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[quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by chateauricher There is one other thing that you must consider when designing and engineering a wide-guage railroad for freight or long-distance passenger service -- the weight of the larger cars and the heavier loads they will carry. [/quote] I assume you are refering to the tare weight of the cars, which would be roughly double their standard gauge counterparts. This would have no impact on the amount of gross weight to be supported. Remember, the current gross weight limit for North American rail cars is 286,000 lbs, which means each axle carries a max of 71,500 lbs on 36" wheels. It would be relatively simply to keep this 71,500 lbs per axle standard for the wide gauge, or go for the proposed 78,750 standard on 38" wheels, and just increase the number of weight bearing axles under each car to increase the load factor. For example, say the current tare weight of a stand alone well car is roughly 60,000 lbs, and the load limit is then around 160,000 lbs using 70 ton trucks and 33" wheels. For a wide gauge stand alone well car, if we assume a tare of 120,000 lbs and we want to haul 6 40' containers (triple stacked side by side) at an average of 55,000 lbs each, the wide gauge stand alone well car would have to have a gross limit of 450,000 lbs. If we employ triple axle trucks with 38" wheels designed for 78,750 lbs per axle, then we will be rated for 472,500 lbs gross, so we'd be within specs. Since the standard gauge rail industry is already gearing for the 315,000 limit (at 78,750 lbs per axle), this much weight on the rails would not be outside the norm in terms of costs. The idea is to take a page from the trucking industry and spread the weight of the load over more axles. You can play around with the idea of using triple axle or quad axle trucks with corresponding 33", 36", or 38" wheels under these wide gauge cars and come up with some impressive load limits. Bridges would be a consideration for the heavier loads, but the rails, ties, and ROW would be just fine.
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