Curiosity. How many trains would it take to carry the containers on this ship?
(Photo taken somewhere in the San Francisco Bay Area by my GF.)
Mark
Maersk Sofia has a capacity of 8,460 ISO 40´ containers. I don´t know, what the max lenght of trains is, but with a 50 car consist of container cars, each carrying 4 containers, it would take some 42 trains to distribute the load.
Close enough?
Holy moley! Well, it is the largest container ship in the world (334 meters long, over 1000 feet). The photo shows the ship approaching Oakland, CA, its latest port of call.
Mark
Actually that is 8460 20 ft containers, not 40 ft. Figuring that a stack train can be 10,000-12,000 ft long, thats about 350-425 containers per train, so that would represent 10-15 trains.
So, which one of those containers has my Merchants’ Row II kit in it? It’s supposed to be at Walthers on August 17th. I hope it’s on the top, so it will get on the first train out.
Yup, you are right. Maersk Sofia has a capacity of 8460 TEU, that´s Twenty Foot Equivalent Units - still pretty impressive figure! How many truck loads that would make!
Gee does anyone remember when those ships used to leave our ports that way?
Considering the fact that most well car have a 53’ container capacity, if Sir Madog is right about the ships capacity, it would take 42.3 100’ trains.
But who in their right mind would run a 50 platform stack train. Don’t bother calling a crew until you get to 120-150 platforms. Also I would bet you wouldn’t find a single 53 ft container on that ship. 53 ft containers are almost exclusively domestic. The containers on that ship would be all 20 and 40 ft.
Depends on where you are in the world 
For a transcontinental journey mostly through open spaces with plenty of room for long sidings etc in the US it makes a lot sense to run long (10-15 000 foot) container trains.
For shorter runs through urban or mountainous landscapes where you have little or no room for long sidings and possibly quite a bit of passenger traffic that has higher priority than freight trains, short and (by American standards) way overpowered freight trains are fairly normal.
E.g. up here in mountainous Norway in NW Europe, between our two largest cities (which are about 250 miles apart) we run seven daily 400 yard (1/4 mile) long container trains that carry 50 containers each.
Single stack - lots of tunnels and overhead catenary wire does not give enough overhead clearance for double stack container trains. We might be able to extend that to 75 containers with some more lengthening of sidings.
Anyways - just a digression. I of course agree that it would have been fairly ineffective to transport 8000 containers 50 containers at a time from the west coast of the US to Chicago.
Smile,
Stein
There are a whole lot of well cars with 40’ wells out there. They also seem to be more common than a few years ago.
It has been a while since I bought a Walthers structure, however it seems like most, if not all, that I have bought were made in Denmark (if I remember correctly). I would guess none of those containers have it.
There have been many older well cars shortened to 40’ wells lately. New 5-packs with 40’ wells are also becoming more commonplace.
Most international containers are 40’, so by shortening the well cars, that 8-13’ from each well adds up pretty quick, adding a 5-pack or two to what fits on a track, say on a dock.
Just a few notes:
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International containers are 20 foot and 40 foot length. 53 foot containers are strictly domestic. Container ships aren’t designed to take them, because there’s barely enough space between transverse bulkheads for the 40 footers.
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A five-pack with 40 foot wells can carry 53 foot containers on top, but probably not over adjacent wells - so, 2 or 3 53s per 5-pack.
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When stacking, 20 foot containers go in the well, but never on top of a 40 foot container because there are no stack locks or reinforcing bands at the center of the 40 footers.
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Don’t hold your breath waiting to see well platforms on a West Coast dock. The containers have to clear Customs before they can be loaded on railcars.
And an aside. Maersk Sofia is apparently running in Shanghai - Oakland shuttle service at this time.
Chuck (Ex-Merchant Marine cadet modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
There are some international routes that have 53’ containers available. http://www.apl.com/equipment/html/equipment_specs_standard.html#53HC If you look at the satellite photographs of Los Angeles or Long Beach container terminals built around the turn of the century, you will find tracks on the docks. However, they look to be unused now as there is much equipment stacked on them as they leave the docks.