http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/single-view/view/first-sun-link-streetcar-is-on-its-way.html
It’s not that unusual. I can recall seeing LRV’s on northbound heavy hauls on I-15 on the way to Salt Lake.
Our LRVs here in Charlotte were delivered by truck even though we have both NS & CSX here in town. I think it is the norm.
“Tuscon”???
Rail delivery works best if it can be unloaded from the flatcar directly onto the LRT tracks. If you have to truck it for the last few miles between the railroad and the LRT shops, possibly requiring crane rental, and of course more chance of damage with the extra handling, using truck all the way can make sense. Logistics is an overused buzz word, but it applies in this case.
John
Personally I have always thought it waste that railcars like this go by road and not by rail. Oversize loads are someplace where, in my opinion, railroads have never pursued. Streetcars and subway cars are a very good fit for railways, generally under 10ft wide and even on a flatcar not overheight. If you have enough it is worth the trouble to build a temporary rail to truck transfer for the last 5 to 10 miles from a team track. Thx IGN
New York City subway cars are usually delivered by rail on their own wheels, with transition cars before and after. 207th Street shops can unload cars from a car-float from either Greenville or Bay Ridge, and 39th Street carfloat pier, if still usable, has the South Brooklyn connection to 9h Avenue Station and the West End D line. I think the track that was originally New York Westchester and Boston still connects East 180th Street with the Corridor South Bronx HGBridge route, for IRT (A-Division) cars only. But flanges and wheel tread widths on most streetcars and light rail cars to not meet FRA requirements (New York subway cars do) and would have to be loaded on flatcars. Does anyone know if that Oregon streetcar manufacturer even has a rail siding? How are CTA subway cars delivered, I think on flat car.
Subway and light rail vehicles have coupler and brake systems that are not compatible with freight railroads. No one else in the USA buys the number of subway cars that NYC does. They have almost 7,000 cars. It is fiscally feasible for special delivery arrangements to be made for them. That is not the case in most cities.
I ask the same question every time I hear the name Bret Favre.
Agreed. Seems his pronunciation changed when he went pro.
The latest issue of TRAINS has a picture of CTA 5000-series cars being delivered by truck. This is a bit surprising when much of their prior equipment was delivered on flatcars.
A streetcar’s couplers are not compatible with the railroads, so it would have to be delivered on a flat car.
In the case of Tucson, the new streetcar line is so far away from the rail yard, that delivery by truck would still be required. It’s probably cheaper and simpler to deliver all the way by truck than to change from truck to Union Pacific on one end, and from Union Pacific back to truck in Tucson. Two separate trucking companies to contract with, cranes required at two different locations in Tucson, etc.
UP and CTA agreed to allow UP to abandon the onetime branch that ran from Mayfair in Chicago to what is now the UP North line on the lakefront some years ago. The former interchange that dated back to North Shore days was on the Oakton curve in Skokie. The only track connection I know of remaining between the CTA and the rail network is at the 63d street lower yard, where rail material can be received from NS (Former CR/PC/NYC/LS&MS). Some equipment was delivered there in the long gone past. I think the Other 5000 series of articulateds from P-S and StLCC were delivered there in 1946/47.
Bombardier does send most output from its Plattsburgh NY plant by rail. Some of the 5000 series carbodies were delivered to the plant by CP.
Um in Binghamton NY I see subway cars all the time going down the Freeway or at least their shells.
Cleveland has a direct switch with the Nickle Plate(NS) that was inherited from the Van Swergin days. The switch was used for Demo Passenger service on the east side of Cleveland and is used to bring in MOW cars. Pittsburgh as been mentioned elsewere has no connection with the outside world has there track are the wrong gauge----------Having no connection with the outside rail system costs $$$$$ because everytime that you have to bring in MOW equipment and railroad cars they have to be transplanted.
They are completed in Hornell, NY.