Longest Trains In The World

The world’s railway network spans more than 800,000 miles, with trains proving essential to the economies of almost every country on Earth! But the trains riding the rails are getting bigger, longer, and more powerful every year and some just have to be seen to be believed. From monstrous machines that cross deserts, to massive passenger trains that wind up mountains, let’s learn about some of the largest and longest trains in the world!

BHP Iron Ore Trains

We are starting with train number 3143 from Australian mining company BHP! That freight train was assembled way back in June 2001 to move vast quantities of iron ore and was designed to haul a staggering 682 wagons of the stuff, with each one 33 ft in length and 11 ft high!

From the Archives: World Record breaking train (2001) by BHP

In total, the locomotives and wagons alone weighed in at over 100,000 tons, and when fully connected, the entire wagon train measured in at around 4.6 miles long, that’s long enough to cart away 24 Eiffel towers end to end! It was so long that, at the time of writing this article, it still holds the record for the longest and heaviest train in the world.

BHP relied on that train and many others like it to heave away iron ore, however only the 3143 was capable of hauling over 90,000 tons of it in one journey. The machine carried that payload 171 miles through the Australian outback from BHP Yandi to Port Hedland, but being so heavy, it took a painful 10 hours and 4 minutes to do so, with the train travelling at an average speed of just 16 miles per hour.

Still, to move all that weight even at that speed, you need a lot of horsepower, which is the measurement of power produced by an engine to propel a vehicle. The 3143 relied on 8 diesel locomotives; those are the engines that power the train along, placed in pairs every 168 to 178 wagons plus one at the rear, which collectively generated some 50,000 horsepower! To put that into context, most cars and trucks run on 180 to 200 horsepower, so it would take roughly 1250 vehicles to produce the same power the 3143 does!

Union Pacific Big Boy

We need to head from Australia to America for our next train, which is aptly known as Union Pacific’s Big Boy. First delivered way back in 1941, the name was fitting because those titans weighed 600 tons and were 132 ft long and 16 ft tall. Back in the 1940’s, at that size, those trains were so big they would have just about squeezed through even the tallest railway tunnels!

Running from Ogden, Utah, to Cheyenne, Wyoming, they could heave cargo along at 70 to 80 mph, though laws at the time prohibited them to a not so impressive 55 mph. While the boys may not have been the fastest, they were certainly some of the strongest with 6,200 horsepower, those could pull a 3,600 ton train over the Utah and Wyoming mountains at some 40 mph!

25 Big Boys were constructed and delivered to Union Pacific in December 1941, with the last revenue earning run on July 21, 1959 and retirement in 1961. To date, just 8 have survived and were donated to museums across the USA.

But that’s not the end of the tracks. In 2013, one boy, the 4014, began a multi year restoration process, and, in May 2019, gloriously returned to service to celebrate the 150th Anniversary of the first transcontinental railroad.

Bringing the Big Boy Back to Life by Union Pacific

UP Monster Train IDILBF-08

It’s safe to say that America is no stranger to gigantic trains. On average, 84% of US trains are used for freight cargo, with just 16% for passengers, but in Europe it’s the opposite! Roughly 80% of trains there prioritize passengers, with just 20% dedicated to freight. As a result, American trains are typically longer and wider than their transatlantic counterparts.

In January 2010, Union Pacific’s test train, the IDILBF 08, ran from Texas to Los Angeles. At 18,061 feet, it was nearly 3 and a half miles long, the longest train ever assembled by Union Pacific.

The monster barreled along at 70 mph, linking 295 wagons double stacked with cargo containers, adding up to over 15,000 tons. That’s big even for America, but with 3 locomotives at the head end, 2 sets of 2 in the middle, and 2 at the end, that power distribution managed the journey seamlessly! However, when the 08 rolled through LA, it caused a shock.

UNION PACIFIC MONSTER TEST TRAIN 1102010 by gp60m122

Union Pacific had given no prior warning of the train’s size, leaving politicians enraged and regulators dumbfounded at the notion Union Pacific were trying to increase the size of the trains! There's evidence that longer freight trains pose a greater risk of derailment and traffic snarls. Since then, there’s been no plan for any trains that long to run on a regular basis; lucky for the LA contingent, but unlucky for the area’s avid trainspotters!

The Ghan

We’re hopping back to Australia now for the Ghan. That train is currently operated by Journey Beyond, and is made up of 44 carriages, clocking in at 2,300 tons and measuring nearly 3,600 ft long that’s 13 times longer than the Antonov An-225, one of the world’s biggest planes. In fact, it’s so long that on May 22nd, 2017, it broke records as Australia’s longest passenger train in over a decade.

The rail line the Ghan runs on travels through the heart of Australia, from Adelaide to Darwin with the north south transcontinental journey spanning some 1851 miles, one of the longest in the world. The train itself first began service in 1929, with its name paying tribute to the Afghan cameleers who blazed trails across Australia from the 1860s to the early 20th century.

