How much horsepower does a freight train have?

Answer 1

Locomotives come in a wide range of horsepower ratings. Mostly based on what its application was to do. A modern day,new, six axle, diesal locomotive that you see that pull those long, heavy trains will mostly have 4300hp to 4400hp. Those horsepower ratings are the industry standard in North America. But there were modern locomotives that have higher ratings than that - the General Electric AC6000CW or the Electro Motive Diesel (EMD) SD90MAC locomotives had 6000hp, but both were discontinued due to reliability issues. However EMD now puts that same 6000hp prime mover in the JT56Ace, a locomotive they make for China, of course an improved version. Some Europeon passenger electric loco's actually have more horsepower than the frieght loco's here in North America (fed from above power lines) - some over 7000 hp - but they do not possess the tractive effort (pulling power) like the frieght loco's have here, therefore there not very long trains- that horsepower they have is more for speed.