Longest Freight Train
This was the longest train I had ever seen. One week ago, Sunday, April 28, 2019, I was standing trackside west of Malta, Illinois along Union Pacific's Geneva Subdivision when this monster freight train passed. Despite the overcast and wind, I think my video turned out pretty well. The block of twin-bay covered hoppers right behind the two locomotives made me first think it was a unit frac sand train, but the Cryo-Trans reefers quickly confirmed that it was a manifest ("mixed freight"). With the help of social media, I can also confirm that it was MPRNP (Manifest, Proviso IL to North Platte NE). I expected a long train. After 97 cars and a locomotive mid-train set up as Distributed Power Unit (DPU), I knew it would be a long one indeed. The train kept coming and coming and coming, 101 more cars! At 198 cars, this was the longest train I had ever seen. I believe its length was due to the numerous Trinity Reefers sprinkled throughout, including a 25-ca...