-=> Quoting Bob Wingender to Bob Wallace <=-
         [ ... text deleted ... ]
 BW> It is mentioned in several movies I have that "The BigBoy could pull a
 BW> train 5 miles long on level track". Would love to have seen that! And
 BW> I believe that would be more than 100 cars, right?
        A rough rule of thumb used to be that a 100-car train was
about a mile long.  Of course, with the varying length of cars now,
that may not be right on the nose, but still not too far off, usually.
        Trains of up to around 10,000 feet in length are not all that
rare now, leading to the need for much longer sidings than used to be
needed.
        A big factor is the strength of the drawbars, which is why
in mountainous territory (and sometimes even in less milly territory)
there are mid-train helpers and helpers on the rear end.  All that
power on the front would pull out a drawbar.
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