Dumb intermodal idea?

[sirenwerks]

Twas thinking about how to work in a little intermodal into the Penmarva. I thought about a report I heard on NPR not too long ago about how Perdue poultry is having a hard time getting reefer containers to ship chicken feet to China (no lie), which gave me the idea of a dedicated TOFC/COFC service from around Salisbury out west, to expedite Perdue's expansion into markets west. A tractor to load trailers/containers, a small parking lot, and short dedicated trains, nicknamed the Chicken Run, with 6-8 older 89' flatcars (ala FEC) behind a single Geep to move it all out. Kinda working on the Milwaukee Road's swift train service idea. A far-fetched dumb idea?

[asarge]

What's your backhaul? You would have to have a way to get the dedicated containers and cars back.

[wm3798]

The backhaul would be the trick...  Trucks would be much more efficient from Salisbury to Wilmington, or even Norfolk.
But since we modelers have the opportunity to bend light, you could always put a WalMart distribution center nearby that receives reefers... and build an intermodal terminal in Delmar on the old PRR yard there... Convenient to 13 and 50, and plenty of cheap real estate.

Lee

[sirenwerks]

Never thought about that, not knowing the intermodal industry that well. I was looking for a reason to scratchbuild a modular concrete-walled warehouse and had been considering a rail-served grocery distribution center as another industry, Blu-Dot Foods, receiving dry box and reefer traffic.

Explain to me the particulars of he backhaul concept though. Would the incoming be straight truck traffic to the industry, as in a trailer returning via highway from points west with product direct to the second point, or intermodally-based intended for the second point after being detrained? While the latter would be of interest, it would cut the realistic flow of rail shipments to the the warehouse.

[3rdrail]

In the short haul intermodal business, and anything East of the Misississippi River moving East-West is short haul, you need a relative balance of loads in both direction to make service viable. Now, on moving containers to the Far East, the steamship lines owning the containers would gladly pay the railroad or a trucker to move empties from Kearny to Delmar rather than Kearny to Long Beach, CA, if a load were available on the Eastern Shore.

Obviously, the dollars don't add up though, or someone would already be doing it in reality. Or maybe they're just trucking to the nearest ramp (Baltimore?).

[sirenwerks]

Here's a dumb question... are empty containers shipped by rail or more likely trucked in? I could develop a trailer in (Blu-Dot, from west of the Miss) and container out (Perdue, to points west US and Orient). Now that I start using the logic you guys have given me though I see a problem with that model - trailer loads in via rail, where do the empties go for loading? Eh, I run a railroad. What the trucking companies do is up to them...

[up1950s]

Import Panda Paw oven mits . Or knock off American products from " Wii Gotcha Nads "