Layout Humor

[ljudice]

Someone at Global 1 is in BIG TROUBLE:

[CBQ Fan]

 

[ljudice]

You have to wonder though, I know stacks are operating in Australia, India and China - plus the US.

Obviously, there are clearance issues, but let's say a railroad that stretches thousands of miles across a barren
landscape could you triple or quadruple stack?  Center of gravity limiting factor? 

I guess the real clearance problem is you eventually hit a bridge which can't be modified.

 

[VonRyan]

I'm sensing the possibility for some 1:1 scale testing... someone call R&D! 

-Cody F.

[Bsklarski]

I could see harmonic rock coming into play here and with loaded containers, it wouldnt be pretty

[C855B]

I'm sensing the possibility for some 1:1 scale testing... someone call R&D!

I would think the geniuses at UP who came up with the 3-1/2 mile-long stack train a couple of years ago have given more than a passing thought to what it would take to do this. Yikes.

I could see harmonic rock coming into play...

Yeah. Me too! Their drummer kicks butt!   

[Bob Bufkin]

Also something we called wind sale in the Navy.  Wind forces against the sides could easily topple the cars.  It's happened with double stacks quite often.

[Hyperion]

You have to wonder though, I know stacks are operating in Australia, India and China - plus the US.

Obviously, there are clearance issues, but let's say a railroad that stretches thousands of miles across a barren
landscape could you triple or quadruple stack?  Center of gravity limiting factor? 

I guess the real clearance problem is you eventually hit a bridge which can't be modified.

The real problem, believe it or not, is actually wind.

Wind blowing over trains is not exactly a rare occurrence -- as many as 20 derailments a year in the US are caused by winds.  It happens occasionally with autotracks, and even a rare grain train, but more often with intermodal ones.  There's virtually no way that a train of that height could roll across thousands of miles without tipping over because it probably wouldn't take a cross-wind of much more than 30mph to push it over.

[up1950s]

I could see harmonic rock coming into play here and with loaded containers, it wouldnt be pretty

Harmonic Rock N Roll

[ljudice]

Of course wind!    One thing not present in the basement!

 

[PGE-N°2]

Of course wind!    One thing not present in the basement!

 

Set up a fan beside the layout, or even one ill-timed, misdirected sneeze could easily do it for you! 

[nkalanaga]

Wind doesn't require high profile vehicles to cause problems.  The MILW and GN both had wind problems in the steam era, the MILW at Beverly, WA, and the GN east of Glacier Park in Montana.  The MILW finally installed wind gauges and connected them to the signals at Beverly to close the Columbia River bridge in high winds.

[John]

Of course wind!    One thing not present in the basement!

 

Do you frequent operating seesions?   

[Bendtracker1]

The Northwestern had the same problem at Boone, IA on their Kate Shelly High Bridge.
Above the span over the river there is a Windometer that triggers two signals on each end of the bridge.
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