Editing Unit train (section)

[[File:Db-152073-00.jpg|thumb|right|A [[Deutsche Bahn]] unit train working for [[Daimler AG]] between the factories at [[Sindelfingen]] and [[Bremen]]]]

A '''unit train''', also called a '''block train''' or a '''trainload''' service, is a [[train]] in which all [[Railroad car|cars]] (wagons) carry the same commodity and are shipped from the same origin to the same destination, without being split up or stored en route.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Unit train |url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/615316/unit-train |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] |year=2014 }}</ref> 
They are distinct from [[wagonload]] trains, composed of differing numbers of cars for various customers.<ref>{{Cite web | url = http://www.oliverwyman.com/media/WP07-MTE_RR-Wagonload-A4.pdf | title = The Mixed Train Concept: The Best of Both Worlds for European Rail Freight? | author = Oliver Wyman | quote = ...trainload service (point to point, complete train for one customer) or wagonload service (single wagons for various customers, assembled into trains) | website = www.oliverwyman.com | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130626120210/http://www.oliverwyman.com/media/WP07-MTE_RR-Wagonload-A4.pdf | archive-date = 2013-06-26 }}</ref>

Unit trains enable railways to compete more effectively with road and internal waterway transport systems. Time and money are saved by avoiding the complexities and delays that would otherwise involve assembling and disassembling trains at [[rail yard]]s near the origin and destination.

Unit trains are particularly efficient and economical for high-volume [[commodity|commodities]]. Since they often carry only one commodity, cars are of all the same type; often identical. Some commodities (e.g., coal) can be loaded at the origin while the train moves slowly on a loop track. The procedure is reversed at the receiving end, and because there generally is not any commodity to be hauled in the opposite direction, the train returns empty. In the [[United States]] the [[Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe|Santa Fe]] is credited with operating the first true unit train, hauling coal from a mine near [[Raton, New Mexico]] to a steel mill at [[Fontana, California]].<ref>{{Cite magazine|last=Patterson|first=Steve|title=A first for the Santa Fe|pages=12–17|date=February 2025|volume=86|issue=2|magazine=[[Trains (magazine)|Trains]]|publisher=Firecrown Media}}</ref>