# High Speed Freight Trains?



## steamtrain6868 (Apr 7, 2011)

Did I not recall that there were Sante Fe Trains and all mail trains that traveled under conventional power at 100 MPH on Section rail in the 1920s?


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## PerRock (Apr 7, 2011)

over seas there is the SNCF La Poste train that is a TGV:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SNCF_TGV_La_Poste

and the UK has the Class 325, which again is a mail train, that operates at 100mph.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_325

peter


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## George Harris (Apr 8, 2011)

steamtrain6868 said:


> Did I not recall that there were Sante Fe Trains and all mail trains that traveled under conventional power at 100 MPH on Section rail in the 1920s?


No.

Mail trains were classified as passenger trains so far as speeds were concerned. So far as I know, only certain trainw were allowed 100 mph, and these were not mail trains.

As for freight trains otherwise, ATSF May hae allowed 80 mph for certain specific "hot" freight moves, but then again, the limit may have been 70 mph, and that was not in the 1920's, and for the most part the limit was 70 mph or less, and the 80 mph train, if was 80 mph ran in the late 50's maybe into the early 60's. To the best of my knowlege, otherwise there has never been a freight speed limit of over 70 mph. When Southern was hanging piggyback on the end of a lot of their freight trains, the train speed was limited to 70 mph.


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## Green Maned Lion (Apr 8, 2011)

steamtrain6868 said:


> Did I not recall that there were Sante Fe Trains and all mail trains that traveled under conventional power at 100 MPH on Section rail in the 1920s?


You did not.


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## rrdude (Apr 9, 2011)

It is sooooooo difficult not to comment..................


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## DET63 (Apr 16, 2011)

I believe that freight trains aren't designed for speeds faster than 70 mph. For one thing, long, heavy freight trains take a long time to accelerate and decelerate. For another, I don't think the running gear on freight cars is intended to be operated at higher speeds. Finally, I don't think the increased fuel consumption required to accelerate freight trains to such high speeds would be justified by increased revenue. Most freight that goes on trains doesn't absolutely, positively have to be there overnight. If it did, it would be flown.


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## Anderson (Apr 16, 2011)

You know, there _may_ have been one exception to this. Though I would expect that the limit was still 70 MPH, knowing what the Canadians did with the actual silk trains (armed guards on board, bare-bones stops to switch crews, _kicking the royal train to a siding_), it would not surprise me if they ran that specific run at over 70 MPH. File that under "exceptions proving rules".


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