Union Pacific coal train climbs the steep grade of Soldier Summit, Utah with 7 locomotives

[@stearman100]

I’m so glad someone is filming this I live right outside the canyon in the Spanish fork area so I hear them pass my house I also look for the Amtrak train as well

[@DomAZ]

Beautiful scenery. 2 leading DPU, 4 in the middle and one at the end. 90 cars.

[@fernandoalfonsogarzonduart7765]

¹p

[@bigolemike33]

Great scenery and reminder of my over the road trucking days climbing that pass!!

[@travelingtom923]

A lot of trucks use that pass!

[@bigolemike33]

@@travelingtom923 Yes they do and it's one of the major gateways to the northwest!

[@colindavenport2196]

Very impressive. I counted 90 Coal Cars on this consist. Nothing like this in the U.K I really enjoyed watching this. :-) :-)

[@travelingtom923]

Thank you.

[@colindavenport2196]

@@travelingtom923 My pleasure Tom. Great filming. Rail fans in the U.S. are so lucky. How envious I am. Take Care! Stay Safe! :-) :-)

[@JungleYT]

*Powerrrrrr!* These Diesels are soo much cleaner than what was running even in the 1990s...

[@jongrant1215]

They were sure pulling hard against that grade. The scenery was fantastic.

[@BaltimoreAndOhioRR]

Beautiful scenery and filming!

[@paulmatulavich7321]

@Railfanning Points Please explain for those new here.

[@georgematthews2877]

Good Morning Tom!!🍵 Great to have you back from your yard time, or derailment, whichever!!!😊

[@travelingtom923]

Thank you. Just took some time off for a vacation and of course to get some fresh train videos!

[@georgematthews2877]

@@travelingtom923 You needed it!! You had been busy!!

[@joankamp2319]

Wow train. Magnificent view/country. Glad to see a video from you after a couple weeks. I was worry you were sick.

[@travelingtom923]

Nice to be back. Figured I would take a early vacation before gas prices went into the stratosphere.

[@natgass8102]

beautiful back drop, probably get rocks dropping from time to time off those bluffs

[@ModelingSteelinHO]

Question ? The painted car ends. Rotating coupler end ? Enjoyed the roar of these seven locomotives as they assault the grade. That last unit working hard. It sounds like the turbo charger is going to fly out of the engine compartment ! Excellent video Tom. Thank you for sharing.

[@travelingtom923]

Yes painted ends means that is the end with the rotating coupler.

[@floodedcar123]

Great up coal drag.

[@JungleYT]

*Q: Is that screeching sound locomotive wheels grinding on the rails??? - **9:08*

[@noahthehotrod6147]

yes

[@SudeshKumar-ht1wq]

Oh greatesirji how many bogies

[@dannyrichardson6319]

I hav've been by that coal mine there at price it. Beautiful cou try up thru there. You need to catch them loading the cars up

[@Cloud-cq2eb]

Which country

[@darrinlenherr8241]

Absolutely beautiful video!! Thanks

[@inconnu9844]

Wonderful sceneary-I counted 50+37 wagons=87 all together!!

[@geoben1810]

Ok dumb question, the engine in back I assume is assisting and pushing forward. But that would that mean it's running in reverse since it's facing the opposite direction? 🤔

[@brandonreeves5979]

Very cool video! Love the mid dpu helpers. 😎💪🏻

[@georgematthews2877]

Looks like a good place to model in HO!!!

[@grimmgames3667]

Fantastic video!

[@bradleyogden5688]

I chased NSs C of G through here and it was on the point of an eastbound! Very lucky.

[@garylarson6386]

I would have thought 2-3-2

[@anirudhadeshpande7244]

Such a big goods train engine must be very powerful to pull all this wagons

[@rangermarsh7510]

You know me. Always have questions. What is the primary reason for the rear engine? Reduced tension on the rail cars on tracks with sharp curves to stop derails?

[@travelingtom923]

They normally use pusher locomotives to keep the train from breaking a coupler as it travels up a steep grade.

[@toddgittins5692]

Or anywhere, not just for grades. To get moving on flat ground is a challenge, with these monster trains that they run today.

[@rangermarsh7510]

@@toddgittins5692 We have a really sharp turn on the UP track in Portland. If the engine tries to increase speed while the cars behind it are still entering the turn it will literally pull the cars off the rail to short cut the curve. A pusher prevents that.

[@toddgittins5692]

@@rangermarsh7510 Yes, there are many uses for the DPUs.

[@mohanbhagat5287]

89 wagons and 6 engines... 😱👍✌️

[@ejdsndnj]

there was 7 engines

[@loisraymcinnis6006]

Thank you.

[@Steven_Rowe]

Serious power here. We have similar length trains here in Australia. Over in Western Australia some are twice the length all using similar US diesel power. I wonder how many big boys it would take to replace 7 diesels. I'm guessing these units are 4000 each

[@travelingtom923]

It would probably take two Big Boys to do the same job. I know the Allegheny steam locomotive was hauling 13,000 ton coal trains unassisted. Modern diesels are extremely powerful but do not have the weight on the wheels to keep them from slipping when pulling heavy trains. It wouldn't matter if each engine had 10,000 horsepower. Those big steam engines weighed so much they could pull those very heavy trains up the mountains.

[@heavydutyrepair64]

@@travelingtom923 it would take up to 3 or more big boys to do the same job

[@timothyosborn1697]

What do the yellow corners on some of the cars indicate?

