The most gargantuan machines on Earth usually operate far outside the public eye, in remote corners of the globe where the substances that make modern life possible are extracted from the ground. We’ve previously posted about one such device, an abandoned component of a German coal-mining operation. Today we’d like to focus on another plus-sized metal marvel: The locomotives that haul Western Australian coal from Newman to Nelson Point:
The 426-kilometre railway line from Newman to Nelson Point is one of Australia’s longest privately-owned railways. It services the mines – with spur lines to Mt Whaleback, Orebodies 18, 23, 25 and 29, Jimblebar, Yandi and Area C – with the longest and heaviest trains in the world.
A typical train will have six, 6,000 horsepower locomotives pulling more than 26,000 tonnes of ore. Most trains are 208 cars, each carrying approximately 125 tonnes of ore.The trains are up to 3.75 kilometres long and the journey from Newman to Port Hedland takes approximately eight hours.
Once you finish being wowed by the sheer scale of the system, however, you start to realize why such projects complicate our move toward a lower-carbon future. So many billions of dollars have been invested in the coal-mining infrastructure, and entire regions—even nations—are dependent on the continued extraction of ore. If we’re truly intent on decreasing our coal consumption, what is to become of these systems? Do we leave them to decay into ghosts? Or can they be repurposed for cleaner ends? And how do you convince the politically mighty likes of BHP Billiton to go along with whatever the plan may be?