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So I was waiting at a crossing for a train to go by and I am looking at the double-stacked shipping containers on like 40 cars. And I got to wondering.... I wonder how much it costs to ship one of those... and I wonder if it would be cost effective to drive your car into one, outfit it with a hammock, generator, TV, fridge and microwave, and travel around the country by rail for cheaper and faster than you can on Amtrak's shitty passenger service.

Looking at one of the websites though it looks like you need to talk to an actual person to get rates.

https://www.csx.com/index.cfm/customers ... acquainted

Cost-efficient, environmentally friendly, and able to move a ton of freight more than 470 miles on a single gallon of fuel, rail is a smart way to move freight.

So somebody else do that and crunch the numbers. I may have just invented a new paradigm in travel.

If you want to move as slowly as humanly possible, trains are your bag.

I know it is slow as hell to travel by people-train (in America)..... but I have no idea how cargo is treated, expeditiously-wise.

Cargo moves slower.

That's hard to believe. Last time I looked into it, it took about 2 weeks to people-train across the country, if it wasn't an "express." They stop at every damned little town. I can't believe perishable food and shit can spend 2 weeks on a train. Well, i can believe it, I guess. I just find it... unwieldy.

I doubt things that can spoil move by train. You think moving a ton of freight 400-whatever miles on a gallon of bullshit is done quickly? What magical combustion engine are those locomotives packing?

Generally just internal with fossil fuels.

GORDON wrote:That's hard to believe. Last time I looked into it, it took about 2 weeks to people-train across the country, if it wasn't an "express." They stop at every damned little town. I can't believe perishable food and shit can spend 2 weeks on a train. Well, i can believe it, I guess. I just find it... unwieldy.

I think all the stuff that spoils goes by truck now days. With the 3 days stocking they do in stores now, about the only food freight anymore goes to distribution centers and probably not very often.

I think all the stuff that spoils goes by truck now days

Bingo. I believe the majority of freight trains travel at a national speed limit of 10mph unless they're on non-excepted tracks. They are specifically not allowed to carry passengers. I doubt they top out at much more than 60-70mph. You'd also better hope you're lucky enough not to get a train shipping hazardous materials, because 10mph will be speedy.

I live near near the major East-West rail route across America. I constantly see long freight trains barreling through at high speeds. That's what makes me wonder about gaming the system.

I've always wondered why terrorists didn't just nuke the route out in Nebraska somewhere. They could take out I-80 and the major rail route all at once, and really fuck up our economy.

TheCatt wrote:Speed limits

Yeah but what class track is the highest you can get for freight?

Malcolm wrote:

TheCatt wrote:Speed limits

Yeah but what class track is the highest you can get for freight?

If only the article had included that highly relevant information.

79 mph if they have all the extra crap they need to qualify for speed? And it sounds like that's still discouraged. That's a decent highway speed. But those aren't the trains going 400+ miles on one gallon of hippie pipe dreams.

Malcolm wrote:79 mph if they have all the extra crap they need to qualify for speed?

The stuff that was declared as required in 1951? Yeah, who knows how many trains could have all that equipment. I mean, 65 years isn't a lot of time.

Malcolm wrote: But those aren't the trains going 400+ miles on one gallon of hippie pipe dreams.

Which ones are?

TheCatt wrote:

Malcolm wrote: But those aren't the trains going 400+ miles on one gallon of hippie pipe dreams.

Which ones are?

Common sense and physics say you don't get "distance + speed" without plenty of stored energy to fuel it, and a gallon of anything less than liquid schwartz isn't enough to move a 25-ton freight car 400 miles at 50mph, let alone the several you see on your average cargo train.

Malcolm wrote:

TheCatt wrote:

Malcolm wrote: But those aren't the trains going 400+ miles on one gallon of hippie pipe dreams.

Which ones are?

Common sense and physics say you don't get "distance + speed" without plenty of stored energy to fuel it, and a gallon of anything less than liquid schwartz isn't enough to move a 25-ton freight car 400 miles at 50mph, let alone the several you see on your average cargo train.

You really cannot read. It would only need to move that freight car 16 miles.