How are trains able to start with so much cargo?

1.30K viewsEngineeringOther

Just passed by a train with a hundred or so cargo crates. how do they start? I understand how they continue moving, but how do they overcome the inertia of starting it? It has to be like thousands of tons, and I can’t imagine a bunch of coal being able to start moving that. unless of course it can, in which ELI5

In: Engineering

20 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

A whole lot of very smooth, very round wheels riding on top of very smooth, pretty straight, and very even ground. Round things spin very easy on smooth, straight, even track. Combine that with one or two train cars with very big engines to make just a few wheels spin.

You are viewing 1 out of 20 answers, click here to view all answers.