The ore train hauled by these locos is one of the heaviest and longest train in the world.
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If they were really clever they could have routed all that filtered sand into the sand boxes!
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Wild paint job!
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This diesel will ply what's probably one of the most forsaken-looking stretches of territory on this planet. The pictures I've seen of these SNIM trains looks like the great Carajas iron road 300+ car trains the CVRD hauls in northern Brazil, but with far less scenery and (no joke) land mines near the tracks at the railroad's port destination of Nouadhibou, Mauritania. In certain spots the you literally see only two rails stretching the flat desert horizon...no riprap, no signals, nothing. The train also has a lot of passengers. Many ride the ore cars either empty or loaded (though nothing like the crowded, ride-anywhere-you-find-a-spot trains in places like Bangladesh). The trains usually have 1-2 passenger cars at the end and it's a luxury to ride in one.
Here's the wild thing. An engineer interviewed on Al Jazeera said he's witnessed frequent derailments. Though sometimes help is needed, he says "sometimes we put the train back on the rails ourselves". I don't care how many guys are riding in the ore cars...how in the world could they put THIS locomotive "back on the rails" without aid of a crane, etc.? Maybe that's the advantage of having said "two rails on the flat desert horizon"?
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What a beast!
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