In response to Hurricane Sandy, all the Red Cross, nationally owned Emergency Response Vehicles (ERV"S) were driven to the effected area from across the country. In order to limit ware and tare the vehicles are being returned by rail to locations more than 500 miles from the New York area. ERV’s are similar on body style to full sized ambulance so they are probably loaded on flatcars. The vehicles from the New York response are being / were loaded at a Conrail yard East of Newark, NJ. I am not sure where the ones assigned to New Jersey are being shipped from. One shipment, reported to have 65 vehicles on board, is en-route to the Houston area. There may be two or three other shipments to other parts of the country. Just wondering if anyone had worked or seen one of these shipments and would be interested in any photos. From what I have heard, shipping is being donated by the railroads.
This sounds like a really good idea. Emergency vehicles contain a lot of very expensive equipment and to wear them out in long drives is not a good idea. Yet the emergencies the Red Cross deals with are often widely dispersed. I wonder if it would be possible to sit down with the freight railroads and come up with a plan to use this method in the future. I don’t suggest they can do it indefinitely on a charity basis but it could pay off by prolonging the used of emergency vehicles and driving them only to and from true emergency situations.
The critical element in doing it is having a convient loading facility - there may be one where the vehicles are strored - however, loading/unloading facilities are not available in all areas of the country.
Of course it could not be used where there are no loading and unloading facilities. But to the extent that such facilities exist it could be quite valuable. And since trucks can be driven it could mean driving the trucks 2 or 3 hundred miles rather than 12 or 13 hundred.
The vehicles were shipped in enclosed carriers so I guess no photos. The Friends of BNSF’ site has a story including a photo of one being unloaded. URL: https://www.friendsofbnsf.com/content/bnsf-brings-home-red-cross-emergency-vehicles-after-superstorm-sandy-response
And you should have seen the amount of utility trucks that were airlifted.
Adrianspeeder
Adrian,
I can resist anything except temptation.
John