Mega Machines (2018) - full transcript

Narrator: Thundering through
the remote wilderness.

One of the toughest trains
on the planet races the clock.

I'm a bit nervous right now.

Narrator:
This heavy hauling mega train

must transport 1,300 tons
of timber a day

through treacherous valleys
and bustling cities.

Marthinsen: If something
falls off the train,

it can kill someone.

Narrator:
Can this monster freight train

deliver a crucial $50,000
payload on time?

Breaking this
extraordinary machine



down into its components,

we'll uncover
its technological secrets.

From high-powered
traction motors

to a reinforced
metal protective cab,

we'll reveal how this colossal
timber-lugging locomotive

evolved to become
a mega machine.

captions paid for by
discovery communications

The sprawling forests
of central norway

are home to one of the country's
most important industries...

Paper manufacturing.

Here in the town of honefoss,

workers gather more than
11 million cubic feet of timber

every year to feed
some of scandinavia's

largest paper mills.



Today, a special consignment
of 1,300 tons of timber

needs hauling to one of europe's

largest paper-producing
factories

in the far south of the country.

This factory supplies the
highest quality magazine paper

to publishers
all over the world,

including some of the largest
in the united states

to keep the factory running.

They need a continuous
supply of timber

to arrive on a tight schedule.

But lying between the forests
and the factory

is over 100 miles
of treacherous terrain.

To haul the timber
through this wilderness,

workers rely on this
super-tough cargo train.

This titanic train can shift
1,300 tons of lumber

in a single trip.

It's 7:00 a.M.
At the timber yard in honefoss.

For jorn marthinsen,
the site supervisor,

the day is already
in full swing.

Jorn's loading team
have just four hours

to fill each of the 26 wagons
with over 49 tons of timber

and set the train on its way
to one of this country's

largest paper factories
over 100 miles away.

It's very important that
we try what we can

to keep the schedule.

If they don't get enough
timber, the factory stops.

So we have to deliver in time.

Narrator: This single delivery
is worth almost $50,000,

so jorn can't afford
for anything to go wrong.

For an ordinary train,

moving this 1,300-ton load
is impossible.

But jorn's train is no ordinary
railroad mega machine.

This giant is the traxx 185.

Under this monster train,
four electric motors,

more powerful than
10 tesla model s cars,

drive four sets of steel wheels.

A carbon-coated pneumatic arm

draws 15,000 volts
from an overhead power line.

And 26 heavy-duty freight cars,

each with
12 telescopic gripper arms,

can hold 1,300 tons of timber.

These innovations
make this train the undisputed

heavy-hauling champion
of the norwegian woods.

The team used
two forestry cranes

to shift the 640-pound
tree trunks

into the waiting freight cars.

Giant 8-foot steel grips
on the sides of the cars

hold each trunk in place.

Jorn's first job
is to make sure every log

on the entire 400 yard train

sits safely
within these steel grips.

Just one loose log falling
onto a passenger-filled platform

along this busy route
could be fatal.

The train is going through
several towns with platforms

and a lot of people.

And if something falls off
the train, you can kill someone.

Narrator: It takes until 11:00
a.M. To secure all 26 cars.

Jorn clears the train
for departure.

Train is safe.

Narrator: Delivering
this precious cargo

rests on the shoulders
of driver sandra lahtinen.

Lahtinen: I'm glad that I'm
entrusted this task to drive a train

because of the responsibility

and to try my best
to be on schedule.

Narrator: Each fully loaded
timber car weighs over 63 tons.

And sandra must shift
26 of them at once.

The train needs to apply
a massive amount of force

to stop the payload getting
stuck in the timber yard.

The path to timber-pulling power

starts with
a highly conductive arm

that draws 15,000 volts
from an overhead line.

Onboard converters adjust
this electricity

to power four induction motors.

Their copper coils produce
powerful magnetic fields

that spin faster
than an aircraft propeller.

These tug the motors
in a rotor around with them,

generating enough force
to tow a 747.

So this train can pull
26 loaded cars

from a standing start
to 60 miles per hour.

For sandra, even with her
7,500 horsepower engine,

it's not as straightforward
as just pulling away.

This much power
could rip the train apart.

