Massive diesel freight trains are not actually powered by turning their wheels with diesel engines like an oversized pickup truck on the highway; instead, the gigantic diesel…

Massive diesel freight trains are not actually powered by turning their wheels with diesel engines like an oversized pickup truck on the highway; instead, the gigantic diesel motor onboard solely exists to act as a massive generator that creates electricity to power massive electric motors attached to the axles—they are essentially giant electric vehicles carrying their own incredibly loud, pollution-spewing power plants with them wherever they go, because the immense torque required to pull two miles of heavy cargo is physically impossible to achieve with a standard mechanical transmission without exploding, making it an amazing engineering workaround that proves sheer brute force can solve any problem!