2 axle European railcars vs 4 axle American

Why do so many European rail cars have just two axles
and American railroad stock at least 4?

Do 4 wheel trucks derail less?

Do two axle cars create less drag than 4 axle cars?

Thank you,

Mr. RG,
Already a good discussion of this in Rolling Stock:
General Discussion: Locomotives, Rolling Stock, and Equipment
http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=26174

Basically, better rail tracking, weight loading (heavier cargo), longer cars.

Thank you so much for the link and your input.

Would be interesting to know the ratio of car weight / payload capacity.

I imagine railcars with 2 axle swiveling trucks weigh much more than 2 axle railcars.

I presume a European train would require more cars to haul the same load
that an American train would haul with fewer cars.

American: fewer cars but heavier cars. European: more cars but lighter weight each.

Too bad those lighter-weight two axle trailer cars did not survive.
Think how much expensive fuel would be saved not hauling all thextra weight.

What are those contraptions I saw which had one truck with a counter weight? They go on some kind of trailer train?

Thank you,

Robert Gift wrote:What are those contraptions I saw which had one truck with a counter weight? They go on some kind of trailer train?

Roadrailer (bimodal) bogie?
http://www.triplecrownsvc.com/images/bi ... _bogie.jpg
http://www.triplecrownsvc.com/images/bi ... bogie2.jpg

Thank you, Sir for the links.

Interesting.

Withe relative light weight of the trailers, two trailers share one truck?

What I saw had some kind of very heavy counterweight; a number of plates stacked on one side.

Oh, maybe those were the terminating truck used at the END of a trailer train!!

We.re driving by at 55 mph so I couldn't see clearly.

Thank you,