US Rail Vehicles on European tracks

[SuperChief]

Am I stupid for wanting to run American Rail assets on European rails Like the Amtrak Genesis and the super liner cars on the express corridor? I am thinking of making a scenario called Amtrak world tour

[johnmckenzie]

US loading gauge is much larger than central European loading gauge, which itself is much larger than UK loading gauge. In practice this means that whilst standard gauge tracks are 4' 8.5" apart and thus US wheels fit on European track, the actual coach bodies are too wide and too tall to fit through European tunnels and under bridges, beside station platforms etc.

[ex-railwayman]

I wouldn't say you were stupid, SuperChief, a little crazy, perhaps......

Just for a laugh I ran an ES44AC from London Paddington to Oxford the other week, American locos sit on the tracks OK, but, as John posts above/below, it'd never happen in real life because you guys build everything twice as big over there and they'd knock all our bridges and tunnels down if we ran them in the UK.

Cheerz. ex-railwayman.

[NDORFN]

The other way around works. I saw a photo of a British steam loco that was touring the States in the 40's or 50's. Looked tiny next to a US loco.

Found a black & white of it...

train.jpg

Note the temporary bell on the LMS.

[johnmckenzie]

Would that be THIS photo?

It's a great illustration of how much bigger US steam locos were than British ones - remember, too, that the Princess Coronation class was our largest non-articulated steam loco.

[johnmckenzie]

GREAT MINDS THINK ALIKE!!

[johnmckenzie]

Both the bell AND the headlight were fitted for the visit - neither were standard in the UK.

The loco is an imposter too - 6229 Duchess Of Hamilton was painted and named as 6220 Coronation for the visit, for reasons which have become lost in the mists of time.

[SuperChief]

Well I have wanted to run Amtrak on either the express corridor or maybe on one of the German routes like a promotional tour to show of U.S. passenger technology question is would anyone like the scenario and of course in the scenario "all the modifications are made" to run on the European routes

[PapaXpress]

Something to remember is that during WWII we (USA) sent a number of steamers over to England. They changed the couplers for buffers and off they went. After the war some of them came back home, and sadly put to the torch. I think there is a post here about all this from a couple years ago. One of our local historians put it together. I will try to find it, as it was a very good read.

[Chacal]

An ES44AC probably dwarfs the average British station!

[johnmckenzie]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USATC_S160_Class

and

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USATC_S100_Class

[thebigroyboyski]

There was 5 Alco S1s for Steal Company of Wales and 2 EMD SW1001s for Foster Yeoman in the UK. Although not common and very restricted to where they work some US sized locos have worked in the UK. I think only 2 of the Alco's survive in preservation.
It is because of the reliability of the EMDs that yeoman ordered class 59s, a UK loading gauged SD40-2 which in turn led to the class 66 invasion.

"Edit" it was actually 1 SW1001 to Foster Yeoman and 1 to another aggregates company Hanson.

[PapaXpress]

John was it you who sent me all those great PM's awhile back on the history of UK railroads? If so I really wish I reposted them here. I seemed to have lost them when my inbox was flooded with admin PMs awhile ago.

[johnmckenzie]

Yes, that was me.

I can think up / dig out some info if anyone would be interested?

[Toonces]

I wouldn't say you were stupid, SuperChief, a little crazy, perhaps......

Just for a laugh I ran an ES44AC from London Paddington to Oxford the other week, American locos sit on the tracks OK, but, as John posts above/below, it'd never happen in real life because you guys build everything twice as big over there and they'd knock all our bridges and tunnels down if we ran them in the UK.

Cheerz. ex-railwayman.

Not everything over here is double-stack, but that's the direction that the railroads are headed. They have been rebuilding tunnels as required and gradually extending the range.

I tried the same thing with the ES44AC at the Oxford station, and I noted that the engine and boxcars intersected with the station platforms. Which oddly enough didn't cause a crash, but it did look weird.

I would note that even over here, high platforms are generally incompatible with freight traffic, so if there is no track past the station that doesn't go next to the platform, they have to install a gauntlet track.