South Africa runs a 7.6 km, 696-wagon freight train to claim a world record
The numbers are the fun part: 861 km of track, 696 wagons and a record that beat a BHP train from 2001.
Transnet Freight Rail ran a 696-wagon empty train on the Sishen-Saldanha iron ore line on Oct. 17 and 18, reaching the end of the run on Oct. 18 and claiming a world record for freight rail, The Citizen and News24 report. News24 puts its length at about 7.6 km over an 861 km route from the Port of Saldanha to the Northern Cape mines.
Locomotives spread along the train were linked by radio so they pulled and braked as one. According to Guinness World Records, as cited by News24, the previous record was a 7.35 km BHP ore train in Western Australia in 2001. Transnet itself ran a record 660-wagon, 7.2 km train in 1989.
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Sishen–Saldanha railway line
After exploring WATCH | Transnet smashes world record with 7.6km freight train | News24, the line built for trains like this is profiled in Sishen–Saldanha railway line.
The 861 km Sishen-Saldanha line, or Ore Export Line, is a heavy-haul railway carrying about 60 million tonnes of iron ore a year and no passengers.
Wikipedia · Wade · 5 min
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