So I'll have to start very easy

to make sure I have
the whole of the train with me.

Narrator:
Sandra needs all the engine's

7,500 horsepower thrust
to shift a payload this heavy.

But if she turns
the train's motors

to full power immediately,

the incredible force
is simply too strong

for the couplings
between the driver's cab

and the freight cars
and will snap them in two.

Lahtinen: If you break the
coupling between the carriages,

you won't get very far.

You have to be gentle
with these expensive vehicles.

You kind of have to learn
to feel the force.

Narrator: The train has over a
hundred miles of treacherous landscape

to cross in less than five hours

to arrive at the factory
on time.

Sandra gradually picks up pace,
but she can't ease off

until she has enough momentum
to run at full speed.

Now I'm quite comfortable

that we are
going to manage this.

That's a good feeling.

Narrator: The timber train
carves through small villages

with a total carriage length

stretching longer than
the eiffel tower is tall.

It's a good start,
but sandra can't rest easy.

Many hazards lie on
the epic journey ahead.

The mega train must travel
over 100 miles,

from the middle of norway
to the deep south,

cross a landscape
fraught with dangers

that could cause delay.

From the timber terminal
of honefoss,

the train must wind its way
around fjords

and along
treacherous river bends.

Then, it must dodge
passenger trains

as it navigates
the busy capital, oslo.

Finally, the train
must scale steep hills

before reaching
the paper factory

in the southern city of halden.

But guiding this massive load
out of honefoss

has its own challenges.

The town is built
on the banks of the begna river,

and the railway tracks
follow its winding bends.

Take a corner too fast

and the entire train
could derail.

Narrator: More than 4,000 miles
of rivers criss cross norway.

These vast winding waterways

carve through
the hilly countryside

and are an iconic feature
of norway's landscape.

Lahtinen: Love driving
alongside the rivers,

and that's absolutely lovely
to look at.

Narrator: But these rivers
also pose a deadly threat

for sandra's mega freight train.

The track ahead follows
the meandering curves

of the fast-flowing begna river.

It's a long, snaking route.

But if sandra takes
the bends too quickly,

the 1,700-ton monster train
could run off the tracks.

Sometimes I get home,
and in my dreams,

like, nightmares of derailing.

Narrator: This is because
sandra's mega freight train

faces a problem that traditional
locomotives don't have.

Since the early days of steam,

traditional passenger trains
relied on the simple cone shape

of their wheels
to navigate bands.

As the wheels hit the bend,

the outer wheel rides up
onto a wider section of the cone

and the inner wheel drops down
on a narrower section.

This way, the outer wheels
travel further

than the inner wheels,

and the train moves
in a curve to follow the bend.

For traditional trains,
cone-shaped wheels

are enough to tackle most bends,

but sandra's 1,744-ton
mega freight train

is too long and heavy to rely on
the shape of its wheels alone.

It needs an added injection
of 21st-century engineering

to prevent it from derailing
around tight curves like this.

Beneath this 90-ton juggernaut

are two flexible
steering assemblies

that guide this machine
along the tracks.

Four steel springs

allow each assembly to twist
and tightly follow a bed.

Two smaller steel springs
at each wheel

absorb shocks from bumpy tracks.

A hydraulic piston at each wheel

soaks up vibrations
from the springs.

This smart system ensures
the train can maintain its speed

around a tight bend
without derailing.

The train navigates safely
through honefoss bends

and powers south.

100 miles away, in halden,
anders hauge johansen,

the paper factory's
technical manager,

is eagerly awaiting
the fresh timber load.

We have some of the largest
paper consumers in the world

as our customers.

Narrator: The factory
supplies a staggering 14%

of the world's highest quality
uncoated magazine paper

and produces upwards of
9,000 tons of it every week.

Johansen: It's a lot of paper.
It's a lot of rolls.

Narrator:
Demand for timber is nonstop,

and the factory can't afford
anything to delay sandra's train

arriving on time.

Johansen: This factory
is totally dependent

on supply of fresh wood.

Without wood,
there's no production here.

It's critical for our business

that the trains
meet our timetables

and are ready to unload
at the set, given time.

