Walt, two stories. Yours was humerous (hydraulic 5th wheel).
A local industry manufactured ramp lifts that would accomodate the total tractor and trailer of a load of an eighteen wheeler (loads could be gravity unloaded). Of course this is a huge piece of equipment (made, in lengthwise, halves). As was the company welders habit (WW2 SeaBee) he welded the one “half” onto a flat car used to carry two 53 ft trailers. Successful until one day a RR inspector came by and said, “You can’t do that.” The welder was made to boomer down the load. He knew it would come loose. He did so anyway. Of course I don’t don’t know how far down the line it got before coming loose. Guess whose problem it was Then?
Another plant here makes electric motors. They have steel parts stamped out of sheets and left over residue is conveyed out to a gondola car. Workers noticed the gondola car bed was sitting on the wheels of the trucks. They called a RR inspector. He advised they had overloaded. Unload. Company hired a backhoe and they "started"unloading. Inspector went to lunch. Plant supervisor told the backhoe, “Hurry, unload the whole thing”. They did. Inspecctor comes back and looks at the springs, “Still overloaded, take out more”. At this point the supervisor asked the inspector to take a look inside HIS gondola car. I wasn’t there but wonder how red faced he was? endmrw0610231800
Murphy Siding
Would that involve a contractor who has a bunch of guys with shovels?
If it’s a lumber car - sometimes a van full of mennonites?
But for heavy things like coil or paper roll cars, there’s special companies with cranes that come out. Pretty nifty operations.
I worked at a lumberyard next to two truck stops on a busy interstate. We did a lot business moving loads that had shifted on semis. We occasionally got to buy a unit of lumber off trucks that were overloaded. The lumber mills apparently did’t have scales but the highway patrol did.
It seems like someone shipping big items like paper or coils would have a lot of experience to fall back on when loading. Paying a specialty contractor to come in and fix things probably eats all the profit on that order.
Some people play the numbers game…for every unit that is caught overweight 50 get through, which might work out to a free load above and beyond if things were done above board.
Railroad intermodal has always been a way to move overloaded trailer/containers. Railroad intermodal is rated per box, not per pound. Various shippers have been using this to their advantage for decades.
Murphy Siding
Would that involve a contractor who has a bunch of guys with shovels?
If it’s a lumber car - sometimes a van full of mennonites?
But for heavy things like coil or paper roll cars, there’s special companies with cranes that come out. Pretty nifty operations.
I worked at a lumberyard next to two truck stops on a busy interstate. We did a lot business moving loads that had shifted on semis. We occasionally got to buy a unit of lumber off trucks that were overloaded. The lumber mills apparently did’t have scales but the highway patrol did.
It seems like someone shipping big items like paper or coils would have a lot of experience to fall back on when loading. Paying a specialty contractor to come in and fix things probably eats all the profit on that order.
Some people play the numbers game…for every unit that is caught overweight 50 get through, which might work out to a free load above and beyond if things were done above board.
Railroad intermodal has always been a way to move overloaded trailer/containers. Railroad intermodal is rated per box, not per pound. Va
There aren’t many weigh stations, as such, in this area any more. A roving band of “commercial enforcement” state troopers set up in several pre-designated rest areas (“All trucks must stop if lights are flashing”). As you note, they’re not there more than they are.
Interstate 81 is a major conduit for traffic from Canada. One will often see as many Canadian trucks as US based.
Configured a trip from Jacksonville to Maryland one time to use I-81 since I was going to race at Summit Point Raceway in Summit Point, WV. I-81 is THE truck route from the SE to NE - it is only 2 lanes in each direction and truck #2 is passing truck #1 with a speed difference of 0.1 MPH or less
With several miles of traffic backed up behind them… Been there, and it’s even worse in the mountains where the trucks are also struggling to make it up grades…
My late uncle once saw what appeared to be a battle between two trucks. It wasn’t so much that one was passing the other at a 0.1 MPH rate as it was they weren’t going to allow each other to pass at all…
To bring this back to railroads, there has been discussion in the past of an I-81 equivalent rail route. The biggest problem is that there is no single railroad route along that lane.
Many years ago, there was a diamond at Syracuse that probably could have figured into a straight-thru route, and even today it would be possible to run a train from Watertown to Scranton, although that would involve CSX, Susquehanna, and CP - alphabet route, anyone?
That was actually one of the things that broke the deal to sell the CSX St Lawrence Sub to B&LE. CSX was not willing to allow CN and the Suzie-Q direct interchange.
That’s why you’ll find me on US-20 across Iowa or US-36 across Missouri (both 65mph limited access but with maybe 20 percent of the traffic of the parallel Interstates). Lots of highways with the ‘US’ designation seem underutilized, and I’ll gladly add 10-20% to my drive time to make it relaxing.
I-80 gets even worse as it passes the south edge of the Chicago area, probably with traffic from I-294 (Tri-State Tollway). I have found that paying the tolls on I-88 between Chicago and Quad Cities is a small price for much lighter traffic.