aspx. You should be able to find maps as well - the uk is divided into various corridors regardless of type of traffic, so the RUS documents will show the volume of traffic and maps of the routes, you will need to decipher where the freight goes. Alternatively there's the individual freight operator's websites. EWS is the biggest at the moment.

UK freight tonnage was 43.7 billion gtkm (gross tonne kilometres) in 2003.


----------



## Tyson (May 2, 2006)

Australia.

Intermodal freight is moved between the major cites and ports, double stacked on some trains across the desert.

Coal is hauled to ports from parts of Queensland and New South of Wales. In Queensland this is often done with electric locomotives, but only with diesel in NSW. 

The Pilbara region of Western Australia is the home to the heaviest trains in the world operated by BHP and Rio Tinto to bring iron ore from the mines to the coast.

Intermodal...








- aupeter10000 on flickr.

BHP in the Pilbara...








- 8888transportpix on flickr.


----------



## jkjkjk (Feb 28, 2007)

Some numbers:
Freight rail by billions of tonne-kilometers (2005)

Country Billion tonne-kilometres 
United States 2717.51 
China 2195.4 
Russian Federation 1852.91 
India 407.40 
European Union 359.12 
Canada 352.07 
Ukraine 223.98 
Brazil 221.60 
Kazakhstan 171.86 
South Africa 108.51


----------



## Dinivan (Apr 9, 2007)

^^ What happens in the EU? (+ CH&Norway) there's already an exceptional railway network, so why is most traffic diverted to the roads? or is it precisely because the EU also has an excellent highway network the reason for which there's not a higher percentage of goods moved on trains?


----------



## Crownsteler (Aug 20, 2003)

^ I'm no expert, but I suppose it has something to do with the high population density in Europe, which I suppose results in relatively short freight distances, and I also suppose it has something to do with the abundance of major ports along the (long) European coast, which means that large shipments can be offloaded close to the final destination.


----------



## Justme (Sep 11, 2002)

^^ Add the large amount of freight transported by barges along the major rivers as well.


----------



## jkjkjk (Feb 28, 2007)

Here are some numbers for % modal split for freight transport (2005, maritime transport excluded, rounded):

entity rail/road/inland waterways/pipelines
EU 16.5/72.6/65.4/5.5
United States 65.6/51.2/11.1/23.3
Russia 56.4/5.9/2.6/35.1
Canada 61.6/17.9/5.5/22.5

shares for eu countries with the most of freight transport:
Germany 19.6/63.8/13.2/3.4
France 15.1/73.6/3.4/7.9
Spain 4.7/92.6/-/2.6
Poland 25.5/60.9/0.7/12.9
Italy 11.4/83.0/0.1/5.5
UK 11.4/82.9/0.1/5.6

US rail freight transport share is larger than any of EU country. For longer freight rail distances in Europe is a big problem with interoperability, different gauges, voltage systems, safety systems, clearance profiles, direction of running.. To get freight by rail from lisboa to moscow you need transfer good twice, change loco(s) at least 5 times, with weight and height restrictions as high as in weakest part of route. For same distance in US or Russia no transfers or engine changes needed, and that makes rail freight transport much more competitable with road freight transport.


----------



## UrbanBen (Apr 7, 2006)

Japan's freight, at Hachinohe station:


----------



## Dinivan (Apr 9, 2007)

jkjkjk said:


> US rail freight transport share is larger than any of EU country. For longer freight rail distances in Europe is a big problem with interoperability, different gauges, voltage systems, safety systems, clearance profiles, direction of running.. To get freight by rail from lisboa to moscow you need transfer good twice, change loco(s) at least 5 times, with weight and height restrictions as high as in weakest part of route. For same distance in US or Russia no transfers or engine changes needed, and that makes rail freight transport much more competitable with road freight transport.


Maybe it's time from the Comission to do something about this and start forcing the states to homogenize their networks :tongue4:


----------



## perdurabo (May 16, 2006)

only few countries i EU have diffrent gauge Spain, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, but there are few diffrent power systems but you can use multi voltage locos and each country has own security systems but they are going to be unified, rail in EU has bright future.