Inside the factory,
a giant debarker machine

strips the bark
from the tree logs

and shreds the trunks
into wood chips,

which are ground into fibrous
strands to make the pulp.

The team then mix
this pulp with water

to create a thick paper base.

Finally, the factory's rollers
do the rest.

They flatten
and compress the pulp

over and over again
to create the finished product.

In many respects, our paper

is the best quality paper
in the world.

We do here at the mill
everything we can to make sure

that our clients
get the right quality paper

in the right amount
at the right time every time.

Narrator:
But the factory can only operate

when they have
a constant supply of wood.

Back on the tracks,
sandra faces a new challenge

that could delay her journey,

a section of the track
so steep that speed alone

isn't enough to get the train
over the hill.

She'll have to deploy
this train's secret weapon.

It's a super invention.

Narrator:
Norway is a country of fjords,

deep valleys and hills

carved by glacier
during the last ice age.

They make the norwegian
landscape very mountainous.

But these mountains
pose a huge challenge

for a freight train
carrying a load

that weighs
more than seven blue whales.

Lahtinen: The landscape itself,
challenge for the driver.

It's not flat
and straightforward.

Narrator: The train makes it
through honefoss's winding bends.

Now sandra faces the next test.

The track ahead
follows steep inclines,

including a hill that rises
100 feet in less than a mile.

This incline may not sound
like much,

but for a train's steel wheels,
it's a monumental challenge.

When you have forces
working against you uphill,

you have to work hard.

Narrator: For a train,
having steel wheels

running on smooth steel tracks
is both a blessing and a curse.

On the flat,
it can roll effortlessly.

And pull five times more weight
per horsepower than a truck.

But on a hill,
the steel wheels lose their grip

on the smooth steel rails,

and the heavy load
pulls the train back.

This gets even worse
when it rains.

And once the wheels
get into a spin on a hill,

it's game over.

Norway's unpredictable
autumn weather

makes the mountainous landscape
even more precarious

for the 1,700-ton train
to climb.

And a recent sprinkling of rain
is the last thing sandra needs.

Enduring wet weather
is extra difficult.

Narrator: To stop it
getting stuck on an incline,

this fully loaded freight train
packs an ace up its sleeve.

Hanging in front
of each wheel is a metal box

that can hold
13 gallons of sand.

A small heating element
inside the box

keeps the sand warm and dry,

even in the cold
norwegian autumn.

A compressor.

Fitted with two
heavy-duty screws,

shoots compressed air
into the box

to blast a jet of dry sand

under the wheels.

This gives the train traction

even on the steepest,
wettest climbs.

Sandra switches on the sandbox

and fires a blast of sand
in front of the wheels.

The secret weapon for getting
up hills is the sandboxes.

Narrator: The quartz grains in
the sand are harder than steel

and dig into any small grooves
in the wheel or rail.

The sandblasted wheels
grip the track.

The train claws
its way up the hills.

Lahtinen:
Sand is definitely a lifesaver.

It wouldn't be possible
sometimes without the sandboxes.

It's vital that the sandboxes
work without fail

so the train can navigate
norway's mountainous landscape.

But the sandboxes are located
next to the wheel

underneath the train,

which makes them vulnerable
to wear and tear.

Even losing one sandbox
could cause trouble.

Narrator:
Deep underground,

below the city of oslo
is the place

that keeps mega trains
like sandra's in top condition.

At the lodalen repair yard,
engineers like philip simensen

fix up to a thousand trains
each year.

Today, philip undertakes an
inspection of an identical train

to sandra's traxx 185
timber locomotive.

This machine had an unfortunate
collision with a wild moose.

There's probably
some moose left here.

Narrator: And philip
suspects that the crash

damaged one of the sandboxes.

This could pose a serious
problem for the train

on its next journey.

Simensen: In norway,
the traction is very important,

because we have steep hills
and lots of mountains.

If you don't have the sand,

then might as well
don't come up the hill.

Narrator: Philip inspects the
underside of the locomotive

and identifies
the damaged section.

This nozzle is supposed to be
aiming to the wheel,

straight to between
the tracks and the wheels,

not underneath the loco
like it's doing now,

so it needs to be replaced.

Narrator: He fits the new
sanding components in place.

