A German Train Driver Called a Coal Train a 'Dawdler' - Then It Loaded 16,000 Tons Without Stopping

Lutz and Anke Brenner have driven freight trains in Germany for 30 years. Lutz drives a 3,700-tonne iron-ore train from the Hamburg docks to the steelworks at Salzgitter, and Anke keeps a small logbook of every minute their train stands still. In Wyoming for their son's wedding, they watched a 135-car coal train crawl past a crossing, and Lutz called it a Bummelzug, a dawdler. On Thursday, Gus Ferrell, who drove Powder River Basin coal trains for 34 years, took them to a surface mine near Wright. Anke opened the logbook at 9:06 to count the hours the loading would take. The train never stopped. A chute dropped coal into each moving car, one every 50 seconds, and a locomotive with nobody in it pushed from the back. At 11:00 there were 135 marks on the page. Chapters 0:00 The Train That Never Stopped 0:55 Meet Lutz And Anke 1:45 A Wedding In Wyoming 2:42 135 Cars And A Bummelzug 3:38 Wires, Power And 740 Metres 4:42 How Long Will It Stand? 5:52 Thursday At The Mine 7:31 Brake Wheels In West Virginia 8:27 The Train Comes In 9:20 The Chute Comes Down 11:13 Weighed Before It Arrives 13:10 Driven From Both Ends 14:16 Jolene On The Radio 15:32 Still A Bummelzug 16:17 Anke's Sum: 50 Ore Trains 17:00 1 Hour 54 Minutes 17:45 He Takes It Back