----------



## Momo1435 (Oct 3, 2005)

In the Netherlands we are currently opening the new 158,5 km long dedicated freight line "Betuweroute" from the harbor of Rotterdam to the German border. It has lot's of starting problems, only from April on it should be used more and more. If it's in full service eventually it will be very good for railway freight in the Netherlands that has been growing rapidly over the last few years. 

some pictures from freight trains in the Netherlands from Flickr:

from: coenormel









from: arnold49


















from: Dortwegt Leen


















from: gewoonsanderrr


----------



## Yardmaster (Jun 1, 2004)

In the Pilbara, Western Australia, up to 50 miilion tonnes are transported across each km of track per year: the longest train weighed 99,700 tonnes, and was 7.3 km long . It's eight locomotives ran for 275 km transporting 82,000 tonnes of ore under the control of a single driver.

My stats are a bit old here, but three of the six heaviestly trafficed railways are in Australia: BHPIO, Hammersley, & Robe River. BHPIO outperforms UP (Union Pacific) 10 to 1 on average freight density, and CN (Canadian National) 20 to 1.

Needless to say, we would not appreciate a train of this length crossing our level crossings here in the suburbs: 1500m crossing loops are being installed at regular intervals along our (generally single tracked) mainlines: and trains carrying containers from port(s) to cit(ies) are long enough to warrant these loops.


----------



## sgups (Feb 13, 2007)

In India, there are no dedicated corridors for freight yet although there is a massive projec underway too have a dedicated freight corridor connecting all corners of the country and setting up large industrial bases around this corridor.


----------



## Yardmaster (Jun 1, 2004)

jkjkjk said:


> Here are some numbers for % modal split for freight transport (2005, maritime transport excluded, rounded):
> 
> entity rail/road/inland waterways/pipelines
> EU 16.5/72.6/65.4/5.5
> ...


If these are percentage modal split figures, they should add up to (roughly) 100, even rounded. Some do, but obviously the EU (Collective) & US figures don't. And the canadian total is way over 100% too.

Also, is this by tonnage, tonnage-distance or value?


----------



## Glodenox (Mar 26, 2007)

A very big reason why rail isn't being used for freight is the availability of sea. Unlike in the United States, if we want to transport something from one side of Europe to the other side, we don't have to go through a canal or use a very long route.

Another reason is indeed the lack of unification in the train network. There's being worked on that with the ERTMS/ETCS system, which should hopefully stop this reason.

Anything that can get a couple of trucks from our already saturated highways gets my thumbs-up 

Greetings,
Glodenox


----------



## rheintram (Mar 5, 2008)

Here's a picture from Austria showing the "Rollende Landstraße" which means the "Rolling Highway". Trucks are directly put on freight cars for some trains.










Freight trains are also used to transport new cars









Most freight trains share tracks with passenger trains.


----------



## Coccodrillo (Sep 30, 2005)

Yardmaster said:


> If these are percentage modal split figures, they should add up to (roughly) 100, even rounded. Some do, but obviously the EU (Collective) & US figures don't. And the canadian total is way over 100% too.
> 
> Also, is this by tonnage, tonnage-distance or value?


I have another table of this type, that shows percentages. I will serach it.

I remeber that in The Netherlands the percentages are about 42% internal navigation (canals), 5% train, about 50% road and the rest pipelines.


----------



## ADCS (Oct 30, 2006)

Electric freight locomotives are really interesting; it's been a long time since this country has seen those.


----------



## Euklidisk (May 14, 2005)

Glodenox said:


> A very big reason why rail isn't being used for freight is the availability of sea. Unlike in the United States, if we want to transport something from one side of Europe to the other side, we don't have to go through a canal or use a very long route.
> 
> Another reason is indeed the lack of unification in the train network. There's being worked on that with the ERTMS/ETCS system, which should hopefully stop this reason.
> 
> ...


As I see it, the main reasons for the low rail freight share in Europe is:
# The capacity problems combined with low priority for the freight trains -> low average speeds
# The low axle loads and train weights
# The old and extremely limiting loading gauges
# The National bureaucracies and monopolies
# The lack of technical harmonization


----------



## Jay (Oct 7, 2004)

rheintram said:


> Here's a picture from Austria showing the "Rollende Landstraße" which means the "Rolling Highway". Trucks are directly put on freight cars for some trains.



wow those lorries look so small on the train.. but that's really cool.


----------



## Songoten2554 (Oct 19, 2006)

i love that picture where the Train is making that turn with the mountain in the background its so beautiful.

so umm how is frieght in the Asian Countries as well is it the same in Europe?

how is the Frieght of the channel tunnel is there pictures of it?