As you can see now,
the nozzle is pointing

in the right direction,
is pointing towards the wheel,

not underneath the loco,
as it was before.

Narrator:
With a brand-new sanding tube,

this monster train is ready
to tackle norway's

mountainous landscape once more.

Back in the driver's cab,

sandra approaches the halfway
point of her journey.

The further south she travels,
the more people she encounters.

First farms, then towns,
then cities.

With a surge in passenger trains
sharing the line,

red stop signs could light up
at any moment.

Sandra needs enough
stopping distance

or it could mean catastrophe for
this timber-carrying monster.

Narrator: Sandra's 1,700-ton
mammoth train powers south,

through the dense forests

toward farmland
and rural communities.

She's on high alert

and can't afford
to take her eyes off the tracks.

After 10 miles
of uninterrupted train line,

there are places where road
traffic must cross the track.

Colliding with a vehicle
stuck on a railroad crossing

is every driver's
worst nightmare.

Lahtinen: If you hit
a tractor with a train,

that might hurt, actually.

I haven't hit anyone,

luckily, but I've had
near misses earlier.

And, of course,
the kind of marks you.

It's not something
you can really imagine

before it happens.

Narrator:
As she approaches a crossing,

sandra sounds her horn...

To warn any rural farm traffic

that her mega timber train
is passing through.

Lahtinen: That crossing
doesn't have any barriers,

so you have to warn a potential
tractor or pedestrian

that the train is coming.

The main thing more
than anything is safety,

both for us
and for the community around.

Narrator:
Though accidents are rare,

this train must be built to
survive worst-case scenarios.

The snowplow is
the first line of defense

to protect the driver.

It can push a wild moose
off the tracks

without stopping the train.

Just above it,
two buffers with elastic rings

can deflect objects
as heavy as a small car.

A steel cage around the driver

is designed to crumple
in a predictable way

while keeping a safe
survival zone in the cab

during a collision with a truck,

and a high-strength steel wall
protects against sharp objects.

Together, these keep
the drivers safe

from almost anything
the journey throws at them.

Two hours along her route,

sandra reaches a metropolitan
city neighboring oslo.

She's almost
at the halfway point

but can't afford to lose time,

as the factory's production line
rests on her delivery.

We cannot keep the guys
in the factory waiting.

Narrator: The terrain changes
as high-rise buildings

replace farmland.

But as the scenery changes,
so does the danger.

Instead of worrying
about tractors,

she must now shift
her focus to passenger trains.

We're not in the wooden
landscape anymore.

Here, the traffic
is more intense.

There are several tracks here.

Narrator: Sandra's train
is three times heavier

than an ordinary passenger train

and has a much longer
stopping distance.

A collision with another
locomotive would be fatal.

It's a busy midweek
in the country's capital,

with more than 30 trains an hour
leaving the main station,

oslo central.

As sandra approaches,

passenger train traffic
surrounds her on all sides.

This is a recipe for chaos.

To avoid a deadly collision,

sandra has a team of protectors
guarding over her.

Tale frostrund is scheduling
controller in oslo's

train traffic control center.

From here, tale and the team
keep a careful eye

on all the trains
coming and going

on the lines in and around oslo.

Everything that happens
with the train

is monitored by us
and controlled by us.

A lot of traffic in rush hours,

during the morning
and in the afternoon.

Trains coming and going
every two minutes,

and it's quite busy.

Narrator: Tale and her team need
to keep sandra's freight train safe

by carefully scheduling
the other trains around it.

It's a little bit
like playing chess.

You need to think a few steps
ahead all the time.

Narrator: But when a train
is running late,

dangerous bottlenecks can form.

So the traffic control center
puts special measures in place

to prevent passenger trains
from slamming

into the back
of sandra's 400-yard

log-laden freight train.

Every time the timber train
passes a green light,

the tracks sense the wheels
and change the light to red.

This leaves a trail of no-go
zones behind our train,

creating a safe distance
for any trains following it.

If a driver runs the red,

a transmitter on the tracks
feeds a command to the train

to automatically apply
emergency brakes.

It's in our backbone.

As a controller,
you always think safety first.

Narrator: With these
in-built safety measures,

the team in
the traffic control room

can ensure the trains can go
as fast as possible

without any danger of crashing.

