I stepped outside at work last week just in time to see an NS intermodal train heading east out of Cleveland. I saw a few single stack containers that each had 2 chassis stacked on top. Is this a new practice? Or is this normal? If it is normal, how do they secure the chassis? Do they use the corner mounting posts in some way? Thanks Rich
Re=-positioning equipment is somewhat common. Suspect the bottom chassis was upside- down/ fastened at the kingpin and there were a couple of bomber chassis mixed-in because of the intermodal shift.
Anybody got a photo of this, or a link to one ?
Rluke is this pic what you are talking about?
http://www.matts-place.com/intermodal/part3/images/jbhu900011.jpg
I’ve seen containers like that enough on CN that it’s no longer really remarkable in my opinion.
First time I’ve seen them stacked like that on a flatbed chassis, I usually see about five or six of them stacked up going down the interstate…
Dan That is a good photo and is very similar to what I saw. Thanks Rich
I’ve never seen such a configuration. Can anybody explain what kind of commerce is going on here? Thanks in advance.
If you are referring to the “commerce” in the photo linked above, the container in the photo is just another container - nothing unusual there. On top of the container is a “platform” with posts that fit a standard 40 ft container profile, and can be locked to other containers by using standard IBCs. Those posts may be capable of folding flat if the platform is shipped empty, and then empty platforms can be stacked. Platforms are used for loads that don’t need to be inside a container, or perhaps are difficult to load into a container with walls.
In this case the platform has a load of two container “chassis” (trailers), stacked one on another. The chassis are likely being repositioned from an area that has accumulated an excess to an area where there is a shortage.
A Bombcart is a container trailer used in yards or wharves only. They have wide guides to let the container from the ship to the trailer for speed loading. The containers are then loaded on a train or stacked for storage.
Thanks for that explanation. The bombcart - being solely a low-speed, intra-terminal piece of equipment that doesn’t get out onto the highway- doesn’t need the Inter-Box Connectors (“IBCs”) to be locked down, as they are to secure the container to the truck chassis for over-the-road moves. Here’s a link the webpage of a company that makes them and calls them that:
http://www.greenfieldpi.com/bomb-cart-/-terminal-trailers/
You can see in the photos the flared sections on the sides that would ‘catch’ and guide a container swinging from a crane’s spreader down and onto the trailer quickly, without a lot of fussy maneuvering, etc.
- Paul North.
Paul Those are some great photos of a ‘bombcart’. I did not know such a thing even existed. Thanks for posting the link. Rich