What about the economies of better utilization of crews and equipment with higher speeds? As far as terminal delays, note the greater and greater percentage of point to point unit train operations. As far as electrification, let us get MIT to do some repentance for that fuel cell nonsense and do an economic study on if and why the power companies should invest in stringing the catenary and adding plant capacity and then charge the RR on the Killowatt hour basis. It would probably make economic sense Omaha - Ogden and Harrisburg -Pittsburgh, for example. Also increase capacity.
Fuel cell nonsense. Hydrogen is not an unlimited source of energy. It is an energy carrier. It takes more energy to make the Hydrogen than you can get out of it. All the research can do is make it more efficient than a battery or flywheel . But not an electric wire.
I don’t think Iran will get the ICBM at all because if the U.S does attack Iran, Isreal will. I also have a strange feeling that India won’t let Iran have them have it either. Although Pakistan and Indian hate each other, they both know that a nuclear battle would do more harm than good. India has a president and Pakistan has a military like government. Iran how ever concerns me because the whole suicide bombing thing that thease Muslim extremest governments, supposedly is a big thing with Allah. I would have to read the Kuran on that because it sound like a twist of words to me. At any rate that is how they contrue their beliefs and so why wouldn’t they nuke someone. If they got nuked than they go to Allah so you can see why we need to me more concerned with Iran than with North Korea. If the U.N is not going to do their job, than the U.S and Isreal who would also be on Iran’s hit list; will have no choice but to attack long before a missle system would be needed. Besides why do we need another missle defence system? What’s wrong with NORAD?
Most CN locomotives are geared for 65 mph or less, so no 90 mph trains up here. Anyway some of the kickers we see on freights would not stay on the tracks at that speed.
I disagree. Intermodal’s Bust one by us when were moving at around 65-70 MPH.
I know on the Island of montreal it is 65 MPH max for freight, 35 MPH for hazardous material trains- (montreal City bylaw) , but once off the island the speed increases… I’m sure it’s not 90 MPH- But it is 75, 80 MPH, it must be- Otherwise we have a lot of trains breaking the rules.
Passenger trains can move upwards of 110-115 MPH on and off the island, Unless otherwise stated, around curves etc…
You can sneak up on 80 mph with some intermodal equipment, but, if you want to go faster than that, you start needing some better suspension. Amtrak’s Roadrailers use swing motion trucks, for example. For “regular” freight cars, the truck hunting threshold speed is much lower - much past 60 and you’re looking for trouble. Conrail once tried what was really a pretty slick move - moving empty mill gons back from Chicago to Buffalo on the head end of TV11. It saved about two day’s transit. Unfortunately, the empty mill gons with worn wheels would become unstable at speeds just over 50 mph and there was a large derailment just east of Cleveland.
In the jointed rail days, truck hunting wasn’t a problem because the slight irregularities at the joints stopped the instability from “building up”.
Kevin ! Even though the CPs AC4400CW have 75 mph gearing, I doubt very much if they get up to that speed, and Vias F40s have max gearing for 95mph and while P42s are 110mph ,they never will attain that on CN track with even with the banking on the LRC cars.
A few comments on European RR (I am describing what is going on in front of my office…the main north south route trough the alps, Gotthard)
speed: indeed there is a lot of freight trains making over 100km/h (>63 mph), they are then quite short, even for European standards, but frequent (over 20/day). They are premium freight, like intermodal or containers. Having often quite a lot of empty cars, it seems that they are scheduled, and they leave independently from the percentage of loaded cars.
Wasn’t the idea ‘frequent, fast trains’ the strategy of the Nickel plate as opposite of the slow ‘drags’ of competitors?
max tonnage : in Europe there are no 10 000 tons trains, mostly because there is no use for them, and thus the necessary technology was not developed (e.g. stronger coupling). That because there is a network of channels and rivers covering a good part of central Europe where the ‘bulk’ stuff like coal can be moved a lot cheaper that by train (and in Europe there are not so much coal powered power stations). Also to wait until you have a 10 000 ton trains for one destination would take too much time. Distances are shorter, users more spread out and travel time is measured in hours, not days. Waiting days&days to put toghether a 100+ cars train for a destination, beside for few commodities, would be not acceptable.
A few comments on European RR (I am describing what is going on in front of my office…the main north south route trough the alps, Gotthard)
speed: indeed there is a lot of freight trains making over 100km/h (>63 mph), they are then quite short, even for European standards, but frequent (over 20/day). They are premium freight, like intermodal or containers. Having often quite a lot of empty cars, it seems that they are scheduled, and they leave independently from the percentage of loaded cars.
