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Vale pushes the limits: with freight traffic growing rapidly, Brazilian mining company Vale is investigating cutting-edge technology to increase capacity on its busy railways. Regional editor Theodor Gevert highlights the massive plans.

Article Excerpt
VALE, the world's largest iron-ore producer and the second-largest mining company, owns two heavy-haul railways in Brazil. Carajas Railway (EFE) carried 102 million tonnes of ore and general freight last year as well as a daily passenger train over an 892km 1600mm-gauge single-track line--and traffic is expected to more than double in the near future. Vitoria a Minas Railway (EFVM), meanwhile, carried an amazing 130 million tonnes in 2008, over a metre-gauge main line that is only partly double-track.

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So how do these mainly single-track railways carry so much traffic? For both railways the answer is high utilisation and a willingness to adopt the latest technology and to invest when needed. One of the most obvious improvements is the use of GE Locotrol to control locomotives spread throughout the train (known as distributed power) rather than having all the locomotives at the head end of trains. For years, since EFVM was heavily rebuilt in the 1970s, the railway operated 160-wagon trains with 98 gross tonnes per wagon. But there are limits as to how far this can go without adding a third track to an increasingly busy main line as iron-ore is a one-way commodity with all the trains returning empty.

Track tripling is expensive and Vale decided to test longer trains to improve efficiency. After much testing and to avoid excessive forces on couplers it was decided to run 320-wagon trains with four locomotives distributed along the train controlled by Locotrol....