Trucks wanting to be trains

[sanvtoman]

While driving the Ohio turnpike the other day i noticed i think a UPS truck.Anyway it had 3 trailers hooked up to the tractor.So i guess a mini truck train. By the way if you pass one pass it quick because they tend to sway a bit on the road.

[chad thomas]

There called triples...And we have them all over the west except California. Nothin new about that.

[edbenton]

Heck you should have looked for teh twinb-48's. It was nothing int eh 90'2 o pass a group of those on the IN and OH TP's NY also allows them on the thruway.

[chad thomas]

Those double 40s with 20' converter dollys hauling ore up in Nevada are pretty knarley too.

[Anonymous]

Have any of you seen the double 53' footers up in New York. CRAZY[:P]

[Anonymous]

I have seen those once when I went back east to see my cousin once. Here in Nebraska tripple trailers are out lawed. Other than thay can sometimes run up to Two trailers. Allan.

[Anonymous]

There's been triple trailers in Austrailia for some years now.

[Anonymous]

Dude,
Turnpike triples, Rocky mountain doubles, now four trailers were talked about running thru NV and UT and anywhere possible. Plus triples can be seen off the turnpike in OK!!
Craig T Driver Cloud

[Anonymous]

Get used to it, because we have two choices for this nation's economy:

1. Longer combination vehicles and increased gross vehicle weights to efficiently keep up with demand for transportation services, or...

2. An economic rescession.

Take your pick.

[railfan619]

Here in Wisconsin the most semi's can carry are doubles I think it's some sort of safety reason they can't carry triples or better known as three's

[edbenton]

Futuremodal this topic has already been argued on this forum already. The east coast cites flat out can not handle anything heavier or longer than what is out there already. I for one would hate to take a langer trailer into Boston NYC of Philly myself.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by chad thomas

There called triples...And we have them all over the west except California. Nothin new about that.

when you cross the border near donner pass you can see stations were the truck drops off the last one and then another truck takes the last one up as well
its very cool

QUOTE: Originally posted by Docster
There's been triple trailers in Austrailia for some years now.

when i was in austrailia were in the "outback" area and one with five went by it was hecka long

[TrainFreak409]

Wow, I didn't know that it was legal to run anymore than two trailers anywhere in the United States. I've never seen a triple before. Haven't really ever heard of them here either. The only place I knew of was Australia and their Road Trains.

And now maybe Quads too??? That's nuts.[:p]

[zardoz]

Gee, next someone will suggest making a "truck only" lane on the highway with ruts cut into the pavement to act as sort of a road flange; then trucks could pull 5, 10, 15 trailers as long as they have the power. They won't be able to steer, however, because of the "road flanges", so anything that gets in their way just gets hit. Just like a train.

[Modelcar]

....Trying to make sense of the multiple trailer rigs.....Suppose if the lanes were trucks only forge on but mixing passenger vehicles and trucks on the interstates with 2...3 or so trailers, makes a pretty good formula to up the danger of accidents producing fatilities.....

[miniwyo]

Triples are Illegal in UT and WY as well.

[Paul Milenkovic]

If you somehow removed all of the legal and sanity constraints, forget doubles, triples, quads, why not haul 200 trailers behind a consist of multiple truck tractors? If the safety and sanity of fellow motorists were not a concern, what size multiple would the industry want to run?

If you are up to running 200 trailers in a highway consist, you are back to the problem of slack action damaging cargos, stalling out on "ruling grades" and having to hook up helpers, gathering all of those 200 trailers into a train and breaking them down and sorting them in yards, and the whole nine-yards of railroad operation.

On the other hand, if the optimal consist were, say, 6 to 10 trailers, why can't people run Road Railer trains that long over, like, rails? Why do Road Railer trains have to be 100 trailers long -- why can't we get short trains?

One part of the answer is that highways are an open-access system while railroads are a monopoly closed-access system. Because highways are open access, they are open to all users, include Joe Motorist, and Joe Motorist has "issues" with trucks over a certain length. Because railroads are closed-access, the economics may drive them to the extreme of the 100-200 car train. Because they are closed access and subject to property taxation, the economics drive them to single-track operations and long trains.

But is there physics involved? Trucks can move along interstate highways without any signals at all -- they "see and avoid" and merge into traffic, and they maintain their own separation from traffic in front and to the sides. Railroads are constrained to moving on tracks -- they cannot swerve to avoid plowing into another train. This mandates expensive signaling systems or very large separation between trains, hence the very long trains. While the trucking lobby may want the "sky is the limit" for truck trains, there is probably some practical limit there too. If a truck is long enough to look like a train, it may begin to require the sort of separation a train requires -- can you swerve a 4-bottom rig around a piece of junk that fell of someone else's load?

If the trucking industry really wanted trains, they could just buy themselves and operate a railroad. Maybe the real problem is that there is a requirement for perhaps 4-20 trailer load lots, and this requirement is neither served by trucks who are constrained in length or by the railroads, which cannot economically operate short, fast trains.