----------



## JoKo65 (Feb 28, 2007)

perdurabo said:


> only few countries i EU have diffrent gauge Spain, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia,
> […]


Ireland and Portugal.


----------



## elfabyanos (Jun 18, 2006)

Songoten2554 said:


> how is the Frieght of the channel tunnel is there pictures of it?


Type in "class 92" and "sandling" into youtube, you'll find a video with a channel tunnel freight train on it. Thats the type that goes through (can't post the link, youtube is blocked on these servers!). Don't have a pic of it going in the tunnel though.


----------



## JoKo65 (Feb 28, 2007)

Songoten2554 said:


> […]
> 
> how is the Frieght of the channel tunnel is there pictures of it?


----------



## JoKo65 (Feb 28, 2007)

Russia:


----------



## JoKo65 (Feb 28, 2007)

Transsib (Russia)

On descent to Baikal:










Traffic jam because of a failure on Transsib (Lazo station area):










Near lake Baikal:










Kotelnich station neighbourhood:










The Transsib goes along the Chusovaya river:


----------



## sotavento (May 12, 2005)

Dinivan said:


> ^^ What happens in the EU? (+ CH&Norway) there's already an exceptional railway network, so why is most traffic diverted to the roads? or is it precisely because the EU also has an excellent highway network the reason for which there's not a higher percentage of goods moved on trains?



You need to also look at the TOTAL amount of freight hauled ... there are millions of tons of short haul freight transported by road in europe ... most of it are things that in the USA would never be acounted for because you operate on a very different scale than here.


----------



## Songoten2554 (Oct 19, 2006)

russia has a ton of freight but i wonder is most of the traffic at the Trans Serbian Railway or do they have other routes?


----------



## Coccodrillo (Sep 30, 2005)

Some statistics of freight transported throught the European Alps in 2005: http://snipurl.com/26r9x (PDF)


----------



## JoKo65 (Feb 28, 2007)

Songoten2554 said:


> russia has a ton of freight but i wonder is most of the traffic at the Trans Serbian Railway or do they have other routes?


They have several other routes. The russian railway network is one of the biggest in the world.


----------



## Slartibartfas (Aug 15, 2006)

ADCS said:


> Electric freight locomotives are really interesting; it's been a long time since this country has seen those.


Those electric locomotives are actually not exclusively freight locomotives, they are universally used. The 1016 (and other members of the locomotive family) or Taurus have 7000 kW power and a max speed of 230 km per hour. As the freight trains can't be extremely long for various reasons they can move alone all sorts of different freight, with only few exceptions especially on the Semmering mountain track because of the steep track. 

The same locomotive is planned to move the "RailJet" the new high priority passenger trains in Austria that are planned to get up to 230 km per hour where the track allows it.


----------



## JoKo65 (Feb 28, 2007)

Spain:


----------



## JoKo65 (Feb 28, 2007)

France:










AUTOROUTE FERROVIAIRE ALPINE (AFA):









AUTOROUTE FERROVIAIRE ALPINE (AFA):


----------



## JoKo65 (Feb 28, 2007)

Russia:


----------



## BroadGauge (Dec 13, 2004)

In Australia, there is an intensive amount of freight carried through the Hunter Valley in New South Wales. The Hunter Valley coal train operates 24hrs a day with export coal being carried to the Port of Newcastle. On the main section from Maitland to Sandgate, coal trains have a dedicated pair of tracks. Here is a couple of such coal trains.

*Click on photos or link below them for full sized photo which is much better than the little one *

QRNational coal train at Victoria Street, Maitland City, NSW

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=235141

Pacific National coal train at the same location

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=235068

CityRail (NSW Government) also operate passenger services on the line about every 30mins in each direction, primarily using the new 2-car Hunter railcar sets. Also from the Hunter line is the shot of the Here is a shot of a 2-car Hunter railcar at Sandgate station.


----------



## RawLee (Jul 9, 2007)

Some shots from Hungary:
  

  

  

 

all pics are from http://www.railpictures.net/


----------



## JoKo65 (Feb 28, 2007)

Russia/Bashkir republic:











Russia/Voronezh region:


----------



## JoKo65 (Feb 28, 2007)

Germany:


----------



## JoKo65 (Feb 28, 2007)

Finland:


----------



## JoKo65 (Feb 28, 2007)

Russia:











Poland:











Germany:


----------



## JoKo65 (Feb 28, 2007)

Spain:


----------



## pcrail (Jan 10, 2009)

*Swedish Iron Ore Line*

Here are some picutres of the Swedish Iron Ore Line. Basically it carries the iron ore from Kiruna and Gällivaare to the ports of Lulea (for shipping to Finland and Poland) and to Kiruna (for shipping to overseas). There are also some wood and container trains on this line. There is a plan to make a land link from Narvik to Russia and Far East. Most of the line is north of the polar circle. The whole line was upgraded in the last years to 30 t axle load. The line is electrified with 15 kv 16 2/3 Hz and is about 470 km long.









