The train travels at 40 mph. In one hour, it will travel 40 miles and consume 310 gallons of diesel fuel between the three locomotives, or 7.75 gallons for every mile. That's about 0.13 miles per gallon, hardly 400 miles per gallon.
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Freight trains in the US are often powered by two or more diesel units, each about 4400 horsepower. Those units are each supposed to burn around 210 US gallons per hour when they're producing full power.
1000 miles between refuellings would not be unreasonable for a road locomotive with a 4000 gallon tank averaging 40 mph on a line with a maximum grade of 1%. However I would want refuel before I am running on the bottom third of the tank, so perhaps 700 miles is more realistic.
Loading of coal and water and incidental maintenance takes a steam locomotive about 1 hour. A diesel engine can be fueled from a pump in 10 minutes or so.
Locomotives (10 to 4,000 horsepower), which may have mechanical transmission if very low-powered or hydraulic transmission for outputs of up to about 2,000 horsepower but in most cases have electric transmission, the choice depending on power output and purpose.
These can be as low as 200 revolutions per minute (RPM), in contrast to earlier locomotives which typically idled at 315 RPM. Many of the earlier units have been retrofitted with available low idle speed modifications to reduce idle RPM as much as possible, limiting noise and air emissions.
Federal regulators limit the speed of trains with respect to the signaling method used. Passenger trains are limited to 59 mph and freight trains to 49 mph on track without block signal systems. (See dark territory.)
Elements of the diesel locomotiveThe diesel engine may operate on the two-stroke or four-stroke cycle. Rated operating speeds vary from 350 to 2,000 revolutions per minute, and rated output may be from 10 to 4,000 horsepower.
Train engines generate thousands of horsepower and take an hour or more to warm up before they can start pulling rail cars. This is one reason there is reluctance to turn them off. Also, particularly relevant for a locomotive attached to a train, the brakes on the cars in the train do not work without power.
In the USA, staff were instructed to lock toilets when the train was stopped in a station and unlock them when the train was again underway. Mercifully, new trains no longer dump waste on the tracks. Instead, trains are fitted with chemical holding tanks.
Thus, while drivers may have fewer hours for sleep in between successive work periods, they are likely to sleep more often in a single day and to be awake for correspondingly shorter periods. Relay van workers must also sleep in noisy crew-van carriages that shudder and vibrate along with the movement of the train.
Usually 30 to 50 years but a diesel engine might be replaced by a more modern and efficient model after half that time. Likewise a locomotive's electronics can be upgraded, or adjustments to new signalling systems made.