Yesterday a train passed by with like 40 train cars and I was astonished by how these trains can even move with that much cargo behind it. How is this even possible?
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Moving something fo not require energy, that is on a level surface. When you drive a car the engine is there to accelerate you to the speed you drive at. What it does is counteract air resistance and roll resistance.
Ar resistance depends on the shape not the weight of the object. How large it is alos depends on the speed you travel at, charge train tends not to go that fast. It is the front that has more air resistance because has to push air to the side. This will be an advantage if you compare a single train to 40 trucks that pull the equivalent of cart of cargo each
Roll resistance on the wheels and is a lot lower for steel wheels on steel tracks compared to pneumatic tires on a road.
The result is the power needed to overcome air and roll resistance is lower compared to the amount of cargo you transport of a train compared to a truck.
Locomotives alos have very powerful engines/motors. We talk about 1000-10000hp for the one used to transport cargo and you can have multiple of them. compare that to a semi-truck that is at around 500hp.
So the remains you observed could have an engine power of 20 semi-truck and have less rolling resistance.
The train has less engine power per tonne of total mass than a truck, this is why they accelerate quite slowly.
The end result is compared to the cargo a train needs less power to move it compared to a truck and the have engine with a power of many trucks
If you look at numbers for diesel-powered trains vs diesel-power trucks you find results like
>Rail fuel efficiency ranged from 196 to 1,179 ton-miles per gallon while truck fuel efficiency ranged from 84 to 167 ton-miles per gallon.
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