Friction between the wheels and tracks is actually the only way trains are able to move large loads. You really don't want to overcome that...
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The heavier a locomotive is, the better the coefficient of adhesion, and the better the locomotive can transmit power to the rails without wheel slippage.
As far as I'm aware, there's no legal limit. Passenger trains do not normally exceed 12 cars (around 900 feet, dependent on rolling stock type), but many are much shorter than this.
What happens to toilet waste on trains? While aeroplanes dumping waste onto the ground is an urban myth, trains, on the other hand, are a different story. While modern trains won't litter the tracks with human excrement, the traditional method did just that. This is what was known as a hopper toilet.
During the post-World War II boom many railroads were driven out of business due to competition from airlines and Interstate highways. The rise of the automobile led to the end of passenger train service on most railroads.
The railways use a train detection systems which can tell signallers exactly where every train is and how fast they are going. There are also systems that can automatically stop trains if the driver doesn't take the correct course of action or passes through a red signal.
While many of us change our car tires every 50,000 miles or so, Metro rail wheels can travel as far as 700,000 miles before they need to be replaced. Good thing because changing the wheels on a single rail car can take more than a week, depending on the design of the car.
CLIMATEWIRE | The first U.S.-made high-speed bullet trains will start running as early as 2024 between Boston, New York and Washington, with the promise of cutting transportation emissions by attracting new rail passengers who now drive or fly.
As well as being unsightly it is a health hazard for train track workforce. At low train speeds or when the train isn't moving, the contents of the toilets are deposited straight onto the track.
One of the primary reasons railroads use distributed power is to increase the pulling power of the trains as the length and weight also increases. By placing additional locomotives in the middle or at the end, the overall pulling power of the multiple locomotives increases, moving the train efficiently and effectively.
Of that, each loaded car weighs 143 tons apiece with 100 tons of coal in each car. This is exclusive of each locomotive that could weigh up to 415,000 pounds apiece. Depending upon the daily fluctuations of coal as a commodity, the value of the coal itself could reach as high of upwards of $1 to $1.6 million per train.