Top and tail

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In a top-and-tailed train, only the front locomotive is used; any other engines run "dead-in-train".

A top-and-tail

run-round loop. This is a British term. It is normal for only the leading locomotive to power the train when in top-and-tail mode.[1]

It is properly distinct from a push–pull train, which has a locomotive at one end and a control cab at the other end.

Trains going up

zig zags of the Khyber Pass are top-and-tailed, although Pakistan Railways
calls this by a different term.

In Japan, the term "push-pull" is confusingly used to describe trains top-and-tailed with a locomotive at either end. (True push-pull operation with a locomotive at one end is not seen on Japanese mainline railways.[citation needed])

Australia

In New South Wales the

‰) and 1 in 33 (3%, or 30‰) gradients
.

Occasionally a short XPT train operates with only one engine and fewer carriages, in which case the whole train must be turned on a triangle such as at Dubbo.[2]

Top and tail operation is also used for ballast trains which have to move up and down a line undergoing track maintenance. It is safer to drive these trains from the front when operating in "reverse".

References

  1. ISBN 9781607348573
    . Retrieved 6 October 2017.
  2. ^ "ARTC" (PDF). www.sa-trackandsignal.net. Retrieved 2019-12-30.


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