Assume you can hook every locomotive and car Union Pacific owns up into a single gigantic freight train. Safety and laws aside, would it work?
In: Physics
Trains have a decently low level of friction with steel wheels rolling on steel tracks, but that is not the same as no friction and it adds up. There is also the friction in the moving parts of the cars themselves. Eventually the resistance generated be more than an engine can pull.
So you start adding on engines. More engines = more power to pull. But the resistance is still there and now you end up straining the connections between the cars and the cars themselves. Eventually one or the other will give. Add any sort of uphill climb over distance and you increase the weight strain.
Now, you can fix that problem by placing the engines periodically along the length of the train. These provide a type of strain relief by applying the power along the length of the train instead of only at one end while pulling the full weight like an anchor.
At this point you are limited by the length of the track. You can only fit so many on the track.
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