Longest trains

Billiton Iron Ore train with 264 cars heads out of Port Hedland on the Mount Newman railway towards Newman, Western Australia, with lead units at right, and distributed power units at left. • Australia • BHP iron ore train has typically 268 cars and a train weight of 43,000 tonnes carrying 24,200 tonnes of iron ore, long, two SD70ACe locomotives at the head of the train and two remote controlled SD70ACe locomotives as mid-train helpers. • BHP used to run 44,500-tonne, 336-car long iron ore trains over long, with six to eight locomotives including an intermediate remote unit. This operation seems to have ceased since the trunk line was fully double tracked in May 2011. • Leigh Creek coal—, formerly ran as 161 wagons and three locomotives. • Cane tramway – 75 wagons ( gauge). • Brazil • Carajás Railway gauge iron ore trains are typically 330 cars long, totaling in length. • VLI Grain with 160 hopper cars, or 80 hoppers plus 72 FTTs (for pulp transport) totaling about long. • China • Datong–Qinhuangdao railway is a dedicated coal-transport railway. Every day 50 pairs of long trains consisting of 210 wagons and two HXD1 locomotives use the line. Each train hauls over 20,000 tons of coal. • Mauritania • Iron ore trains on the Mauritania Railway are up to in length. They consist of 2 diesel-electric EMD locomotives, 200 to 210 cars each carrying up to 84 tons of iron ore, and 2-3 service cars. • South Africa • Sishen–Saldanha railway line ore trains on – • Ukraine • 12,000 tonnes == General ==

train of loaded well cars (or double-stack cars) at Caliente, California, United States. double-stack container train. • > – United States – BNSF Railway and Union Pacific Railroad (UP) regularly operate intermodal container trains exceeding in length on main lines in the western United States. On the UP, these trains can stretch to over with 5 locomotives and 280 well cars. Trains longer than accounted for approximately 6% of BNSF's and 10% of UP's total train volume . The practice has drawn criticism due to concerns about blocked road crossings, which can cause delays for motorists and impede emergency response times. Railroads have argued that longer trains improve efficiency, lower emissions, and reduce the number of crossing activations, the most likely time for a collisions between a train and vehicles. According to the Association of American Railroads, fewer than 1% of trains in the United States exceed in length. • – India – The Bangalore–Dharmavaram goods train • – United States – Auto Train, an Amtrak motorail service transporting passengers and their cars between the Washington, D.C. and Orlando regions. Typical consist includes 2 or 3 locomotives, 14 passenger cars and more than 23 autoracks for transporting vehicles. • – Saudi Arabia double stack • — In Denmark and to Hamburg, Germany; 2 locomotives and 82 wagons. == Special test runs ==

These are one-off runs, sometimes specifically to set records. Bulk (ore, coal etc) • On 21 June 2001, BHP ran a world record-breaking ore train on the gauge line iron ore railway to Port Hedland in Western Australia. The train, comprising 682 wagons and hauled by eight General Electric GE AC6000CW diesel-electric locomotives, was controlled by a single driver. The eight locomotives were distributed along its length to keep the coupling loads and curve performance controllable. The total length of the train was long, with a total weight 99,734 tons, largest in the world. The train carried 82,000 metric tons of ore. • Sishen–Saldanha, South Africa. Run on 26–27 August 1989, comprising 660 wagons, long and a total weight of 71,765 tons on a gauge line. The train comprised 16 locomotives (9 Class 9E 50 kV AC electric and 7 Class 37 diesel-electric). • Norfolk and Western Railway unit coal train from Iaeger, West Virginia to Portsmouth, Ohio, 15 November 1967. The train consisted of 500 cars and six EMD SD45 diesel-electric locomotives distributed throughout the train for a total weight of 48,170 tons and total length of . • Bulk coal train from Ekibastuz to the Urals, Soviet Union, 20 February 1986. The train consisted of 439 wagons and several diesel locomotives distributed along the train with a total mass of 43,400 tonnes and a total length of . • Indian Railways operated a freight train on 8 August 2025 termed as 'Rudrastra'. It is India's longest freight train, measuring at 4.5 km (2.8 mi) long. The train consisted of 354 wagons and powered by 7 WAG 9 locomotive. It ran between Ganjkhwaja to Garhwa Road, covering the 200-km route at an average speed of 45 km/h. • Shuozhou–Huanghua railway is a heavy haul freight railway that has successfully tested 30,000 ton coal trains that stretch over in April 2024. The train consists of 324 cars wagons hauled with four China Energy Investment HXD1 variants. • Datong–Qinhuangdao railway, China. On 2 April 2014, an experimental train ran with 320 wagons and six locomotives hauling a 31,500 ton load, with a total length of . • Indian Railways operated a freight train on 15 August 2022 named The 'Super Vasuki' which was long had a total of 6 locomotives pulling 295 wagons of coal. • Kereta Api Indonesia, Super Babaranjang, the test train consisted of 120 coal cars with 4 EMD G26 locomotives. The consist was roughly long. • A 1991 test train pulled by two British Rail Class 59 diesel locomotives, weighing 12,108 tonnes and approximately long, was pulled with moderate success from Merehead Quarry to Witham Friary. General cargo • SNCF, Intermediate locomotives in a long train – trial • trial trains Passenger • Kijfhoek–Eindhoven, Netherlands. In 1989, the Nederlandse Spoorwegen (Dutch Railways) celebrated their 150th anniversary. On 19 February 1989, NS ran a test train with 60 passenger cars ( long and weighing 2,597 tons), of which only the first 14 cars held actual passengers, pulled by one 1500 V DC locomotive. Twenty years later, in 2009, Railz Miniworld repeated the stunt on a smaller scale, inside their exhibition in Rotterdam. • Ghent–Ostend, Belgium. On 27 April 1991, one electric locomotive and 70 passenger cars (totalling and 2786 tons, excluding the locomotive) held a charity run for the Belgian Cancer Fund, exceeding the Dutch record. == See also ==