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[quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by samfp1943 [quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by futuremodal As we discussed in the HAL vs Shortlines thread, the rail industry as a whole would have been better off with LAL's and 6 axle railcars to achieve increased load factor without sacrificing current shortline/branchline infrastructure. Not to mention that it'd be a lot cheaper to focus on structure upgrade and then weld together the 115# existing rail over new ballast. You might have been able to use some of the existing ties and accessories that would otherwise have to be replaced for heavier rail. It would have taken a lot less steel (e.g. less industry $$) to add third axles to rail trucks for the entire railcar fleet than it is to upgrade to heavier rails across the entire nationwide rail network. [/quote] Undoubtedly, FM you are correct, but to just create a six axle truck and replace them under the conventionally trucked cars, would first of all be an engineering nightmare, not to mention finding the off shore manufacturers to supply them [ since so much steel casting capacity is now off shore due to various restrictions, EPA, and other US Gov rules] I suspect it would be blindingly expensive to retrofit all the necessary cars for just those 6axle trucks. Sam [/quote] Well, what should have happened is for all new railcars that were built for 286k loads at 35 tons per axle and 36" per wheel should have instead gone with three axle trucks with 28" wheels at 25 tons per axle for a gross load of 300k per car. Even though that too would have put pressure on shortlines and branchlines to adapt, they could have then just focused on upgrading their bridges and other weight bearing structures, and been able to stick with their lighter rail tracks. Not only that, a three axle truck with 28" wheels would allow a lower center of gravity than the two axle truck with 36" wheels.
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