Little and Large

[swisstrains]

Sometimes it's hard to imagine how much bigger North American locos are compared to ones built to the British loading gauge.

There is a good picture illustrating this difference here. Scroll down the page to the picture of the day for the 4th October.

[Trev]

I had to do a double take. I thought the two Canadians were at he head of a train of hopper wagons!

There is certainly a difference.

[nldunne]

John

Those GP 38's pushing those U K loco's are some of our smaller - and older - machines. The SD 70 above that is one of our newer machines - and they are very large.

Canada is around 5,000 or so miles wide as is the U S and not as high but still very large. That is why we have such large trains in height and length (and horsepower) in loco's, cars and number of cars per train at times.

Vancouver Island is roughly the size of the main U K - England. Scotland and Wales. I do think the U K is slightly larger - but not by a great deal.

That is why your vehicles are smaller than ours here - you do not have the room for these massive machines.

Norm

[swisstrains]

Thanks for that Norm. Although not as pronounced as in your part of the World most of the trains in Mainland Europe are also built to a larger loading gauge than British ones.

[GWR9600]

Originally Posted by Trev

I had to do a double take. I thought the two Canadians were at he head of a train of hopper wagons!

There is certainly a difference.

Me too those 66s arent that small!!!!

[swisstrains]

Here's another picture illustrating the difference in size between British and North American locos. It shows a trainload of "Freightliner" 66's being taken to the docks for export to the U.K.

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=182329

[locojoe]

Hi John I wonder just how big british engines would if the broad guage and GWR loading guage had been our standard guage.
Alan Locojoe

[Gandalf]

Hi John,
Looked at the pioc of the locos being towed but at the back one seems to be reluctant to be taken to the boat. For all their greater size the running boards look the same height so does that mean that couplings etc are very similar in height and style.
I still live in the days of hooks and chains.
John (G)

[swisstrains]

Originally Posted by Gandalf

Hi John,
Looked at the pioc of the locos being towed but at the back one seems to be reluctant to be taken to the boat.

Yes it does I suppose there must be some operational reason for having a flat wagon cut into the locos.

Originally Posted by Gandalf

For all their greater size the running boards look the same height so does that mean that couplings etc are very similar in height and style.
I still live in the days of hooks and chains.
John (G)

I can't remember what it is called but the class 66's are technically similar to an existing American loco (possibly EMD SD 70/75??) and it looks like they might use the same underframe. I imagine that the couplings will be the same as the ones you remember John, although some of the EWS Class 66's do have a combination coupling that includes a North American style buckeye. In the photo they are probably using an adaptor unless of course the newer Freightliner locos are also fitted with the combination coupling.

[pavorossi]

This might seem like a daft question but why cn't a handful of the 66s haul the train? It seems daft to use another engine.

Adam