Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Trains

We wonder about coal trains. They squeal and scream their way up and down Glenwood canyon. Easily ten or twelve a day. Sometimes that many in one night. A hundred cars. The usual configuration is two engines in the front, three in the middle, and one at the end.

We can imagine these great trains as two separate trains that happen to be traveling together; two engines pulling fifty cars with one engine helping from behind, then another two engines pulling fifty cars with one engine helping from behind. Why do they hook them together?

What is the efficiency that drives the train builders to attach those two trains into six engine configurations? Mechanical? Scheduling? Can’t figure it out.

Oh the mysteries of life.

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