[@balachdr5]

Awesome View

[@shaunaustin7848]

This is Price canyon

[@oceanvibesphotography8395]

Bloody hell that was. A long train

[@marinegunny826]

Where desert, canyon and Alpine meet has to be some of the most beautiful scenery on Earth. Was the train west or eastbound? For some reason, I always like to know which direction I'm facing 😀

[@travelingtom923]

Heading Westbound

[@marinegunny826]

@@travelingtom923 Very cool! Enjoyed your video 👍

[@jamesburnside3023]

Fantastic job

[@wolfgangpfeilergartenbahnd6530]

Filmed great 👍👍👍👍😊

[@travelingtom923]

Thank you.

[@cats0182]

If traffic on Soldier Summit has disappeared, where has it gone to?

[@travelingtom923]

It was mostly coal trains. Many coal mines have closed.

[@markverloop2315]

@@travelingtom923 what a shame. Well that's the " govt" screwing up everything.

[@travelingtom923]

@NFL NFL I disagree. Once natural gas prices increase and it becomes more expensive then coal, then they will convert the power plants back to coal. The conversion to natural gas was just about economics and nothing more. The coal powered plants already had billions of dollars of high tech scrubbers installed on them. They worked so well they were putting out about as much pollution as a single fireplace. The recent natural gas spike increase in Texas which lead to customers bills going up by as much as 100X, tells you that natural gas is not a stable commodity. It can fluctuate dramatically during peak times. Coal is cheap, dependable, and we have a lot of it.

[@travelingtom923]

@NFL NFL Solar and wind are totally subsidized by our Government. They are also not reliable. You can not increase output on wind turbines or solar when you have high demand. They have been around since at least the 1970's. When natural gas prices spike again and people are paying $5,000 for a electric bill, what are you going to do? With all the trillions of dollars spent on solar and wind farms you could have had probably zero emissions coming from the coal fired plants. Also at least half the coal fired power plants in the United States have closed. environmentalists said it was the biggest contributor to pollution in our country? Yet did anything change? Did the pollution go down even by a little? Did the numbers drop? No nothing changed.

[@kennethj.benton8641]

@NFL NFL amen

[@tiggywinkle1000]

I'm guessing, but there must be at least a 10,000 ton load in that train?

[@travelingtom923]

It would be right around 10,800 tons.

[@jtg2737]

Question? How are all of these locomotives synchronized from the main one up front? Is it by remote signal/wire or by communication with engineers in each locomotive?

[@travelingtom923]

On this train the helpers in the middle are manned by a crew. They helpers will be cut off at the top of the hill and brought back to the yard in Helper.

[@jtg2737]

@@travelingtom923 Thank you for answering this for me.

[@apachinook998]

in the first video, a lot of locomotives are involved, we have one electric locomotive for this weight of the train, of three sections, with a capacity of 13,000 horsepower

[@carlvanlugpin9984]

its more about the total number of powered axles on the train versus the total HP, a single locomotive of only 4 or 6 axles regardless of HP rating would have extreme wheelslip in that application.

[@RDC_Autosports]

amazing how the paint on the AC4400 looks better then the gevo it’s shoving

[@essentiallocalleads5392]

And that would be why the town just below there is named Helper!

[@neysilva6370]

Very good

[@frederickwise5238]

I think one Big boy 4 8 8 4 might have been able to handle it. Maybe also a Challenger 4 6 6 4 tail end. LOLOL

[@itwasaliens]

I love trains so much. I wish the US had more options for travel by train. 😢

[@michaeldavies9600]

Loved it coming from England i cant get my head around the size of this train,how many drivers would that have then,two in each loco?

[@carlvanlugpin9984]

the units in the rear and middle are controlled remotely with a screen thats in the engineer's control stand.

[@spacecalander]

Wow cool i thought they abandoned this line

[@tiktokhmoobedm4.079]

Beatyfull nice video 👍💯🤝🤝💕💗💗

[@unutentequalsiasi5669]

Union Pacific was ever the best.

[@lawrencekiel-sr2772]

I counted 90 hopper cars, the Butte looks like planet of the apes style mount Rushmore 😂 0:43

[@Nicola636128]

Cool video.

[@billywolfe5052]

I would like to see the location of the video

[@travelingtom923]

www.google.com/maps/place/Helper,+UT+84526/@39.724465,-110.8670849,222m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x874e97cdd9a7632f:0x7e35790091fe4785!8m2!3d39.6841304!4d-110.8546053

[@kenmelrac]

90 car train, must be something wrong with the motors

[@mariamoya5530]

😰😰😳😳😳😳😳q larguicimo muchas bendiciones para esas personas !!

[@travelingtom923]

¿De qué personas hablas?

[@paulmatulavich7321]

You Sir are a magician when it comes to filming trains. Caught the same train in multiple locations while filming simultaneously. Did you have a DPU of your own behind another camera?

[@francesconadig5969]

Great

[@PeterNGloor]

it was much nicer to see the Rio Grande EMD's back then. This here is very un-romantic.

[@captained7972]

And to think stagecoaches owners ranchers and Indians vehemently and sometimes violently disapproved of the ferrocariles specially the Pacific lines. Even if you have 10 thousand horses you can never pull those wagons up.

[@captained7972]

But that was long ago .... As Jose feliciano ends his song.

[@randytrader3026]

They look like they've been in a coal plant.. lol

[@insidecutter]

cool

[@wleedw9333]

👌🏻💯👌🏻💯❤

[@تيي-و9د]

🌐

[@captained7972]

Those locomotives look old and ugly but you can't fully comprehend their pulling and pushing power.

[@تيي-و9د]

🌐🌐

[@grahamprice3230]

As a Brit.it may be obvious but why do alternate loco,s appear to be coupled going in reverse ?Please explain

[@itwasaliens]

Its a lot more efficient to leave locomotives facing whatever direction they are facing because it takes a lot of energy to pick a train up and turn it around so that it would face the other way. Turntables do exist but it's still more efficient to just keep them facing whatever way they are.