503 of RWE Rheinbraun returns from the opencast mine Hambach on 10 October
2001. There is a turning loop at the loading facility so the train has not to
be pushed on the way back. The 21 wagons are filled with brown coal. Somewhere
I heard that a typical train carries 1400 metric tons of coal, but I think that
refers to the trains with 14 wagons that can be seen behind the older class EL
1 locos. As far as I know, the axle load is 35 tons, so a four-axled coal wagon
has 140 tons total, and so 100 tons coal per wagon seems to make sense. If this
is true, this class EL 2000 loco pulls a train carrying 2100 tons of coal.
<p>
Digital photo by
<a href="http://www-users.rwth-aachen.de/christoph.schmitz2/index.html">Christoph
Schmitz</a>