The article Mr. Cain refers to in his post below almost has some useful information. It talks of trucks 90 to 100 feet long running on 7.5-minute headways.
That headway is 8 trucks per hour, but how does the length convert to tons, which the reporter did not provide and are the basis of any economic analysis and mode selection?
The author does not tell us what kind of ore, but we know that concentrates are dense. SP bought new 100-ton 30 feet (maybe 35 feet coupled) ore cars to haul Kaiser ore in Southern California years ago so let’s assume that 30 feet equals 100 tons. On that basis the trucks cited in the article would be 300 tons per truck.
8 loads per hour is 192 loads per 24-hour day. At 100 tons per load that is 19,200 tons, or one big unit train per day. If truck loads are really 300 tons, then the project is in the three trains per day ballpark. Even at one train per day, a railroad should beat trucks in this traffic with no trouble.
It would pay you to look at which of these thrived, and which did not, and why. Note that a principal reason for the Alaska Railroad construction was coal transportation – nothing of the kind applies today, even for specialty refined products… and, we might argue, for sustained crude transportation from the terminal of the Alaska Pipeline.
There were certainly roads that survived in bridge traffic… but there has to be both the traffic to bridge, and the need to transport it directly by rail, before that model ‘works’.
How many hundreds of carloads would be necessary to justify construction of A2A just to facilitate logging in the ‘isolated’ areas served by the line?
Much of the customs issue would likely be solved with reference to the type of traffic: either sealed in COFC/TOFC or in unit or bulk trains.
And substantially torn out, in one of the worst examples of competitive abolishment in the history of capitalist action… but don’t as
The original story that made me an AGW adherent in the early '70s noted that most of the United States wheat belt would be experiencing summer temperatures in excess of 140 degrees F by about 2050, and that grain production would be shifting to Canada as a result…
Sure. How would you like me to phrase any possible questions? I for sure don’t want to offend the guy. Especially if he might be of any help.
As for being a former governor, I recall that Alaska had a governor, maybe 20 or 30 years ago - I can’t recall any more, who was strongly advocating a major expansion of the ARR. He had one proposed east-west line that would connect with the existing ARR and extend all the way to Nome. I’m thinking he had a couple of other routes in mind, as well, but I can’t remember what they were.
Needless to say, none of this ever happened. This wouldn’t be the same guy, would it?
With all the Environmental Impact Studies and court cases, how much would that add to actual construction costs? A sizable proportion of the population wants to keep Alaska “pristine”. Remember the protests about the oil pipeline? It would be many times worse in today’s world.
The ‘guy’ in question is Frank Murkowsky, and I would think (though without knowing him or his record firsthand) that he is qualified to understand what is involved with Alaskan transportation.
Before you contact anyone, carefully read through the actual technical material on the Manh Choh project and compare its details with what you have for A2A and G7G. One thing you can definitely ask him is the basis (and, ideally, cites) for his assessment of logical online traffic generation and size and feasibility of mineral sites.
And even though the growing season in Alaska is short…holy crap have you seen the size of some of the items they grow due to all that extended sun light???
Do you really think cost will be that much of an issue in the near term future? You do know that AI is comming and it has the potential to massively turn around our current thinking. I forsee them paying off the National Debt by 2050 with the surplus in tax revenue if not sooner. Everyone is focusing on doom and gloom around AI without looking at the benefits.
Anyhow, I might agree with you if the climate was stable and all items continued as today to the indefinite future but we are on the cusp of a major revolution here in how work is done and how much we all have to work. I think we are going to see a significant jump in standard of living and a significant increase in National income and who knows…maybe the METRA Express will run efficiently and not block a parade of faster Amtrak trains behind it?
Yep, huge cabbages. Potatoes, onions, carrots, radishes and other vegetables that grow underground thrive, but not much else does. I never saw any grains or plants that grew on vines until we moved to the lower 48. That was near Anchorage, where the proximity of the ocean kept temps a little more moderate. Go north to Fairbanks, where the ARR ends. That’s an icebox.
[quote user =“CMStPnP”]
Overmod
The original story that made me an AGW adherent in the early '70s noted that most of the United States wheat belt would be experiencing summer temperatures in excess of 140 degrees F by about 2050, and that grain production would be shifting to Canada as a result…
And even though the growing season in Alaska is short…holy crap have you seen the size of some of the items they grow due to all that extended sun light???
World War 2 is instructive to the logistical geography of the region. The Alcan Highway and Canol pipeline were built rapidly and at immense cost, yet the vast majority of men, materials and POL for the theater were short sea shipped to Alaska.
Ya know, I kinda wish the guy who started this thread would modify the subject line a bit where he stated “Is a railroad to Alaska crazy talk? I think so”. Maybe he could say “Is a railroad to Alaska crazy talk? That depends.” Or, “Is a railroad to Alaska crazy talk? Maybe or maybe not”, or words to that effect.
My understanding of truly “crazy”, would be when some crackpot starts talking about going into a shopping mall and conducting a mass shooting. That is truly crazy.
If building a rail connection to Alaska is really and truly a “crazy idea” then so was the laying of the first transatlantic telegraph cable, the building of the first transcontinental railroad, Hoover and Bonneville dams, the Interstate Highway system or the first man on the moon. The ideas that spawned those events were somewhat radical in their ambition but surely,
That happened 2 miles from my home and we really should not be talking about that here for obvious reasons that it will show up in a Google Search result now. [:(]
That’s awful. Tragic. I probably should’ve used a better example of what strikes me as truly crazy. It’s not just because I might’ve offended someone (we are ALL offended by the action of these nuts anyhow) but rather, I fear I might’ve driven the subject off topic from rail to Alaska
The 2nd half of the 19th Century was the Railroad Boom Times - anyone that had money to invest wanted to get into ‘railroads on the ground floor’ - that floor, however, was not all that stable, because the ideas for most railroads of the period were like oil drilling wildcaters drilling everywhere on a wish and a prayer with no really know products in mind.
In the 1st half of the 21st Century, money in a railroad undertaking is not going to be invested ‘betting on the unknown’. Money invested these days in a ‘mature’ industry such as railroads MUST have a known product the will be transported in sufficient volumes to make the undertaking profitable.
Any politician who tries to explain why a rail connection to Alaska would be in the national interest, would be drowned out by all the populists from everywhere (except Alaska) jumping all over the “Railroad-to-Nowhere”.
Ya know, I kinda wish the guy who started this thread would modify the subject line a bit where he stated “Is a railroad to Alaska crazy talk? I think so”. Maybe he could say “Is a railroad to Alaska crazy talk? That depends.” Or, “Is a railroad to Alaska crazy talk? Maybe or maybe not”, or words to that effect.
My understanding of truly “crazy”, would be when some crackpot starts talking about going into a shopping mall and conducting a mass shooting. That is truly crazy.
If building a rail connection to Alaska is really and truly a “crazy idea” then so was the laying of the first transatlantic telegraph cable, the building of the first transcontinental railroad, Hoover and Bonneville dams, the Interstate Highway system or the first man on the moon. The ideas that spawned those events were s