Wasn’t the idea ‘frequent, fast trains’ the strategy of the Nickel plate as opposite of the slow ‘drags’ of competitors?
max tonnage : in Europe there are no 10 000 tons trains, mostly because there is no use for them, and thus the necessary technology was not developed (e.g. stronger coupling). That because there is a network of channels and rivers covering a good part of central Europe where the ‘bulk’ stuff like coal can be moved a lot cheaper that by train (and in Europe there are not so much coal powered power stations). Also to wait until you have a 10 000 ton trains for one destination would take too much time. Distances are shorter, users more spread out and travel time is measured in hours, not days. Waiting days&days to put toghether a 100+ cars train for a destination, beside for few commodities, would be not acceptable.
Adding to what Sebastiano said, I remember reading that trailing loads on the SBB up the north and south ramps of the Gotthard are limited to 800 tonnes (1 tonne = 1 metric ton = ca. 1.1 US tons). This was about 20 years ago when standard power on freights was an Re6/6 (B+B+B). These locomotives are good for about 10,000 HP. They were generally assisted by a pair of Re 4/4’s cut in ahead of the point where the 800 tonne trailing load limit would be exceeded. Freights were generally run at about 80 KPH (50 mph) which is about the l
The biggest German freights are around 6000ton trains and are limited to 80km ((50mph)) tops when loaded. When these unit trains are empty they are allowed 120km ((75mph)), and this is realy only to get out of the path of passenger trains, there is no ecconmy otherwise to go so fast and when loaded they cannot exede the 50mph. The average speeds are low because they spend alot of time in the hole waiting for passenger traffic to pass.
Other small loaded coal trains in Briton of about 1500 tons are also alowed 75mph but the economy in it again is to try to keep the passenger lines clear. You could not run the bulk freight trains at these speeds economicaly on their own. The European governments pay for the cost differences.
Canada never ran any freights legaly at 90mph that I ever heard of.
But wait !! USA does have high speed freight … 110mph !!! Amtrak runs a short train of loaded boxcars only from Springfeild to DC on the NEC. Pulled by an electric… I beleive they call it train 13, and it is very short in consist but has no passenger traffic, so isn’t this a “hi speed freight” ?! Correct me if I’m wrong here.
The thing here is that even if freight trains ran at high speed it wont help if it has to sit at a yard being sorted and resorted for up to 48hours or more and have to stop at at least 5 classification yards on its way to the customers siding. You can get transit times from BNSFs website and intermodal transit times from skedz.com. 14-15 days coast to coast for a boxcar…5-8 days for a COFC.
It takes 6 to 8 hours to load a Pig train.
Why the hell does it take that long. How long does it take to forklift a trailer on to an intermodal car? It must be because they are waiting for transfers from another train.
It takes about 3 minutes to load a container on a stack car, but:
First you have to spot the track with empites
Then, you have to spot the containers to be loaded
After they’re loaded, you may have to pull the track so you can set some more empties.
Then, you have to inspect the train
Finally, you have to put the power on, pump up the air, and do an air test
NOW, you can depart.
Typically, a RR will want a load at least 2 hrs prior to dept. and will make a load available 2 hrs after arrival (unless you company initials are UPS)
You try to load 100+ container trains quick. Try not to employ so many people that you loose your edge. You could of course run 10 trains of about 10 containers each in succession or even 100 trucks. Wich ever is economical.
Some crowded intermodal terminlals are quite fast due to lack of space but it would be better if they had the space to load and unload more efficiently.
Don’t they seperate containers and trailers before Chicago. If you only load containers on certain designated well cars, than it would be easier for Chicago to just simply hump the well cars. Seperated the Los Angelas bound cars from the Seatle bound cars. Is there any way that the railroads could do that quickly?
NORAD cannot shoot down any missile. It is a warning system only. The best it can do is tell Air Combat Pacific (USAF), Pacific Air Forces (USAF), or the Navy and hope someone can get lucky and do something. By that time it would be too late. Also, I forgot to mention that presently, there are no air interceptor missiles (AIM) that can be depended upon shoot down another missile. We have no missile defense system currently.
How will India keep Iran from getting or developing ICBMs?
I am not willing to just sit around and hope the best case happens. It is better to be prepared than to be caught off guard.
What happened to all the systems that were there during the cold war? What about the SDI defence systems that were supposedly built to stop the Soviet’s missles? I was certain that they installed a satelite that sent out a trigger signal that detonated the missle upon entering orbit.
To answer you about India; India has always been a target of terrorist attacks ever since Pakistan separated from India. India will attack Iran if they think that they will supply nukes to the terrorist.
SDI was never really built. The threat that we would build it helped bring down the old Soviet Union. Their enonomy was aready weak because of the inefficiency and mismanagement inherent in a centrally controlled system, and from the burden of their military establishment. . They believed we would build SDI and knew their economy couldn’t compete. Gorbachev tried to reform their system and it collasped. Many of the actions and threats from the Soviets after WW2 were because they feared us so they created a buffer of client states around themselves. Regan extended the hand of friendship and convinced Gorbachev that he meant it. They worked together to end the Cold War. Unlike many of the enemys we face today, they leaders of the Soviet Union were reasonable people.