[wallyworld]

Physics also dictates-the heavier the truck, the more momentum it has and cannot stop or swerve like a single passenger car. Mix that in with icy roads-poor visiblity or snow and I get anxious with issues about trucks. When one blows past me in inclement weather, I can vouch that they need not obey signalling like trains. The theory of seperation gives me pause when they ride your bumper. Maybe unlimited open access for mega trucks is not such a good thing and constraining them will take a human factor into account beyond economics.

[Anonymous]

Paul,

Part of the problem with the shorter trains over single track is that it is difficult to have sidings spaced and signals synchronized for both short trains and long trains / fast trains and slow trains. Just like on the highways, it helps if all traffic flows at the same relative velocity. Once you get a vehicle or two going slower or faster than the average traffic flow you get problems, hence the need for passing lanes to keep things fluid. Remember, highways are essentially "double track" equivilents, making passing lanes the equivalent of sidings.

That's why directional running (as referenced elsewhere) complimented with sidings is as close as one can get to the ideal of hosting both shorter faster trains and longer slower trains. When both the shorter faster trains and the longer slower trains are heading in the same direction, it lessens the incendence of conflict, e.g. if worse comes to worse the shorter train is constrained by the speed of the longer train, but at least they're still moving in their intended direction and there's no risk of a head on.

The other option I've heard of is "platooning", wherein the single track is used for one direction during a certain period of time, then the direction is reversed for the second time period, e.g. 12 hours reserved for westbounds, then the next 12 hours reserved for eastbounds. The highway equivalent of platooning is evident in those bi-directional commuter lanes, where the lane direction is signalled one way for the morning commute and the opposite direction for the evening commute.

[narig01]

Another comment fm the peanut gallery:
Their was an article in one of the trucking magazines about a Mack Titan(600hp tractor) down under in Australia w a road train pulling something like 100 trailers.I don't think they were loaded but the driver set a world record of some kind.
Rgds IGN

[petervonb]

QUOTE: Originally posted by edbenton

The east coast cites flat out can not handle anything heavier or longer than what is out there already. I for one would hate to take a langer trailer into Boston NYC of Philly myself.

The doubles, for the most part, don't go into NYC, Boston, Philly, etc. They pull off the Interstate outside the urban area where they drop off one or both of the trailers, and the trailers are subsequently hauled into town one at a time. Therefore, they seldom, if ever, are in places requiring tight turns or all those other constraints that people worry about. (There might be a mile or so where they are on local highways but only where such long beasts are manageable.)

[edbenton]

I was not talking about hauling doubles I was talking about even taking a 53 ft trailer into those cites. I had to take a load into Philly and the place were I was going had placed a pole on the corner by the plant and you had to use that to turn the trailer.

[petervonb]

QUOTE: Originally posted by edbenton

....placed a pole on the corner by the plant and you had to use that to turn the trailer.

Ouch!

[Anonymous]

They also have the nic name of "Wiggle Wagons" because the last trailer usually sways (wiggles) back & forth. I've seen them overturned due to this in dry good sunny weather on good roads.
Seen many of the drivers "Circle the Wagons" in the ditch/roadway durring snow storms too!
The heavier of the two or more trailers should be hooked to the truck tractor. If the heavier of the 2 etc. were to be placed at the back, Durring braking or rounding a down hill curve you'd stand a high chance of the rear trailer(s) pushing the lead trailer(s) out of line thus wrecking. It's like an accordian affect!

[edbenton]

that place were I had to pole the trailer the boss had a few dedicated trailers were the spots had been reinforced. That way we would not destroy the bottom rails.

[Anonymous]

Whoops! Also forgot to mention that at alot of the truck terminals, The "Yard Jockeys" hook the trailers up so they are ready to go for the drive. Sometimes the boys will hook them up wrong. I had a friend that pulled them years ago. He told me one time that they put a trailer with only a couple of pallets of freight hooked to the tractor, And then they put a heavy loaded to the gills trailer in back.
He had to break the trailers apart & rehook everything back up in proper order.
About a half hour mistake by the Yardjockey because that's about the time it took him to reposition his trailers in the snow!

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by miniwyo

Triples are Illegal in UT and WY as well.

Triples are illegal in Wyoming, but very much legal in Utah. Here is a link with a map of states that allow LCVs.

http://www1.eere.energy.gov/vehiclesandfuels/facts/printable_versions/2006_fcvt_fotw411.html

[curtissjoyce]

I believe I have seen double trailers on Missouri interstates!

[Anonymous]

I have seen them run 3 Trailers in the states of Indiana and Ohio and Pennslyviana.
Allan.

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

In Indiana, 28-foot triples and 45-foot doubles may be legal only on the Indiana Toll Road. There are small yards near some of the interchanges in NW Indiana where the extra trailers can be dropped or attached as appropriate. The same may apply in Ohio and Pennsylvania with their Turnpikes.