As N-13 clears 'Middle Gap', the northbound Intermodal train can be seen on the #1 Track climbing toward the summit. This grade is quite tame, when compared to the north slope.

The coal trains that have been seen in north Alabama on the Powder River trains have become routine, but this Monster is different. This is a heavy 165-car coal train! Consider each loaded car has a total weight of about 286,000 pounds (coal load plus car weight X 165 cars. That's a total train weight of 47,190,000 pounds, or 23,595 tons! All this pulled by four locomotives, with a fifth helping at Holmes Gap, that are among of the most powerful and heaviest locomotives in the world - three of them producing 4,400 horsepower, and one producing 4,000 horsepower in locomotives weighing 432,000 pounds (216-tons) each, equipped with GE's steerable trucks and Advanced Adhesion control (AH) software. Now think about the 286,000 pound weight of each car, riding on 4 axles, a 71,500 pound axle loading, and this train is riding on 660 of those load bearing axles! No wonder a CSX dispatcher referred to this train as the "Monster", and I heard one crew member calling it the "Beast". Both names are appropriate.