Soldier Summit, Utah

jordon412

33 Year Old Railfan
I've seen pictures of Utah Railway coal trains with four locomotives up front and four helpers about two-thirds down the train, climbing the 2.3% grade up and over Soldier Summit. All the locomotives Utah Railway uses for hauling coal trains use D.C. traction motors, not A.C. traction motors, which are very common on locomotives pulling coal trains. With that said, I wonder what the sound of a Utah Railway coal train, with eight locomotives fighting gravity to get up and over Soldier Summit, sounds like? I don't have my own car, so I can't just hop into my car on a day off work and drive all over the country to watch trains.
 
I'd assume it's similar to 250 car trains pulled by 6-8 ES44AC's through the Canadian Rockies.
The sound of eight 4000hp locomotives in run-8 fighting a 2.5% grade and hundreds of heavy rusty cars echoing all around you is an awesome experience.

Among the top 5 sounds you can hear IRL.
 
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