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Before the Railroad
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<p>[quote user="Paul_D_North_Jr"]</p> <p> <blockquote> <div><img src="/TRCCS/Themes/trc/images/icon-quote.gif" /> <strong>Bucyrus:</strong></div> <div> <span style="font-size:12pt;mso-fareast-font-family:'Times New Roman';mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA;"><span style="font-family:verdana,geneva;"><span style="font-size:small;">I think that is a fair point.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes;"> </span>As mentioned, the number-one virtue of railroads is low friction.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes;"> </span>The number-one drawback is the amount of capital it takes to achieve that low friction.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes;"> </span>For that matter, water transport probably has even lower friction, but only at the lowest speeds.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes;"> </span>We want high speed and low friction, and some routes have enough potential traffic to justify a railroad.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes;"> </span>Other routes only justify a highway. </span></span></span></div> </blockquote> I respectfully disagree. The primary virtue of railroads is their self-guiding technology, which enables aggregating many different loads into a train, with only a single (or very few) for a crew. The resulting huge savings in labor costs outweighs the lower friction advantage. Imagine a train of horse-drawn wagons - something like the 20-mule team of borax fame - with lots of horses, mules, and wagons strung together, but with only a single driver plus helper - Paul North. </p> <div style="clear:both;"></div> <p>[/quote]</p> <p><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;"><span style="font-size: small;">Paul,</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;"><span style="font-size: small;">I had "self-guiding" in there as the number-two virtue of railroads, but then I took it out because I did not want to get too complicated. And I was thinking, as you point out, that self-guiding is not a feature exclusively belonging to railroads. River boats can pull barge "trains." And the same possibility exists with road trains. However, in both cases, unlike with trains, the lead vehicle needs to be steered. And also, it is really hard to back up with those road trains.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;"><span style="font-size: small;">But for the self-guiding principle of railroads to really pay off, you need to get the crew off of the trains and automate them. That will kill two birds with one stone by solving the fatigue problem. </span></span></p>
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