New Portuguese Intermodal idea

[packers#1]

I picked this up off another forum; the product is called the Eco-picker, and it seems like they have a pretty good idea.
http://www.metalsines.com/html/ecopickers.html

[davefoxx]

Seems, to me, like it would be less capacity for the actual goods being shipped in a train, and the railroad has to pick up the additional fuel costs for hauling the entire semi.  That, of course, would still be cheaper than the fuel expended for a truck to drive from the shipping point to the destination.

DFF

[luis_lopes]

Hi all.

No diesel costs, because most of the portuguese rail network is electric, so this would be cheaper than have the truck rolling down the road.


But portuguese government is more interested on having the trucks on the road, than having a nice railroad. You see, we pay at the moment 1,43€/lt, thats 1,87USD for each litre of the fuel.

Out of this value, 30% is a tax on petroleum products, 23% is VAT. This is more "economical interesting" for those guys up there. We have a lot branchlines that are closed due to political agreements. We are seelling almost all of our rolling stock to Argentina - perfectly good locomotives, railcars and passenger cars are going there. But today I've seen on facebook that some of the long range trains were canceled due to the lack of rolling stock!!!! We are old renting rolling stock to Spain to have trains rolling!!! This is a total nonsense.

I don't know what will happen to my country, but I feel sorry for it. For all these reasons, I think that these cars will not be used here in Portugal, but somewhere else in Europe: Swiss and Austrian railways already use this:

[packers#1]

Ahh, so it makes more sense in Europe because the mainlines are electrified. That makes sense.

[Scottl]

CP did (or still does, maybe) this between Toronto and Montreal.  The trains were mostly empty.

[lock4244]

CP did (or still does, maybe) this between Toronto and Montreal.  The trains were mostly empty.

That is the eXpressway, which it not like the Ecopicker. An eXpressway is made up of articulated carsets that are circus loaded, with the trailer kept in place via a collapsible fifth wheel that is raised by the yard tractor via a hook in one fluid motion as it disconnects from the trailer. The idea was to capture truck traffic hauled in trailers that could not be picked up onto a train (reinforced frame with lift points), which included regular dry van types, but also flats, tank, and hopper trailers. CP has run eXpressways with up to 90 platforms (maybe even 120). Although the trains can be mostly empty at times, they are also often packed to the gills, and empty doesn't mean no revenue... the spots are pre-sold to shippers (at least that was the original way it was done). I had a friend on the RR (since retired) that explained it to me a long time ago. Think of it like corporate seats at an arena.

They make money, otherwise Hunter would have already canned them (unless they're running out a contract). The last eXpressway I saw (late last week) was around the 90 platform mark with two AC4400's and maybe 75 trailers. The eXpressway (and the earlier Iron Highway it replaced) have been running for at least 17 years now by my photographs (I have shots of GP38-2 lead Iron Hwy's from 1996)... no flash in the pan, certainly not a failure.

The problem I see with the Ecopicker is in North America we like to run 100 platforms, of mixed types no less, behind a several locomotives, so the cars would have be be able to endure some hefty physical forces. Certainly something that could be tacked onto the rear of a train in a dedicated block. Over here, they'd likely never leave the rig with the trailer.

[cv_acr]

http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/displayrailway.pl?o=ihxx

[lock4244]

[nkalanaga]

Except for the completely detachable end, it looks very similar to the "Rollende Landstraße" system, which has been used for years in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

[mirage]

This is a terminal nearby an highway in the suburbs of Hamburg where they load the trailers on intermodal trains. The harbour of Hamburg isn't far away either : http://aufwind-luftbilder.photoshelter.com/image/I0000gI94OrNJots

The tracks under the loadingbridges there are no electrified so the switching is made by diesel engines.