While today the Ghan is a luxurious desert cruise for passengers, back then it really wasn’t. The railway track was prone to faults and washouts, meaning it towed a flatcar which was always equipped with spare tools and sleepers so that the crew and even passengers could repair the line.

You might be wondering why anyone would have travelled on that train? Back then, The Ghan was a steam train, and that route was the only one with enough water access to power the steam engines, so if you wanted to travel across Australia by train, you didn’t really have a choice!

Rhaetian Railway's Longest Passenger Train

If you want spectacular scenery, there’s nothing quite like the Alps of Switzerland, and there’s no better way to see them than via the Rhaetian railway, a train that takes tourists through the stunning vista.

In 2022, that track hosted the longest narrow gauge passenger train in the world. It had 4,550 seats across 100 coaches, adding up to a weight of over 3,200 tons, and over 6,200 ft in length, that’s as long as 5 Empire States buildings stacked on top of one another is tall!

Highlights vom Weltrekordversuch by Rhätische Bahn AG

Embarking on a 15 ½ mile journey from Preda to Alvaneu at a leisurely 22 mph, passengers wound through Brusio viaduct, and could look back to see the train disappearing and reappearing from tunnels in the mountainside. That spiraling track was specially built for the company and curves around the landscape to offer the best views of the area.

Unfortunately, you can’t actually ride Rhaetian’s biggest train; the colossus was a one off to celebrate the 175th anniversary of railways in Switzerland and won’t be entering regular service. Though winding up the track in one of the smaller ones looks just as exciting!

Sapsan

Russia is famously home to the Trans Siberian railway line, which at 5,771 miles long, stretching between Moscow and Vladivostok, is one of the longest railway systems in the entire world. However, another of Russia’s locomotive marvels is the Sapsan.

That high speed electric express is Russia’s fastest train connecting any two major cities in the country! Travelling from St. Petersburg to Nizhny Novgorod at an impressive 155 mph, that train finishes its 700 mile journey in just 8 hours, nearly half the time it takes in a car. Back in 2009, Sapsan reported its trains hit 180 mph, making them the fastest trains in Russia.

"Sapsan" train in transit."Сапсан" проезжает "Фарпост","Фарфоровская" платформа,С.Петербург by AB OVO

But that’s not the only record they’ve broken. Back in August 2014, Russian Railways opted to increase the trains capacity up to 20 cars, meaning it measured in at over 1,600 ft long, making it the longest of its kind in the world. Like that wasn’t impressive enough, that thing can travel through Arctic temperatures, sometimes as low as -50°C.

BNSF Freight Trains

Ploughing through the landscape of America are the brutish Burlington Northern Santa Fe or BNSF freight trains. Every day, 1,200 of their 7,500 trains traverse over 400 railways spread over 32,500 miles of track across the American landscape, making that rail company one of the biggest on the entire continent.

On average, their locomotives reach up to 6,900 feet in length, with their longest machine running in July 2009 from Los Angeles to Clovis. The colossus stretched to 2.2 miles, and was comprised of 458 wagons, each filled with cargo containers. Even their shorter trains have the capacity to take up the entire landscape: just take a look at this footage below!

BNSF trains in action by BNSF Railway

Trains used by big railroad companies have genuinely been getting longer since 2017, with some exceeding 12,000 feet! That is due to the adoption of the US’s Precision Scheduled Railroading model, which prioritizes fewer trains at a larger size.

According to those companies, longer trains mean more goods delivered with less fuel consumption, which saves on costs and the environment. BNSF are no exception, with their trains 200 ft longer on average than they were in 2021.

Stadler KISS

Mechanisms don’t need to be really long to catch someone's eye; just like our next train. A 2-storey train! The Russian Eurasia Stadler KISS is the widest model in the world at 11 ft across. It rattles along at 99 mph, and stands at 17 ft, making it the tallest train in this article, and quite possibly the world!

The KISS family of trains was brought to life by the Swiss company Stadler in 2010, after which the train was set loose between Europe and the Ural Mountains and has even been ordered by Caltrain in the USA, which’ll be delivered in 2024.

Its length is normally on the shorter side at 2 to 8 cars, not that it matters when you can pack up to 1000 passengers over both decks depending on the region specific design. That being said, in March 2023, 1,200 Hungarian passengers set off from Nyugati station to the Danube Bend aboard the longest KISS train ever, with 40 carriages making it nearly 1,600 ft long, that’s longer than the Empire State Building is tall!

Sahara Train Du Desert

The Train Du Desert is a state run freight train crossing through the sandy terrain of Mauritania. The train stretches over 1.8 miles long and flaunts up to 210 wagons, with each wagon hauling around 92 tons of iron ore a day. All that totals up to an average of 18 million tons per year; that’s the same weight as the Empire State building 49 times over!