IORE locomotive carrying 68 empties near Vitafors. The full train will weight 8'600 t.









IORE with empty train in Polcirclen.









8'600 t train on the way to Narvik.









Dm3 waiting on departure in Kiruna.





Dm3 locomotive with new iron ore cars. This side rods locomotive will be fased out next year.









Shaft head, pellet plant, stroage silo and yard in Vitåfors.









Iron ore unloading station in Sanskär near Lulea. Before unlaoding hot water is poored on the train in the deicing tunnel. The unloading is a continous process using about 40 minutes for a 68 car train. The train is running thru a turning loop so that the locomotive does not have to change ends.









Narvik with iron ore port









Woodtrain. The cars can only circulate in Scandinavia due to extra large loading gauge.









Container Train "Nordic Rail Express"


----------



## mgk920 (Apr 21, 2007)

Are there any plans to upgrade the coupling system on European railroads to allow for more reasonably longer and heavier trains (like what are SOP here in North America, as well as in Australia and China)? It is not at all unusual to see 120+ car/15.000t trains here.

Mike


----------



## Coccodrillo (Sep 30, 2005)

There are projects, that's all. I don't think we will use heavier trains soon.

Trains are limited by the length of passing loops at stations and couplers (the old chain system). With some rare exceptions like the Kiruna-Narvik line, trains do not exceed 750 m (0.5 miles-2.500 ft) and 3.000 t. In Germany there are trials with 1.000 m trains on normal network but it is still an exception.

On mountain railways in the Alps usually trains do not exceed 2.000 t on steep gradients (25 to 33 mm/m or 1 in 40 to 1 in 30) using three electric locos. More than three locos are forbidden. Instead of improving couplers and rules, in Europe the trend is to build extremely long tunnels with low gradients (up to 65 km in length or 40 miles and with no more than 12 mm/m or 1 in 85 gradients). There are three such tunnels opened or under construction, three at advanced planning stage and one planned (the shorter of these is "only" 25 km/16 miles long).


----------



## JoKo65 (Feb 28, 2007)

mgk920 said:


> Are there any plans to upgrade the coupling system on European railroads to allow for more reasonably longer and heavier trains (like what are SOP here in North America, as well as in Australia and China)? It is not at all unusual to see 120+ car/15.000t trains here.
> 
> Mike


We have different coupling systems in Europe. Most used are the buffer-and-chain coupler and the SA-3 coupler.
SA-3 has no problems with long trains but buffer-and-chain has.


----------



## JoKo65 (Feb 28, 2007)

Coccodrillo said:


> […]
> With some rare exceptions like the Kiruna-Narvik line, trains do not exceed 750 m (0.5 miles-2.500 ft) and 3.000 t.
> […]


Depends on the country, in Eastern Europe trains can be longer and heavier.


----------



## JoKo65 (Feb 28, 2007)

*Examples*

Buffer and chain in France:











SA-3 in Ukraine:


----------



## Coccodrillo (Sep 30, 2005)

JoKo65 said:


> Depends on the country, in Eastern Europe trains can be longer and heavier.


Sorry, I was thinking about standard/irish/iberian gauge lines in Western Europe. Trains in Eastern Europe, especially on the 1520 mm gauge network, are heavier (and use automatic coouplers).


----------



## pcrail (Jan 10, 2009)

In Europe the fright trains have faster accelerations / decelerations then in many other countries. This allows the trains to interweave with the passenger trains, but restrict them in weight.

3'000 t is an incorrect limit. See below:

There are the bauxit trains with 3'600 t. They are normally crossing in two parts the alps.



















There are swedish steal trains Lulea - Borlange. The picture shows a train with swedish Rc locomotives with only 2'400 t. There will be in future a train with two Traxx locomotives and train weight 3'200 t. see here


----------



## JoKo65 (Feb 28, 2007)

Portugal:


----------



## JoKo65 (Feb 28, 2007)

Ireland:


----------



## JoKo65 (Feb 28, 2007)

Finland:


----------



## Coccodrillo (Sep 30, 2005)

Beautiful, one gauge for each post...

