Great pics everyone. I thought I'd throw one in for fun. Motion is a great topic. So many ways it could be illustrated. Couldn't decide which one to throw in. I probably picked the wrong one. Anyway, it's a train making it's way up a hill where it loops over itself because the incline is so great they resorted to making a loop - the Tehachapi Loop. It was taken this morning. Have a great Christmas season everyone.
nice! I used to live in Cali and we would go by there on our way to the dessert to go motorcycling. Thanks for sharing.. it brings back great memories.
That's really interesting the way the front and middle parts of the train are in motion blur, yet the end of the train is not. Are those really all the same train? If memory strikes me the Loop has a passing track on it.
It's all the same train. You don't see the motion at this size but at a full size you can see the motion on the end portion. It just has to do with the fact that that portion of the train is moving toward you.
well the motion blur is going to be a little... "tricky" due to the different directions of the motion... great shot! i didn't believe it could have been one train at first... lol why do they have it making a huge lap like that instead of just going up the hill?
First off is the maximum grade steel wheels can take on steel rails before they start sliding. If memory strikes me the maximum pct. grade is something like 6%, or thereabouts. After that you start slipping all over the place. You might be able to get an additional percent, or so, by going to a locomotive like a Shay or Climax, but it's been quite some time since those saw the main line. :-)
An additional reason is fuel consumption. If you can keep your gradient to 1-2% maximum then you will use a lot less fuel to pulling a train up the grade. As Tehachapi is the main line pretty much most trains that come from the central midwest will see the Loop.
Tehachapi Loop is one of the more extreme cases of looping trains to gain altitude. However, there's one in Switzerland (Gotthardbahn) which will do it one better. It's a loop INSIDE a tunnel. Must've been some kind of engineering to get that one right, eh?
Anyway, it's a train making it's way up a hill where it loops over itself because the incline is so great they resorted to making a loop - the Tehachapi Loop. It was taken this morning. Have a great Christmas season everyone. 