Tale counts herself lucky
to live in an era of rail safety

because much of today's
ultra-safe infrastructure

owes its existence
to a 20-year-old tragedy.

On the 4th of January 2000,
two passenger trains

collided in the town
of asta in norway.

The crash tragically killed
19 people.

In the wake of this
devastating accident,

engineers installed
automatic braking systems

on every train line
across the country.

I know people who were at work

the day
the asta accident happened.

And it's... it's difficult
to remember and to talk about,

but it's important
that we remember,

and it's important
that we work every day

to make sure that nothing like
that will ever happen again.

It's 2:00 p.M.,
and the mega train

passes through the country's
busiest station,

oslo central, without a hitch.

Lahtinen: Now we have passed
the busy area.

I'm hoping
to make up some speed.

That gives me hope that we will

reach our destination
more or less on time.

Narrator:
As sandra pulls away from oslo,

she reaches a stretch of track
that crosses the glomma river,

the longest waterway in norway.

The view is jaw-dropping,
but there's a problem.

The bridge over the river
comes just after a sharp bend

at the bottom of a steep hill.

Lahtinen: You have to be careful
when going down the slope

so you don't derail.

Narrator: And derailing
on a bridge would be fatal.

Narrator: The 1,700-ton
freight train steams ahead

over halfway through
its hundred-mile journey.

Sandra must be on her guard.

Beyond the rural towns
after oslo,

the terrain begins to drop.

Lahtinen:
The main key is actually

to have knowledge of the area
you're driving in

so that you know
what comes up next.

I need to anticipate
the landscape before it changes.

Narrator: If left unchecked,
the fully loaded timber train

could build up so much momentum,

sandra could lose control
when speeding downhill.

The gradients are hard
because you'll have to prevent

the train from
running away from you.

Narrator:
Sandra's first line of defense

owes its origins to 150 years
of engineering evolution.

If a driver doesn't
slow down on a descent,

a freight train
could derail on the next bend.

In the early days of railway,

freight trains had a brakeman
on each carriage

who would manually
apply a brake.

But in 1869, george westinghouse

invented an air-powered system
that the driver operated

to apply continuous
braking power to all train cars.

This is what most ordinary
freight trains use even today

to keep their cars
in check on a descent.

Sandra keeps one hand
on the air brakes

as she powers
through the smaller hills.

But up ahead is a 3-mile-long
downhill stretch

that hits a precarious bend
into a bridge at the bottom.

As she approaches this descent,

she must turn to another
incredible technology.

Because when you have a train
this heavy

and a hill this long,
air brakes alone aren't enough.

Using the brakes
heats up the discs

and wears down
the brake pads over time.

So the driver uses
the motors as brakes.

She slows their
spinning magnetic fields,

resisting the rotor's motion...

Slowing them down.

The wheels now decelerate
without touching the brakes.

The motor uses energy from the
wheels to produce electricity.

As the train slows down,

it feeds this power back
to the overhead lines.

This clever friction-free system

is called regenerative braking.

Sandra switches it on,
and the train's speed

gradually drops
to a steady level,

keeping control
of the 1,300-ton load behind.

She eases over the bridge safely

without even touching
the air brakes.

Lahtinen: It's amazing
to think that with the help of

the magnetic field in the motor,

it can almost stop
a heavy-loaded train.

Narrator: It's not only sandra

who is thankful
for regenerative brakes.

In the repair yard,

philip undertakes
a crucial inspection

on another colossal
traxx 185 freight train,

simensen:
And we see a huge difference

between the locomotives

with and without
the regenerative brakes.

Because the ones without
wear down the brake pads

really fast
compared to these ones.

Narrator: But no matter
how careful the drivers are,

it's impossible to avoid wear
and tear on these monster trains

when driving through norway's
rugged terrain.

Norway's a tough place
for trains to run.

It's not possible to avoid that.

We'll have to maintain it
and keep the trains running.

Narrator: Philip guides
the train down into the heart

of the underground repair yard
onto raised tracks

so he can access the brakes.

We got to check
the entire locomotive,

get underneath,
and it's messy, it's greasy,

and you get your hands dirty.