I add this on metric gauge, from http://www.rail-info.ch/RhB/fotos.en.html:


----------



## JoKo65 (Feb 28, 2007)

China:


----------



## JoKo65 (Feb 28, 2007)

*Germany, special coal line west of Cologne*

6 kV 50 Hz, axle load 35 metric tons:


----------



## Manchester Planner (Aug 19, 2005)

Great Britain:


----------



## Momo1435 (Oct 3, 2005)

^^ And this is how it will look like in the UK the coming years, DB Schenker Rail (UK) Ltd (formally known as EWS).


----------



## JoKo65 (Feb 28, 2007)

Korea (North):


----------



## HigerBigger (Aug 11, 2008)

*South African Freight on Rail*

Remember when looking at these photos that all is done on narrow gauge of 1067mm

Container trains:


















Cars on trains









Long Ore Trains (up to 324 wagons or 36 000 tons per train)

























Coal trains up to 200 wagons or 21 400 tons per train:


----------



## JoKo65 (Feb 28, 2007)

Coal line of Ruhrkohle, Ruhr area, Germany:


----------



## skdubai (Jun 15, 2008)

a pretty detailed FAQ about the Indian Railways Freight network can be found here....

and here are some videos....



SarafIndian said:


> video: *atigupta*
> 
> _LDH WAG7 #27625 moves towards MTJ with LPG rake in tow.Listen to the strange sounds produced by the waggie._
> 
> ...


The railways is currently working on 2 dedicated freight corridors to reduce congestion on the main lines....


----------



## JoKo65 (Feb 28, 2007)

Ukraine:


----------



## JoKo65 (Feb 28, 2007)

Greece:


----------



## JoKo65 (Feb 28, 2007)

Belgium:


----------



## JoKo65 (Feb 28, 2007)

Russia:


----------



## JoKo65 (Feb 28, 2007)

Algeria:


----------



## JoKo65 (Feb 28, 2007)

Vietnam:


----------



## JoKo65 (Feb 28, 2007)

Iran:


----------



## JoKo65 (Feb 28, 2007)

Slovakia:



















Israel:


----------



## JoKo65 (Feb 28, 2007)

Nice picture – Russia, Tver region:


----------



## Mr_Dru (Dec 15, 2008)

*Betuweroute the Netherlands: 160 km*
The Betuweroute is a double track freight railway from Rotterdam to Germany.

*Opened: 2008
Cost: 4.5 Billion Euros (5.7 Billion Dollars)*

130 Bridges and viaducts, no level crossings.
190 Passages for crossing wildlife.
5 Tunnels and several roofed sections add up to a length of 20 kilometers .

Total length of noise isolating panels on both sides is 160 kilometers (99 mi), the same as the track length.


----------



## Songoten2554 (Oct 19, 2006)

wow thats impressive they even did something for the freight lines in netherland to germany thats awesome.

i know in the US there is a Freight Rail line only that runs in a trench in Los Angeles but wow crossing two countries and only freight.

i wish this was done for both Passenger and Freight in the USA.


----------



## Mr_Dru (Dec 15, 2008)

Songoten2554 said:


> wow thats impressive they even did something for the freight lines in netherland to germany thats awesome.
> 
> i know in the US there is a Freight Rail line only that runs in a trench in Los Angeles but wow crossing two countries and only freight.
> 
> i wish this was done for both Passenger and Freight in the USA.












The port of Rotterdam is the largest port in Europe. The harbour functions as an important transit point for transport of bulk and other goods between the European continent and other parts of the world. From Rotterdam goods are transported further by ship, river barge, train or road to Germany (and other European countries). The daily traffic jams of 300 km in the Randstad area is verry normal. So in the hope to decrease the traffic jams and to decrease the co2 pollution, The Netherlands built the Betuweroute between Rotterdam and Germany.


----------



## JoKo65 (Feb 28, 2007)

Norway:


































Extra foto:


----------



## octopusop (Feb 10, 2009)

Coccodrillo said:


> 45.000.000 or 450.000.000? 45 millions, I think...


sorry, 450 000 000 tons was the estimated 2008 volume in 2007, according to Latest Listed Daqin Railway Company Announcement, the line transported 350 000 000 tons in 2008 due to global economic meltdown.

