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Double-stack Rail Transport
Double-stack rail transport is a form of intermodal freight transport in which railroad cars carry two layers of intermodal containers. Invented in the United States in 1984, it is now being used for nearly seventy percent of United States intermodal shipments. Using double stack technology, a freight train of a given length can carry roughly twice as many containers, sharply reducing transport costs per container. On United States railroads, special well cars are used for double-stack shipment to reduce the needed vertical clearance and to lower the center of gravity of a loaded car. In addition, the well car design reduces damage in transit and provides greater cargo security by cradling the lower containers so their doors cannot be opened. A succession of larger container sizes have been introduced to further increase shipping productivity in the United States. Double-stack rail operations are growing in other parts of the world, but are often constrained by Structure gauge, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Freight Train In Jacksonville, FL
In transportation, cargo refers to goods transported by land transport, land, water transport, water or air transport, air, while freight refers to its conveyance. In economics, freight refers to goods transported at a freight rate for Commerce, commercial gain. The term cargo is also used in case of goods in the cold chain, cold-chain, because the perishable inventory is always in transit towards a final end-use, even when it is held in refrigeration, cold storage or other similar climate-controlled facilities, including warehouses. Multi-modal container units, designed as reusable carriers to facilitate unit load handling of the goods contained, are also referred to as cargo, especially by shipping lines and logistics operators. When empty containers are shipped each unit is documented as a cargo and when goods are stored within, the contents are termed containerized cargo. Similarly, aircraft Unit load device, ULD boxes are also documented as cargo, with an associated packi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trailer-on-flat-car
Trailer on flatcar, also known as TOFC or piggyback, is the practice of carrying semi-trailers on railroad flatcars. TOFC allows for shippers to move truckloads long distances more cheaply than can be done by having each trailer towed by a truck, since one train can carry more than 100 trailers at once. The trailers will be moved by truck from their origin to an intermodal facility, where they will then be loaded onto a train, typically by a rubber tired gantry crane, for the bulk of their journey. Alternatively, trailers may be driven onto the flatcars via ramps by a terminal tractor. Near the destination, the trailers are unloaded at another facility and brought to their final destination by a tractor unit. Modern TOFC service was introduced in North America in the 1950s, although the practice of carrying another mode of transport on flatcars was first recorded in 1843 when canal boats were moved by a portage railway between several cities in Pennsylvania. TOFC is distinct fr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Buffers And Chain Coupler
Buffers and chain couplers (or couplings) – also known as "buffers and screw", "screw", and "screwlink" – are the de facto International Union of Railways (UIC) standard railway coupling used in the EU and UK, and on some railways in other parts of the world, such as in South America and India, on older rolling stock. Buffers and chain couplers are an assembly of several devices: buffers, hooks and links, or turnbuckle screws. On the modern version of the couplers, rail vehicles are mated by manually connecting the end link of one chain which incorporates a turnbuckle screw into the towing hook of the other wagon, drawing together and slightly compressing the Buffer (rail transport), buffer pairs, one left and one right on each headstock. That limits slack, and lessens Shunting (rail), shunting shocks in moving trains. By contrast, vehicles fitted with the semi-automatic Janney coupler, Janney Type E coupler can experience significant jarring during mating and shunting. V ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wheelset (rail)
A wheelset is a pair of railroad vehicle wheels mounted rigidly on an axle. Wheelsets are often mounted in a bogie ("truck" in North America) – a pivoted frame assembly holding at least two wheelsets – at each end of the vehicle. Most modern freight cars and passenger cars have bogies each with two wheelsets, but three wheelsets (or more) are used in bogies of freight cars that carry heavy loads, and three-wheelset bogies are under some passenger cars. Four-wheeled goods wagons that were once near-universal in Europe and Great Britain and their colonies have only two wheelsets; in recent decades such vehicles have become less common as trainloads have become heavier. Conical wheel-tread Most train wheels have a conical taper of about 1 in 20 to enable the wheelset to follow curves with less chance of the wheel flanges coming in contact with the rail sides, and to reduce curve resistance. The rails generally slant inwards at 1 in 40, a lesser angle than ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Truck
A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport freight, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame construction, with a cabin that is independent of the payload portion of the vehicle. Smaller varieties may be mechanically similar to some automobiles. Commercial trucks can be very large and powerful and may be configured to be mounted with specialized equipment, such as in the case of refuse trucks, fire trucks, concrete mixers, and suction excavators. In American English, a commercial vehicle without a trailer or other articulation is formally a "straight truck" while one designed specifically to pull a trailer is not a truck but a " tractor". The majority of trucks currently in use are powered by diesel engines, although small- to medium-size trucks with gasoline engines exist in North America. Electrically powered trucks are more popu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
25 KV AC
