Interesting article, Bart. New Zealand's railways are different again. Our longest line is 681 km (423 M) but traverses some very challenging terrain, as do most of the lines. Starting and ending at sea level it reaches an elevation of 832m near the middle and in one of NZ's greatest feats of engineering, the Raurimu Spiral (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raurimu_Spiral), rises 132m in a 2km distance as the crow flies. Our most powerful locomotive is electric, runs only on (part of) this line and outputs 4,000 hp, though I cannot find any tractive effort figures. Our most powerful diesel electric is brand new (there's only 1 in the country so far) at 3,600 hp. In all the fleet is comprised of about 3 mainline diesel electrics, the pure electric mainline and 3 shunting types along with a smattering of other types. One of our other lines crosses a mountain range with the aid of a 1 in 33 grade, 8.5km (5.3 M) tunnel. It used to be electrified but now they run modified diesel electrics through it. Mainly used for getting coal out to port, it is also one of the world's top scenic runs.