In the busiest time, there are one 20000-ton train every 15 minutes. You can find videos of Daqin recorded by global railway fans.


----------



## octopusop (Feb 10, 2009)

20000-ton trains on Daqin

4 SS4Gs + 210 Wagons




3 HXD1s + 210 Wagons


----------



## mgk920 (Apr 21, 2007)

^^
Imagining if they could convert Europe's freight railroads to AAR type-E coupling standards like are used in North America, China and Australia....

:|

kay:

Mike


----------



## JoKo65 (Feb 28, 2007)

mgk920 said:


> ^^
> Imagining if they could convert Europe's freight railroads to AAR type-E coupling standards like are used in North America, China and Australia....
> 
> :|
> ...


In big parts of Europe the SA-3 system is already in use.


----------



## MarcVD (Dec 1, 2008)

mgk920 said:


> ^^
> Imagining if they could convert Europe's freight railroads to AAR type-E coupling standards like are used in North America, China and Australia....


It would not help that much. Track plans in western Europe have been
devised for trains of no more than 750-800m in length. Automatic couplers
would of course authorize to haul heavier trains, but those trains would also
be much longer, and all track plans (length of sidings essentially) would first
have to be reviewed everywhere. Also don't forget that heavy trains are
slow, very slow, and that would not blend very well with the fast and 
frequent network of intercity trains that we run everywhere throughout
Europe. In total, far too much inconvenients compared to the advantages
we might get. If it was not the case, it would have been done already.


----------



## Coccodrillo (Sep 30, 2005)

I think that 3-km-long trains are not possibles. But tests have been done in Europe with trains 1.5 km long (1 mile).

Also a lot of lines in France and Spain have only a fer trains per day.

Like this: http://membres.lycos.fr/cartesferro/france/poitou_fr.html

The main north-south line on the right is the Paris-Tours-Bordeaux, which has only 6 passenger trains per day per direction excluding the high-speed TGV, which will run on a dedicate HSL in the near future freeing all capacity for other trains.


----------



## la bestia kuit (Aug 10, 2005)

*The Argentine Freigth Network *

The Argentine Network (wiki)









The argentine network put in to europe using Berna as Buenos Aires... (wiki)









*NCA (Nuevo Central Argentino)* 


















(riky9072 photo)










*Ferrosur Roca*


















(Diego9057 photo)









*Ferro Expreso Pampeano*
(riky9072 photo)









(maverick7784 photo)









(maverick7784 photo)










*América Latina Logística*


















(maverick7784 photo)









*Belgrano Cargas*



























*La Alumbrera*
(riky9072 photo)









(riky9072 photo)









*Patagonic Railway*
(Diego9057 photo)









(Diego9057 photo)


----------



## Dinivan (Apr 9, 2007)

^^ the network seems to be pretty large, but looking at the pictures I see that even the railways being used are in a pretty bad shape, so... are there parts of that map in such a bad shape that they no longer can be used?


----------



## la bestia kuit (Aug 10, 2005)

by now 34,059 km of operative track of 47.000km, and yeah isn´t in good shape, only the main lines...


----------



## JoKo65 (Feb 28, 2007)

Тепловоз ТЭ33А-0001 с грузовым поездом, перегон Дос - Балгалы (панорама), Kazakhstan/Almaty region:


----------



## Momo1435 (Oct 3, 2005)

Rotterdam Harbour


----------



## octopusop (Feb 10, 2009)

China Railway transported 773 billion passenger-kilometers passenger traffic and 2512 billion ton-kilometers freightage last year. West Europe do not need so heavy freight trains, just enjoy MADE IN CHINA in supermarket.


----------



## JoKo65 (Feb 28, 2007)

Some heavy trains in Germany use the AK69e coupler system:

















_wiki_


----------



## Qaabus (Aug 4, 2006)

octopusop said:


> China Railway transported 773 billion passenger-kilometers passenger traffic and 2512 billion ton-kilometers freightage last year. West Europe do not need so heavy freight trains, just enjoy MADE IN CHINA in supermarket.


:lol: That's what you get when you can't afford cars.


