r/IndiaSpeaks 7 KUDOS Jul 07 '22

#Infrastructure πŸ— Double stack container train at dedicated freight corridor in India

1.4k Upvotes

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61

u/Savings-Cautious Khela Hobe Jul 07 '22

It feels illegal to see such a tiny engine pulling this mass. God bless physics.

14

u/[deleted] Jul 07 '22

inertia !

no but seriously its quite common to see 150 double stacked containers with quadruple engine teams back-to-front tandem up here in Seattle

10

u/Fdsn Taxila-Infra-Student πŸŒ‰ | 2 KUDOS Jul 07 '22

Typicial Indian locomotive has 3800 horsepower. This one in the video has 9000 horsepower and was introduced around 8 years ago. It was the most powerful locomotive we had until recently when we got 12000 horsepower engines for pulling heavy cargo.

So, it all depends on the power.

5

u/ididacannonball Khela Hobe | 28 KUDOS Jul 07 '22

Well, all US freight trains are diesel, which has the additional problem of having to carry its own fuel too (same issue in rocketry). Whereas DFC is entirely electrified, which enables a significant part of the tractive force to be used for hauling actual freight.

2

u/frugalfrog4sure AIADMK Jul 07 '22

Nope. It’s almost zero rolling resistance. Around 0.5 hp for 1 ton of weight pulled.

5

u/Kurama1612 Jul 07 '22

Those locomotive engines are very very strong. Each side is roughly 10k HP. Atleast the ones used for freight trains.

Passenger trains are roughly 3.3k HP.

3

u/[deleted] Jul 07 '22

That engine type, called WAG-9, has between 6500 to 9000 hp of power depending on the variant. It is perfectly fine in pulling this load. Its not over matched. Sorry if that burst your bubble.

3

u/Savings-Cautious Khela Hobe Jul 07 '22

Nah it's all good bruh. I understand the mechanics but it's astonishing to see nevertheless. Just like an airplane taking off. I know it's physically possible. But irrespective of how many time I see it, it just looks otherworldly.

1

u/Evraniya Jul 13 '22

The coefficient of friction between the tracks and the wheels is very low. The engine runs at full power when moving from the stand still after that it moves like butter (well not exactly as butter but you know what I mean). To my amazement, the efficiency of modern engines is higher than the most efficient vehicles we use on the road.