Chadron, Nebraska to Legendary Crawford Hill

[plainsman]

A lot of you may be surprised that these shots are all from Nebraska.

We take a flight to fly over the legendary Crawford Hill, a long steep grade traversed by by 18,000 ton coal trains.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crawford_Hill,_Nebraska

The flight departs Chadron, Nebraska and heads south. It turns west toward Crawford and then flies over the rail line. That is Lower Horseshoe Curve.

The heavy trains average

Enjoy Train Simulator fans!

Edited November 2, 2020 by plainsman

[plainsman]

The envelope of operation in the early 1990s was very narrow. The trains were loaded so that they could not exceed 15 mph. They were constrained by the strength of the couplers, which were right at the limit. That is why they had rear helpers. If the train speed dropped to low (about 9 mp;h), the traction motors would overheat and fail under full power. Burlington Northern rebuilt a number of U30-7 locomotives with stronger traction motors and 3,300 HP primarily for this route. They also added a number of SD60 and SD60M units to their fleet to gain extra force for this grade.

Eventually, the trains switched to locomotives with AC traction motors to power these trains.

Edited November 2, 2020 by plainsman

[plainsman]

too mph C30-7

[DAVIDSTRAKA]

Nicely done!

[NMLW]

Don't hear much about Nebraska around hear. Very interesting train info and fine set of shots Bob. :cool: :)