----------



## JoKo65 (Feb 28, 2007)

Ukraine/Sevastopol:


----------



## JoKo65 (Feb 28, 2007)

Interesting combination – Russia/Saratov region:


----------



## JoKo65 (Feb 28, 2007)

Three Deutsche Bahn class 185 pulling and one pushing, southbound at St. Gotthard Pass, Switzerland:










DB class 185 at Hamburg-Harburg, Germany:










Railion class 189 in Düren, Germany:









_railfaneurope.net_


----------



## k.k.jetcar (Jul 17, 2008)

In Japan railfreight is minor compared to the passenger train system. This is mainly because Japan is a long and relatively narrow island archipelago. Bulk freight moves mainly by coastal shipping, while high value freight moves by truck, aided by roll-on/roll-off ferries. In the eighties, with privitization, Japan Railways got out of the less-than-carload business as well as operating general merchandise (boxcar) freight. Nowadays, freight moves mainly by unit container trains with a few bulk freight trains like petrol products or cement.

Here is the freight network, solid lines are freight routes, dotted are passenger only:









Container terminal setup:









typical trains:








EH500 multi-voltage articulated locomotive









DF200 diesel electric w/twin MTU engines (1700ps each) with inverter control-a common type up here in Hokkaido


----------



## Marek.kvackaj (Jun 24, 2006)

*Czech republic *


*Škoda 109E*

*
6050kW
87,6 t
max 220 km/h 
*
Locomotive ŠKODA 109 E is primarily intended for operation on on main corridors of European Union electrified with 3 kV DC, 25 kV/50 Hz AC and 15 kV/16,7 Hz AC systems. For maximal interoperability, the locomotive is fully ETCS-compatible.


----------



## k.k.jetcar (Jul 17, 2008)

Love the Skoda Locomotives! Good to see an independent maker introduce new models, in a world dominated by the "big 3" of Siemens, Alstom, and Bombardier.

Neat video of 109e type accelerating hard:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zm2CqHktBxE


----------



## mrsmartman (Mar 16, 2015)

*Train loaded with mining phosphate ore on a journey of mine jalamid to Ras Al-Khair port, categorically distance of 1400 kilometers.*










https://ar.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=ملف:SAR_train.jpg&filetimestamp=20141013171348&


----------



## EMArg (Aug 2, 2013)

Freight Trains in *Buenos Aires, Argentina*:


----------



## Hourglassnebula (Aug 14, 2015)

*Freight Tains*

Saudi Arabia freight train carrying phosphates








credit:www.tradearabia.com

Saudi Arabia Double Stack Container Freight Train:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15-9UZJgLj4


----------



## gazart (Jun 3, 2015)

*INDONESIA | PT. Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI)*

*- Java Island -*​
Trains loaded with container from Jakarta to Bandung passes Tjikubang Bridge | Locomotive: class CC206 XXX






Holcim cement freight train | Locomotive: class CC206 XXX


Cement Freight Train by Raditiya Putera, di Flickr​
PT. Pertamina train kettle | Locomotive: class CC201 XXX


CC 201 49 DT CC 201 XX | KA Ketel Pertamina | Maos - Tegal | Stasiun Karangsari by Bayu Adhy Pratama, di Flickr​
One night services container train Jakarta-Surabaya | Locomotive: class CC206 XXX










*- Sumatera Island -*​
Locomotive class CC202 triple traction pulls the train Babaranjang (long coal train set).











Long coal train set (Babaranjang), South Sumatera | Locomotive: class CC202 XXX








Liquid cement train at PT Cement Padang silo, West Sumatera | Locomotive: class BB303 XXX


Indarung Cement Plants by Raditiya Putera, di Flickr​


----------



## rogerfarnworth (Jan 7, 2019)

I am not sure where to post this bu this seems to be the best thread. If it needs tobe moved, please feel free to move it to a better thread. ...............

*Colette Hooper: Railways of the Great War with Michael Portillo*

Recently I picked up a new copy of this book for less than would have been the price of a railway magazine at the newsagent. I have been enjoying reading it. ..........

This is a short review. .......









Railways of the Great War: Book Review


The Railways of the Great War by Colette Hooper (with Michael Portillo) Published by Bantam Press, London, 2014. ISBN: 9780593074121 I am enjoying catching up on reading a number of books as part o…




rogerfarnworth.com


----------



## [email protected] (Jul 25, 2010)




----------



## CornelM (Jun 23, 2013)




----------



## CornelM (Jun 23, 2013)




----------



## CornelM (Jun 23, 2013)

International freight train(CFR + ZS) in the Serbian Banat


----------



## CornelM (Jun 23, 2013)




----------



## [email protected] (Jul 25, 2010)




----------