Narrator: Philip detaches
the wheel caliper

to take a closer look
at the brake pads.

Friction with the wheel causes
the surfaces of the brake pads

to wear down over time.

This makes them thin
and ineffective.

As you can see,
this is a new brake pads,

and it's like
three times the size,

and the grooves are much deeper.

Almost gone here.

And here, they are brand-new,

so it's a big difference.

Narrator: Thanks to the work
of the electric motor,

brake pads this worn out
are rare.

Those brake pads
are probably five years old,

so now it's time to change them.

Narrator: Philip replaces
the pads with a new set

that should last
for the next five years.

Back in the driver's cab,

sandra races
the mega timber train

through
the norwegian countryside

to deliver her precious
timber load on time.

On her right
is the stunning iddefjord,

a straight of water
separating norway and sweden.

And up ahead, the paper factory
finally comes into view.

Her journey is nearly over,

but she has one last challenge
to overcome.

The factory sits at the top
of the steepest incline

of the whole route,

and the only way to make it up
the hill is backwards.

I just hope we get up.

Narrator: Sandra pulls up
one mile short of the factory,

which sits at the top
of a steep hill above.

She may be on time...

But now faces the toughest
test of the entire journey.

For the train to run,

the front cab must be connected
to the power lines.

But the tracks closest
to the factory

don't have any lines above them.

This is because the cranes
that unload the freight cars

can't operate with
electrical lines in the way.

To keep the train
connected to the power lines,

sandra must perform
an extraordinary maneuver.

She must move the engine
to the back of the train

and push it uphill backwards.

This is one of the hardest
bits of the journey.

Narrator: Sandra separates
her driver's cab

from the front timber car

and drives the engine
on a parallel track,

passing the full length
of the payload

all the way down
to the back of the train.

She then reattaches
her driver's cab

to the very rear freight car.

Now she can keep her cab
connected to the power lines

above the train at all times.

But she faces backwards down
the slope and is driving blind.

As she edges
towards the factory,

sandra's locomotive struggles

to push all 26 timber cars
up the steep hill.

This hill we are climbing
is known for being a challenge.

Narrator: She cranks up
the power to the engines

to try and keep momentum.

Lahtinen: I have to be a little
bit careful not pushing too hard

because I don't want to derail.

Narrator: The laden freight
cars weigh the equivalent

of over 230 african elephants

pushing down the hill
against the driver's cab.

The wheels spin
as they struggle for traction

on the slippery tracks.

Uh, I'm a bit nervous right now.

Narrator:
The train slows down to a creep.

As dusk falls, sandra has one
last roll of the dice

to try
and get her up this incline.

After using sand
throughout the journey,

she is down to her
last precious reserves.

She fires a blast of sand
at the wheels.

Sandra hopes there's just
enough left

to give her 1,700-ton train

the extra traction it needs
to get over the incline.

I'm just watching the speed
to see if it's accelerating

or if it's decreasing.

Narrator: She edges the train
closer to the top of the hill,

hoping it'll make it up to the
factory without getting stuck.

Lahtinen: I know now that
the tail of the train

is getting close to the factory.

Narrator: The driver's cab
eases up to the top of the incline

without its wheels
spinning out of control.

We're not gonna get stuck now,
so I'm very happy.

Narrator: Sandra eases the load
right into the yard

as far as the overhead cables
will take her.

For sandra,
her mission is finished.

It's now time
for some well-earned rest.

We have arrived ahead
of schedule, actually,

so I'm happy and relieved.

It's gonna be good to get home.

Narrator: The team begin
to unload the precious timber

and deposit it into the factory
for immediate processing,

ready for the eager magazine
publishers around the world

to hit the newsstands
on schedule.

For the traxx 185, it's the same
again in 12 hours' time.

The mission has been a success
thanks to this machine's

four 1,800-horsepower motors,

the high-control flexy steering

that allows this train to handle
even the tightest corners,

and the efficient
regenerative braking system

that maintains momentum

without wear and tear on
the busiest parts of the track,

and the cab's reinforced
metallic protective shell

that keeps drivers
like sandra safe

in the toughest terrain
of the norwegian wilderness.

It's these incredible
technological features

that allow this
timber-hauling freight train

to be a true mega machine.