What are the fan like units mounted on a single leg of each separate crane. I know they are not fans but suspect that they are some sort of cable storage. Maybe a story on just the cranes, how they operate with all that implies would be in order.
By the way it was a most interesting story.
Power Cable Reel.
Reminded me of big fans, too, but on closer inspection I determeined them to be cable drums in a cage to guide the cable and keep it in line on the drum and when stopping and starting quickly.
Just a giant extension cord . . . [swg]
And [#welcome], stormyh !
More truth than poetry in what Paul said!
Apparently the electric cranes are the wave of the future.
BNSF put 8 of them in its Facility at Capleville,Tn (Memphis,Tn. area) Tennessee Yard
(nee: FRISCO RR). They are all electric, and traverse a ramp area that is about 7,400 ffet long { Now THAT is an extention cord! [swg] }
Link here with photos: http://condrenrails.com/Recent-Trains/TY/TY-Intermodal-Terminal.htm
EDIT TO ADD: To give some perspective; the cranes are approximately 100 feet tall, and are designed to clear approximately the distance of a width of six tracks, plus. Capability of lift capacity; is estimated at around 1,000,000 lifts a year for the facility!
I puzzled over those reels for a while, too. In this picture from the Kuenz site, on the right side you can see the cable feeding from the center of the reel and dropping down on the right side.
http://www.kuenz.com/fileadmin/template/pdf/success_story_basf.pdf
Paul,
Thanks for the welcome, I like to know how the "extension cords work and avoid conflict with the other cranes. Is each crane limited to it own linear boundary, thereby never developing a conflict with the other cranes. Tranis Magazine never does a good job of telling us how these things function.
Put this latitude and longitude into your favor satellite map program:
N 41.18628 W 83.73865
In Acme Mapper the cranes show up with a fair amount of detail. It appears they all run on about the same track. The image I got shows the facility still under construction.
Aerial photo by Eric Davis
http://railroadfan.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10652/csx_nbaltimore_1.jpg
2010 photos by Stu Nicholson
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/archiveThumbs.aspx?id=62193
Akron RR Club photos
http://akronrrclub.wordpress.com/tag/csx-northwest-ohio-intermodal-terminal/
Go back and read the Trains article again. They do specifically say that each crane is prevented from overlapping an adjacent crane’s area, and that is why there are special trucks to carry containers from one crane’s reach to another. There is also a photo of one of those trucks (partly obscured by a CSX container). Those “trucks” appear to be “straddle carriers,” combining crane and truck into one unit.
Interesting thought as I looked through the photos - it appears that the cranes were built to handle up to a 53’ container. While this is the current standard and no doubt nobody foresees anything longer, there was a time when 40’ boxcars were the standard and nobody foresaw the possibility of anything bigger. Witness countless warehouses and other facilities with railside doors spaced for 40’ cars.
I have no doubt that adding another 10’ (give or take) to the cranes would have cost more money, but I also have to wonder whether that might not come back to bite CSX (and possibly other railroads) years hence.
Without a major rebuilding of urban thoroughfares, 53 feet is about as long as a trailer/container can be and still get through intersections on urban streets. I recall that 57-foot trailers were tries several years ago, and while they may be great on Interstate highways and at intermodal terminals, getting them around the corner at many urban intersections was problematic.
The maritime trades refer to container ship capacity in TEU’s - Twenty foot Equivalent Units; even though today’s world has containers of 20 foot, 40 foot and 53 foot sizes. If and when container size is increased I would expect 60 feet to the the next length. With that being said, the securement points for all these containers are still based on the ‘hard points’ of the 20 foot container and will be for the foreseeable future. To change that spacing for the container industry would be tantamount to the rail industry changing Standard Gauge to a dimension other than 4 feet 8 1/2 inches.
I’m sure the hard points will remain unchanged. What I noticed was that it appears that a 53’ container will just fit through the legs of the cranes. Longer containers would require increasing that width.
It was just a thought, and odds are the container sizes now in use will continue to be used for the foreseeable future. But as we know, never say never…
In some of the pictures I’ve looked at the crane is able to pivot. That would reduce any sized container to its width in order to fit through the legs.
The Crane can’t pivot, it is the Spreader that can pivot.
