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Mangesh
That’s One Long Train
by Mangesh - January 17, 2007 - 9:38 AM

longest-train-world.jpg
I spotted this on Neatorama, and was stunned: the train is actually 1.86 miles long?! Apparently, it carries iron ore from Zouterate to the coast of Nouadhibou in Mauritania, and the fare is so cheap (just $5!), even hobos can afford the 430 mile trip. Link via Neatorama.

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Comments (8)

  1. The train must be more than 1.86 miles long because that is a fairly short train. Also, it must be more than 18.6 miles long because that is also not exceptionally long.If anything, it is 186 miles long, which is enormously long but still feasible provided engines are placed front,center, and rear in the train. An engine or engines placed solely in the front would rip off the couplings on the first car.

    posted by George Nathan on 1-24-2007 at 7:13 am

  2. The website itself says the train is 1.86 miles long (”nearly 3 kilometres”). That doesn’t seem very long to me, either, but I’m inclined to believe the country’s site and info about it.

    posted by Ann Daley on 1-24-2007 at 8:21 am

  3. i think this must be the same train that comes by Randolph Road (Rockville, MD) at 5:30 every night and holds up traffic for an hour…..

    posted by toni on 1-24-2007 at 10:50 am

  4. Longest train ever:
    Look up “Newman, Western Australia” in Wikipedia

    For a regular run, 1.86 is a long train.
    Regular length trains seem so very long because we encounter them in cities where they are moving slowly. In the USA, the Federal Railroad Administration sets the lenth of trains depending on many factors including what is being shipped in the cars and through were the train is traveling.

    posted by Joe on 1-24-2007 at 12:36 pm

  5. The longest train I could find listed was in Australia at 7.35 kilometers, I dont think its possible to run a train 18.6 miles long and certainly not 186 miles long!

    posted by John on 1-24-2007 at 1:10 pm

  6. Heh! Great comments… seeing as how I can barely run a mile, let alone 1.86, it felt pretty darn long to me. I’m glad to be proven right or wrong, though.

    I’m assuming that all my friends on the internet will agree with me that the fare *is* cheap, though. $5 for 430 miles is far better than I’ve ever gotten on Greyhound!

    posted by Mangesh on 1-24-2007 at 2:45 pm

  7. I AGREE WITH ANOTHER READERS COMMENT WHICH STATES THAT A TRAIN OF THAT LENGTH WOULD NOT BE A REGULAR RIDE. COMMON SENSE STATES THAT IT WOULD REQUIRE AN ENORMOUS AMOUNT OF POWER OR ENGINES TO MOVE IT, NOT TO MENTION THE FACT SHOULD AN EMERGENCY OCCURE, STOPPING THIS TRAIN WITH IT’S ENORMOUS MOMENTUM WOULD REQUIRE A LOT OF DISTANCE. IT WOULD ALSO HAVE TO START AND STOP NUMEROUS TIMES AT THE STATION AS IT CERTAINLY WOULDN’T BE 1.8 MILES LONG. I GUESS I’M SAYING THAT ITS GOOD FOR A RECORD BREAKER EVENT BUT NOT PRACTICAL FOR NORMAL USE.

    posted by JOHN BROWN on 1-25-2007 at 2:14 pm

  8. WELL…………IF YOUR TALKING ABOUT A FOREIGN COUNTRY WITH MOSTLY FLAT LAND AND USED FOR COMMERCIAL PURPOSES……..
    ……. WELL I COULD BE WRONG. #$%@#

    posted by john brown on 1-30-2007 at 10:57 am

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