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The Freight's locomotive is based on an EMD SD40-2 and is avaialble in a gray/brownish color and is always marked with the code "309". Unlike real EMD SD40-2 units, where the doors are located on the front and rear of the cab, the player enters the vehicle using one of the two doors located on the sides, much like with a two-door car or truck. Although unmarked, is implied that the Freight is operated by Brown Streak Railroad.
The Freights can carry from two to four flatbed cars (internally named FREIFLAT) at the same time, which are actually stripped down chassis/carbody of the locomotive; the flatbed cars have ample room to carry up to a full size car along with the player, making the train somewhat useful in travel.
Both the Brown Streak and the Freight have some realistic effects, particularly the ability to derail at high speeds.
The train begins to shake above 190km/h, at which speed it will derail upon turning. Also, if the train is pulling more flatbeds, its acceleration will decrease due to the added weight and the length to entirely stop the train is increased. The Freight is immune to all forms of damage, including weapon damage, fire and any physical obstruction, however derailment will render it useless. There are no first/third person views when driving or traveling in the train, and the cinematic view mode is the only view available.
Although not making much appearance during the storyline, it has a prominent use in missions.
In The Beginning - A Freight train appears in the opening cutscene, forcing Pulaski to wait for it to pass.
Catalyst - A mission for Ryder. The player must steal weaponry from a Freight train. If the mission is failed before the train leaves, the weapons on the flatbed will disappear, though the Freight will remain locked.
In the Frank Tenpenny (C.R.A.S.H. mission) Snail Trail, Freights appear as dangerous obstacles heading towards the player as he is following a Brown Streak train to Los Santos. They must be avoided or the player will lose the train and fail the mission.
In The Truth's mission Green Goo, the player is required to steal green goo from an Army Freight train. The train itself is much larger than normal trains, and carry large amounts of weapons crates, along with a Rhino. It cannot be stolen, as the doors are locked.
Trivia
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
The Freight's Boxcar, unavailable without modifications.
In addition to flatbed cars, game files reveal that a boxcar variant exists, but remains unused in the game; third party mods allow the player to pull these boxcars instead of the flatbeds. These boxcars are depicted with a dirty, rusty light blue-grey color and open doors, as well as lacking couplers (Part used to connect railcars).
If the faster cars cheat is enabled, the Freight will appear more often.
The Freight featured in Green Goo has five flatcars attached to it. This is one of the three times a five car Freight is seen, the others being the opening cut scene and during Snail Trail, though the five flatcars consist does not always appear during this mission. Then, it comes with only one flatcar during the mission Catalyst and Snail Trail too sometimes. All other times, it has the minimum of two and the maximum of four. Also, it comes with two locomotives in the front and the back each with three flatcars between them in the mission Snail Trail.
If the train's engine happens to end up in water, it will stay afloat indefinitely, with the sound of the engine audible above and below water. The player can climb atop the unsinkable engine as if it were a stationary platform, a testament to the train's indestructibility.
If Freight missions are started and then canceled, the train will go into a 3rd person mode for a little bit. This also works with the Brown Streak.
The Freight cannot be derailed while it is traveling through a covered and/or straight track, such as a tunnel. Because of this, it is not possible to derail the Freight in San Fierro.
The vehicle can be locked on with a Heat-Seeking Rocket Launcher or a Hydra, but it will not affect the train either. When the health of a car is drained to zero after firing a certain number of rockets, it cannot be locked on anymore.
When in 2-player mode on a console, if both players are in the locomotive, they can both control it. This also applies to the Brown Streak.
Saving a derailed Freight in a garage will crash the game when the door is reopened.
Glitches
There is a glitch where the player can drive the Freight in 3rd person perspective, as they would a normal vehicle. This can be achieved by making the second player in a 2-player game hijack a Freight, then making player 1 jump on one of the flatcars, and then pressing the 'Select' button as player 2.