The journey begins in Zouérat and stops in the city of Nouadhibou. The construction of that 437 mile line began in 1960, and the Train du Desert has been chugging along since 1963. While it’s definitely not advised, tourists have taken to hopping into the open top wagon filled with iron ore so they can watch the desert fly past for free.

How to ride the famous iron ore train in Mauritania 🇲🇷 by Travelling Tom

It’s dirty, noisy, dangerous, with no shelter to sleep or hide from the 104°F temperatures. But it’s one way of avoiding the train’s single crowded passenger car!

Indian Pacific

Here’s another train heralding from Australia! It turns out Journey Beyond, the operators of the Ghan operate another massive passenger train; the Indian Pacific. The passenger train measures 2,880 ft, that’s as long as 8 standard football fields!

Weighing in at over 1,800 tons, that beast twists across the outback at a maximum speed of 71 mph, covering 2,700 miles on a single track rail from Sydney to Perth, which is the span of the entire continent in some 65 hours. The train has 16 accommodation cars, 3 restaurant carriages, and 2 lounge cars for passengers to ride in style.

But since it entered service in 1970, riding the train comes with its fair share of risks. In the desert outback, temperatures can soar to 104°F and then dive to 50°F at night. Those drastic shifts can condense the air in the pneumatic break pipes into water, causing the brakes to malfunction, so train operators need to be on the ball.

Because of how dangerous being stranded in the outback can be, and with the limitations of a single track line, technicians drive ahead of the train to make sure the railway is smooth and clear. Any kinks in the line can damage the train, and any animal bodies lying on the tracks can damage the train’s engines if hit.

The Great Circus Train

When it comes to circuses, one of the greatest of them all is the travelling Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey circus. But how do you pack up and travel with an entire gigantic show? It turns out a circus with a long name needed some long trains!

In 2010, the Ringling’s two trains measured a staggering 6,100 ft long and pulled along 60 railcars, including 4 elephant stock cars. When fully loaded, the train would weigh 750,000 tons, that’s like pulling the weight of 2 entire Empire State buildings, and then some more!

Ringling Bros. Circus Train on the Railroad by Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey

The original train first started service in 1872, doubling to two trains by 2010, which journeyed all over the USA, and made them 2 of the longest privately owned trains in the world. Each performed in 41 cities, and travelled 35,700 miles a year.

That was until 2017 when, after years of animal rights protests and diminishing ticket sales, the circus closed down, and its trains were retired after 146 years. Though that isn’t the end of Ringling Brothers. In 2023, the circus returned, without the animals. Sadly, its legendarily long train was decommissioned, and won’t be returning either.

AutoHaul

Did you know that the world’s biggest robot is nearly 1½ miles long? And it’s a train! It goes by the name AutoHaul, straight from the land down under, brought to life in 2018 by the mining company Rio Tinto. Being technically classed as a robot, the train is completely autonomous, with no human driver on that train at all.

That mechanical marvel heaves a whopping 240 wagons, each loaded with approximately 116 tons of iron ore, adding up to over 30,000 tons! Powered by 3 diesel locomotives, it transports its load over 170 miles from Tom Price to the port of Cape Lambert.

The whole trip, from loading to dumping cargo, can be completed in 40 hours. While the AutoHaul ventures on, operators back in Perth, located more than 930 miles away, monitor the entire journey remotely.

Impressive, but that tech doesn’t come cheap; the whole project cost AutoHaul $1.3 billion Australian dollars, that’s some $940 million in US dollars. That is a major step into full scale autonomous operation of the railways as we know them, which is pretty terrifying when you think about it.

Loram Rail Grinder RG400

Naturally, trains don’t run by themselves; they need railway tracks to run across. But who keeps those lines in check? That’d be rail grinders, machines that run along tracks, smoothing them down, removing any bumpy or uneven parts. The biggest of those is the Loram RG400 from the United States.

It’s nearly 700 ft long, over 10 ft wide, more than 15 ft tall, and can grind at a steady pace of 20 mph. Each axle, that’s the rod that runs beneath a train that holds its wheels in place, can support up to 35 tons, that’s the same as supporting 5 African elephants!

With all that grinding, friction on the surface of the metal rails is going to make it hot and cause sparks to fly. Thankfully, the machine has water pumps so workers can spray that onto the tracks to cool things down and stop any fires breaking out. Loram’s water cars hold up to 25,000 gallons, that’s like driving around with 600 bathtubs of water!

LORAM RAIL GRINDER. To Close! OUCH!! by mygirl22ward

Iron Ore Corridor

Over in South Africa, the company Transnet is a freight, port, pipeline and engineering company, one of the biggest government owned companies of that kind in the entire world. But its biggest subsidiary is its Freight Rail operation.

