Essentially, it's pushing and pulling. Where the human factor of experience comes in (they are light years away with that for now) is weight distribution and the effect terrain has on the train. You haven't lived until you've been snatched backwards with sloshing hazardous materials behind you.
My run is from Birmingham to Atlanta. The terrain is challenging in that there are several hard pulls and many rolling hills which bring train handling into account. Trains will break if you're not careful.
Right now we have programs that supposedly help with fuel economy, but the train handling is terrible in that it creates slack in the train by reducing throttle at incorrect times. The programs are in its infancy, but I'll be one of the last of my kind before I retire, God willing, in 20 years.
On a side note, if you want to see the government bullied around just watch how the railroads handle them. In 2015 the major railroads were supposed to have finished their Postiive Train Control implementation. PTC is essentially a uniform train stopping program designed to prevent collisions with other trains. This is an enormously expensive undertaking and as such the executives, not wanting to hurt their performance bonuses, phased the process much slower than the government mandated timeline. The deadline approached and the railroads turned in their 30 day notices of no longer hauling hazardous materials on their lines to prevent violating federal law, and PRESTO!!, an extension was granted. I feel another one is coming soon as well.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
