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[quote user="MP173"]I assume that is a photo from the loading of the first train. Will the loads be only one pallet on the floor?  It appears there will be a considerable amount of wasted space.  I dont know what the weight would be for these cars, but it seems as if a method of racking for double stacking might be considered. ed [/quote] There is not alot of wasted space. The box is just that. Pallets carry weight. You can have two layers of Gold Bars one foot high on each pallet and leave ... 7 feet of vertical space empty because of the weight on the pallets. Dusting off my pallet sheet in a dark corner of my memory reveals a pallet weight of 2000 pounds give or take a little bit. If you stack 30 pound bags of Cat Litter 5 to a layer you will have approx 150 pounds. Now you could stack em 10 high and will take up about...oh... **taps calculator... 7 feet in height leaving one foot or so to the ceiling clear. That pallet now weights 1500 pounds for 50x30 pound bags of cat litter. Multiply 40 inches by 48 inches by 7 feet gives you cubic volume. Cat litter will weight out first before it cubes out the availible volume of the box. Now if it was toilet paper you can fill that entire box and it wont weight anything. Call it roughly 26 pallets in a 53' box trailer you will have about roughly one foot left to the back doors. The pallets will total about roughly 1400 pounds and the freight of cat litter will run you about 39,000 pounds; for a total of roughly 41,500 pounds. Taking this one step further, there is a total volume of only so many cubes expressed in a box one foot long by one foot wide by one foot high. 53' Trailers like to cube out light stuff like toilet paper before it "Grosses out" (Weight) and 48' trailers like to haul heavy stuff. The Bridge law for 18 wheelers (Class 8) still remains the same. 12,000 on the steer, 34,000 on the first tandem and 34,000 on the rear tandem subject to several state's kingpin distance laws. One may cheat california out of thier righteous tickets by spec'ing a 10 foot spread axle under the trailer allowing you to carry 20K on each axle back there and making thier little revenue producing kingpin law irrevelant. Now that we are loaded and ready to go, you must be rather confused by now. Railroad Boxcars... those carry more cargo in both cube and weight. I bet you those pallets of food will come out to pretty numbers in weight, count and cubic capacity but still leave a little space in there hauling air. There are many twists to the problem but three commandments are clear: 1- Shipper WILL sneak a few extra widgets into the box and bill accordinly. Heck stuff a extra few pallets in there and write it down on the bills expecially if they are broken pallets. 2- Anything extra like dunnage or icing etc.. will push you over gross weight. But that is ok, you will burn that excess off in fuel by the time you hit the scales anyhow. 3- Loaded or empty that box will generate a bill somewhere for it's move. You might not get paid the empty miles but someone will further up the revenue chain. Dont worry about how much wasted space there is in that box. Now. Center of Gravity. (Oh joy! Graduate Course in cargo!) You have a little pallet of gold bars a few inches off the floor. They weight alot. As long you dont stack it much more than one foot off that floor your vehicle will behave as if it was chained to the road. If you stuff it full of cat litter and meow to boot until it bursts and barely squeeze those doors shut.. that rig will sway and teeter dangerously from side to side with every puff of wind threatening to roll over and show the dirty side to the sky. (Burying you and the family next to you.)
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