Could Raildiary beat this train to the Finnish line?

There’s a new kid in town twice our size and definitely first pick for the wrestling team.

They’re a 7000 ton freight train called Morko, and they’ve just been introduced by Finnish freight logistics company VR Transpoint.

Not content with their previous record set in Spring 2020 for a train weighing a now measly 6000 pounds VR Transpoint states that the most important factor for them when increasing train size is not breaking records but ultimately cutting down on energy consumption and emissions.

Although the trophy cabinet getting heavier too must be a nice bonus

Coming in with a weight the same as 92 fully loaded lorries, Morko is made up of a whopping 80 wagons and is about 1km long.

It’s a lot of weight to bear, and it’s why Morko needs to be hauled by two Siemens Vectron locomotives when he runs between Vainikkala and Hamina.

Thanks to Siemens locomotive’s ability to haul huge weight, VR Transpoint has been able to continually push the envelope on the size of their freight trains, causing a natural shift toward shippers using rail freight as an option in the country.

Up until recently, long freight trains from Russia had to be divided up into several smaller trains at Vainikkala, on the Finnish-Russian border, but thanks to Morko, that’s no longer the case.

To create such a gargantuan record breaking freight train, VR Transpoint had to put a lot of work into both electrification and increasing the axle loads in order to be able to increase the train tonnage.

And if they want to create a bigger, better Morko, then the only option is to be able to increase the load capacity of the entire rail infrastructure itself.

If this were able to be achieved, the competitiveness of Rail freight versus its other competitors would vastly increase, with the added benefit of reducing emissions too.

Because transporting goods and people via train is already a tremendously clean method of conveyance, and this is achieved by making each trip as efficient as possible.

Which means that increasing the ability for a train, and the subsequent rail infrastructure to take on more and more capacity is vitally important in the quest to reduce emission and further minimise logistical wastage.

So, with the answer to a greener world and more efficient transport, the question now points to how we can further develop and support our existing transport infrastructures, and how planning around them can become even more strategic by considering the evolution of new and emergent technologies.

But thanks to Morko, whose name appropriately means “The Ogre” the route between Vainikkala and Hamina is as efficient for capacity and emissions as it can be for now.

But knowing VR Transpoint, it’s not likely he will hold the title of biggest freight train for very long!