I paced alongside a UP train pulling a lot of empty car transport cars, had two engines and was going just over 65 mph.
Must have had a favorable wind! In the interest of fuel conservation, a train might be listed as able to run 70 MPH, but that takes a lot of fuel! So, for any train that can run 50 or more, the rule is you can use all of the notches (but they hate to see run 8!!) up to 50 MPH, after that, you are limited to notch 5. So, the auto rack train you saw was probably running in notch 5, and it was light, so it sailed right along! Oh, and if you are keeping track, the 3 largest fuel users in the United States are the US Navy, the UP and the BNSF!
I never bothered with fuel conservation! If they gave me the power I used it. Stretch braked and power braked as often as I could (well when it was older units that didn’t have GPS, and the auto download) LOL Those were the best trains to run!
I remember reading that a dispatcher could override the fuel conservation if it was a V or Z symbol, but I’m sure the rules have changed since last August.
Some empties are limited to 55 mph (baretables come to mind) too.
Craig
Reminds me of pacing Amtrak’s Southwest Chief along I-40 east of Winslow, AZ. She does every bit of the 90mph limit through this section. Man that train flies by quickly. Just watch out for Arizona State Troopers. They are tough on ticketing for speeding 
The BNSF freights also get close to their 70mph limit.
William Whitlow said:The US Navy? I would have guessed the Air Force. Thought the Navy was mostly nuclear. So I figured their fuel consumption would be much lower. Guess they still have some gas guzzling ships.
Oh, and if you are keeping track, the 3 largest fuel users in the United States are the US Navy, the UP and the BNSF!
Matt said:Except for Carriers, the Navy doesn't have any more nuc-u-lear ships. I think they decided that it is just too expensive to run nuc-u-lear surface ships.
Reminds me of pacing Amtrak's Southwest Chief along I-40 east of Winslow, AZ. She does every bit of the 90mph limit through this section. Man that train flies by quickly. Just watch out for Arizona State Troopers. They are tough on ticketing for speeding ;)The BNSF freights also get close to their 70mph limit.
William Whitlow said:The US Navy? I would have guessed the Air Force. Thought the Navy was mostly nuclear. So I figured their fuel consumption would be much lower. Guess they still have some gas guzzling ships.
Oh, and if you are keeping track, the 3 largest fuel users in the United States are the US Navy, the UP and the BNSF!
Carriers are a different beast, though.
Most surface ships are powered by either gas turbine or diesel. Steam is only used in nuc-u-lear ships. Ancient technology. Except for nuc-u-lear ships.
Are you confused yet? 
Oh, one more thing. Ships don’t burn gas, they use DFM, Distillate Fuel Marine, a low grade of kerosene. Even in Diesel.
Class Dismissed.
Steve, Steve, Steve…
USS Kearsarge (LHD-3) and sisters are powered by steam turbines with reduction gears.
I follow this ship because I served aboard USS Kearsarge CVS 33.
Jerry Barnes said:Was the engineer having his lunch or was the conductor yelling a him? ;)
I paced alongside a UP train pulling a lot of empty car transport cars, had two engines and was going just over 65 mph.
I see them running that speed quite a bit. We are by the newer stretch of the UP line across Nebraska, 3 main tracks in this area, all concrete ties and you see them working on the track all the time to keep it in good shape. The container trains run 60mph or so pretty regularly.
Sometimes I wish I lived near a main line just so I could see this once in a while. Our locals are speed restricted to 10Mph due to abysmal track condition. I’ve ridden in the cab over those tracks and it’s all you can do to keep your head from smacking into the window as the loco rocks back and forth.
Steve, thank you for the lesson on Naval Propultion systems! By the way, you all, he was on a Sub! That is the reason he glows at night.
Now, the real reason that the train is so slow is they don’t maintain the trackage as well as they should, with some exceptions. If they put the time and money in to maintainence they could run them all faster! Like AmTrack could begin to compete with other forms of transport over the short and medium distances. Gee, ride the train to Portland from Seattle. And knowing Craig he was going that fast!
Paul
Paul, I was not a Bubblehead! I served proudly in the Surface Force, and with the Fleet Marine Force. In fact, the only Bubblehead that I will admit knowing is TOC.
jb, the Kearbarge was always a strange ship. It doesn’t surprise me that she is still steam, she’s a carrier, ain’t she? BTW, I heard that to save money, they took the steam plant from CV-33, re-fit it with baling wire and bubblegum, and transplanted it lock, stock and barrel directly into LHD-3.
Ducks and runs for cover. 
:lol:
Steve,
That’s egzactly what happened. 
Most large to medium large USN and RUSN (Ships captained by USN personel, but crewed by civilians, or under contract to the USN) ships are still steam powered, fueled by plain black crude oil.
Carriers and subs by nuclear reactors boiling the steam.
A’course everyone knows this.
E. Paul Austin said:
And knowing Craig he was going that fast!Paul
Humm I think the fastest I ran was “60 mph” according to the speedometer… Although I will say that on the older SD40-2’s the speedo’s didn’t always read correctly, so it may have been plus a few mph. I did run a light locomotive set 70 mph +/- 4 mph (okay only one side of that equation. Overspeed strips at 75 is all I’m saying) from Tacoma to Auburn (not the whole way, but through Sumner and Puyallup at 70!)
Craig
U guys are all lucky, all I ever see is commuter rail 
jb, I have no idea what a RUSN ship is, I’ve never heard of one. Perhaps you can enlighten me.
I think we have wandered far into the weeds on this, but …
By the late 70’s, the USN had only 2 fuels, DFM, MILSPEC MIL-F-16884, and JP5 for aircraft. I suppose that they still have AVGAS for piston aircraft, but by 1992, none of those were operational on carrier decks. In 1967, the Navy considered moving to one fuel, but by 1994, when I retired, still had not made the decision. There were (are) significant hurdles to overcome, primarily logistics. See here…
Black oil has not been used for a long time. It is an easy matter to change the nozzles inside the boiler to accommodate DFM.
When I was firing (RR lingo for student engineer) and you got a Z train (fast internal) with an SD-70 for a leader, you quickly learned to put both arm rests down on your seat so you could stay in the chair! Really rough riding locos. And as a conductor, they make it hard to keep a neat coloring book!