Why are trains better at transporting large amounts of cargo than the trucks?
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They don’t have to stop/start very often. This has 2 effects: Kinetic energy isn’t wasted by braking, and the locomotive can have a very low amount of horsepower per weight of cargo (because it can afford to take a long time to build up to speed).
Also the friction between a steel wheel and steel rail is very low. They don’t need the traction that a rubber pneumatic tire provides since they turn by contacting the rail, and again, don’t need a lot of traction for accelerating/braking.
These all contribute to the very poor ability of trains to climb a hill. Cargo trains don’t have enough horsepower and passenger trains don’t have enough traction. James May has a very informative video on YouTube explaining all of this!
Also just had a thought, the fact that each car follows so close behind the cars in front of them means that the train can be quite aerodynamic for what it is. This is kinda like how geese fly in formation.
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