Railway electrification systems using alternating current (AC) at are used worldwide, especially for high-speed rail. It is usually supplied at the standard utility frequency (typically 50 or 60Hz), which simplifies traction substations. The development of 25kV AC electrification is closely connected with that of successfully using utility frequency. This electrification is ideal for railways that cover long distances or carry heavy traffic. After some experimentation before World War II in Hungary and in the Black Forest in Germany, it came into widespread use in the 1950s. One of the reasons it was not introduced earlier was the lack of suitable small and lightweight control and rectification equipment before the development of solid-state rectifiers and related technology. Another reason was the increased clearance required under bridges and in tunnels, which would have required major civil engineering in order to provide the increased clearance to live parts. Where existin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Twistlock
A twistlock or twist lock, together with matching corner castings, as defined in norms including ISO 1161:1984, form a standardized (rotating) connector system, for connecting and securing intermodal, and predominantly ISO-standard international shipping containers. The primary uses are to securely ''stack'' containers, for locking them into place on a container ship, semi-trailer or rail carriage, and for lifting and handling by specific container-handling equipment, like straddle carriers, reach stackers, container-handling forklifts, sidelifters, and various types of container cranes. Twist-locks also have to be used when stacking containers shorter than together with 40foot and longer containers. Containers shorter than 40feet containers must be joined together horizontally with twist-locks, to form a rigid combined whole 40feet in length, to make them stackable and be able to support and be supported by an ISO standard 40- or 45foot container stacked underneath ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Container Stacking
A container is any receptacle or enclosure for holding a product used in storage, packaging, and transportation, including shipping. Things kept inside of a container are protected on several sides by being inside of its structure. The term is most frequently applied to devices made from materials that are durable and are often partly or completely rigid. A container can also be considered as a basic tool, consisting of any device creating a partially or fully enclosed space that can be used to contain, store, and transport objects or materials. History Humans have used containers for at least 100,000 years, and possibly for millions of years.Clive Gamble, ''Origins and Revolutions: Human Identity in Earliest Prehistory'' (2007), p. 204. The first containers were probably invented for storing food, allowing early humans to preserve more of their food for a longer time, to carry it more easily, and also to protect it from other animals. The development of food storage co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Loading Gauge
A loading gauge is a diagram or physical structure that defines the maximum height and width dimensions in railway vehicles and their loads. Their purpose is to ensure that rail vehicles can pass safely through tunnels and under bridges, and keep clear of platforms, trackside buildings and structures. Classification systems vary between different countries, and loading gauges may vary across a network, even if the track gauge is uniform. The term loading gauge can also be applied to the maximum size of road vehicles in relation to tunnels, overpasses and bridges, and doors into automobile repair shops, bus garages, filling stations, residential garages, multi-storey car parks and warehouses. A related but separate gauge is the structure gauge, which sets limits to the extent that bridges, tunnels and other infrastructure can encroach on rail vehicles. The difference between these two gauges is called the clearance. The specified amount of clearance makes allowance for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Overhead Wire
An overhead line or overhead wire is an electrical cable that is used to transmit electrical energy to electric locomotives, electric multiple units, trolleybuses or trams. The generic term used by the International Union of Railways for the technology is ''overhead line''. It is known variously as overhead catenary, overhead contact line (OCL), overhead contact system (OCS), overhead equipment (OHE), overhead line equipment (OLE or OHLE), overhead lines (OHL), overhead wiring (OHW), traction wire, and trolley wire. An overhead line consists of one or more wires (or rails, particularly in tunnels) situated over rail tracks, raised to a high electrical potential by connection to feeder stations at regularly spaced intervals along the track. The feeder stations are usually fed from a high-voltage electrical grid. Overview Electric trains that collect their current from overhead lines use a device such as a pantograph, bow collector or trolley pole. It presses against the unde ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Railway Electrification System
Railway electrification is the use of electric power for the propulsion of rail transport. Electric railways use either electric locomotives (hauling passengers or freight in separate cars), electric multiple units ( passenger cars with their own motors) or both. Electricity is typically generated in large and relatively efficient generating stations, transmitted to the railway network and distributed to the trains. Some electric railways have their own dedicated generating stations and transmission lines, but most purchase power from an electric utility. The railway usually provides its own distribution lines, switches, and transformers. Power is supplied to moving trains with a (nearly) continuous conductor running along the track that usually takes one of two forms: an overhead line, suspended from poles or towers along the track or from structure or tunnel ceilings and contacted by a pantograph, or a third rail mounted at track level and contacted by a sliding " pickup ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
