Quote:
Originally Posted by 5851a
|
Stop and think about this "test": level ground, steel wheels on steel track, tapered roller bearings on those steel wheels. Amount of friction to overcome? Very little! Rolling resistance? Again, very little! The only challenge is overcoming the inertia of a million pounds at rest. (Remember junior high school? "An object at rest tends to stay at rest, and an object in motion tends to stay in motion, unless acted on by an outside force.) Just a slow, steady pull will get those train cars moving. Maintaining traction would be the trick here. Any automatic transmission vehicle heavy enough could do this.