Every year, their freight trains haul a whopping 60 million tons of iron ore from Sishen to Saldanha Bay along an ore export line, satisfyingly known as the Ore Corridor. In August 1989, they launched their biggest train ever, stretching over 4.5 miles long and tipping the scales at roughly 79,000 tons, that’s about the same weight as the entire Eiffel Tower and 8 times over!

It boasted 660 wagons, each weighing over 20 tons by themselves and carrying over 90 tons of ore. Powering that beast was a squad of 9 electric locomotives and 7 diesel engines, which hauled the gargantuan load and ensured a smooth ride through the rugged terrain.

Sishen Saldanha record breaker train by Gerhard Lesch

When the train first set off, it took 12 minutes to pass the watching engineers. The steep gradient of the tracks, combined with the train’s weight, length, and distance it traveled, made some sceptics worry that the machine would run into severe technical difficulties.

If it did, and it was traveling at just 9mph, with all that weight and momentum behind it, the entire train would’ve needed a breaking distance of almost 2 miles to come to a complete stop! However, as you now know, the plan went off without a hitch.

Carajás Railway

18% of all iron ore comes from Brazil and one of the largest iron ore mines in the world is in Carajás, and is operated by Vale, one of the world’s biggest mining companies. To transport that iron, they use incredibly long freight trains.

In 2020 alone, those mega machines transported over 110 million tons of raw materials from the mine, that’s like carrying 17 Great Pyramids of Giza! Vale’s biggest train spans 2 miles long and heaves a convoy of 330 wagons from Carajás to Ponta da Madeira, filled with ore. For Vale, those trains are worth their weight in gold, or in that case, iron.

O maior Trem do Mundo na estrada de ferro Carajás by Ferrovia Sul

However, since its first journey in 1985, those trains have come at a greater cost to communities. The Carajás railroad cuts through at least 130 indigenous villages, which sadly means the constant rumble and tremors from those super heavy trains has left some locals with permanent migraines.

The absence of bridges over the tracks means crossing it is very unsafe; houses routinely experience damage from the tremors, along with noise, water and air pollution. So, while those big trains are pretty mesmerizing to look at, they also come with big consequences.

Nederlandse Spoorwegen's Longest Train

On February 19th, 1989, Dutch rail company Nederlandse Spoorwegen celebrated their 150th anniversary the only way they knew how, by driving a really long train! It linked together 70 passenger carriages, measured over 5,600 ft, weighed over 3,000 tons, and made its way from Kijfhoek to Eindhoven Beukenlaan station.

[HQ] Longest passenger train in the world record NS (1989) - Dutch by Great Woutern Railways

Seasoned drivers Arie Wander and Cor de Rijke had been handpicked for the job due to their experience and then sworn to strict secrecy about the massive train. Driving the goliath wasn’t a walk in the park.

Despite their experience, Wander and Rijke had never steered anything like that before and the carriages weren’t designed to be convoyed to such an extraordinary length. Ever watchful crowds lingered around the station, piling the pressure on the nervous drivers. Undeterred, Wander and Rijke rose to the challenge, and Nederlandse Spoorwegen earnt its place as the operators of one of the world’s longest passenger trains.

SheshNaag: Longest Ever 2.8 km Train

We’ve covered the United States, Russia, and most of Europe, but we haven’t looked to India yet, because we were saving some of the best and biggest for last! First, we need to take a look at the South-East Central Railways or SECR operated Shesh Naag.

That behemoth spans about 1.7 miles long, weighs over 23,000 tons, and flaunts 251 wagons. In 2020, India’s minister of commerce and Industry proudly announced they were running that train, which was one of the longest trains ever to grace India’s tracks.

The machine was created by combining four BOXN rakes; those are Indian freight trains, to make that one mahoosive train! It first travelled 161 miles from Nagpur to Korba in 6 hours, that’s 4 hours quicker than your average car.

The Shesh Naag appeared as a result of the COVID epidemic; fewer passenger trains on tracks meant less traffic, allowing for big trains like that. But unlike many of the super long trains in this article, which like to run a record breaking train once and then never again, SECR has run that 4 rake formation multiple times.

In January 2021, SECR operated the ‘Super Shesh Naag’, another 1.7 mile long freight train comprised of the 4 BOXN rakes hauling coal from Nagpur to Korba, then again in May 2022. The world was getting used to the sight of the Shesh Naag, and then in August 2022, SECR tested their latest locomotive monster, the Super Vasuki.

At a whopping 2.1 miles long, the 295 wagoned freight train was powered by no less than 6 locomotives, carrying more than 28,600 tons of coal. That’s enough to fire a 3000 megawatt power plant for an entire day! I wonder if India are working on an even bigger train.

I hope you were amazed at the longest trains in the world! Thanks for reading.