Re:Four ways to speed up trains on the New Silk Road (2020)
by Animats on Monday April 05, 2021 @03:23PM
(#26703399)
The limit is siding length. Eventually you have to park the thing somewhere. There are some super-long trains used by bulk carriers on dedicated track. The Union Pacific ran a 3.4 mile long container train once, from Texas to LA. Double-stacked containers at reasonably high speed. There were locomotives spaced throughout the train, all under control from the head end. There's a video.[1] Worked fine, but got political attention due to long grade crossing blockage.
Re:Four ways to speed up trains on the New Silk Road (2020)
by elygre on Monday April 05, 2021 @05:57PM
(#26705206)
An unexpected discovery from that video was how many Evergreen containers there were. Suddenly I see them everywhere!
Re:Four ways to speed up trains on the New Silk Road (2020)
by bombcar on Monday April 05, 2021 @07:12PM
(#26705864)
The one I always see (and keep an eye out for) is the TEX containers - I like to think of it as TeX as in LaTeX :)
Re:Four ways to speed up trains on the New Silk Road (2020)
by AnimalMuppet on Monday April 05, 2021 @03:37PM
(#26703593)
Siding length isn't an issue if the line is double-tracked the whole way.
Re:Four ways to speed up trains on the New Silk Road (2020)
by Animats on Monday April 05, 2021 @04:01PM
(#26703886)
If there are any problems, lack of a siding somewhere nearby leaves the main line blocked. Also, at the destination, you need some place to put the thing, except for bulk mine trains which go round and round a loop.
Re:Four ways to speed up trains on the New Silk Road (2020)
by AnimalMuppet on Monday April 05, 2021 @04:30PM
(#26704268)
On a double-tracked line, lack of a siding somewhere nearby leaves one of the two main lines blocked. That's still serious, but less than what you are saying.
Re:Four ways to speed up trains on the New Silk Road (2020)
by guidopallemans on Monday April 05, 2021 @12:21PM
(#26700961)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_container_ship...
I don't think that this comparison is the best way of looking at it, but FWIW, the largest container ships can haul just shy of 24k containers.
Re:Four ways to speed up trains on the New Silk Road (2020)
by briffle on Monday April 05, 2021 @12:33PM
(#26701170)
Those are '20-foot equivalent Containers' so more like half that. But then you have to factor in the loading time, unloading time, space needed, cost, etc.
I see it kind of like a station wagon full of tapes, versus a fast internet pipe. The station wagon can possibly move more, but has much, much more latency. (and that analogy doesn't account for the time to load/unload the tapes onto the computer systems)
Re:Four ways to speed up trains on the New Silk Road (2020)
by dghlsakjg on Monday April 05, 2021 @02:26PM
(#26702661)
There is also the basic fact that many routes are mutually exclusive.
Denver to LA will never be viable by ship. Shenzhen to LA will never be viable by train.
Re:Four ways to speed up trains on the New Silk Road (2020)
by wahern on Monday April 05, 2021 @02:52PM
(#26703011)
> Shenzhen to LA will never be viable by train
Probably, but a certain breed of politician (across nationalities) keeps the dream alive:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bering_Strait_crossing#21st_ce...
Re:Four ways to speed up trains on the New Silk Road (2020)
by throwaway-571 on Monday April 05, 2021 @02:44PM
(#26702899)
Maybe one day they will build the bering straight tunnel!
Re:Four ways to speed up trains on the New Silk Road (2020)
by greedo on Monday April 05, 2021 @03:56PM
(#26703817)
Isn't unloading train cars also a similar time constraint?
Re:Four ways to speed up trains on the New Silk Road (2020)
by Scoundreller on Monday April 05, 2021 @05:53PM
(#26705161)
It can help that they arrive in 1d instead of 3d.
it seems the longest US train ever had ~700 containers