[AT] Rail cars.

[Dudley Rupert]

I don't claim to know the answer but if I had to guess I would agree with
Lew and say it was speed.  I think trucks gained the upper hand on speed
when the Interstate Highway System was built in the fifties and sixties.
This cut the time significantly for the long haulers.  And then trucks often
enjoyed an advantage when it came to handling the freight.  With trucks the
freight often had to be loaded only once (at the point of origin) and
unloaded once (at the destination).  With trains the freight may have to be
loaded on a truck and then hauled to the railroad where it was unloaded and
then loaded on a rail car and then the process repeated at the destination.

I don't know if freight hauling is different out west but here trains still
play a significant role in getting the interstate freight to and from the
ports.  The Burlington Northern, which runs North out of Seattle to Everett
and then back East, passes within a couple of miles of my place.  There are
probably a half dozen trains a day each way and there is nothing but
containers on them.  But it seems the vast majority of the intrastate tracks
have been torn out leaving trucks as the only mode for handling local
freight.  However, the trucking we have out here on our Interstates seems
small in comparison to what I see on I80/I90 when I am back in
Illinois/Indiana ...maybe that's because the Midwest has so much more
freight to haul.

Dudley
Snohomish, Washington

-----Original Message-----
From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com
[mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com]On Behalf Of Paul Waugh
Sent: Friday, February 22, 2008 8:10 PM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: Re: [AT] Rail cars.

So why did they go away??? ... Labor too high??? .. they have darn good
retirement (RR)

Paul Waugh
----- Original Message -----
From: "Irma Brown" <bellville1 at gmail.com>
To: "Antique tractor email discussion group" <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Friday, February 22, 2008 10:53 PM
Subject: [AT] Rail cars.


>I sure do agree with the fact it would e wise to get the rail cars back to
> hauling freight and cut down the trucks that are running. . It seems that
> in
> our country as soon as we get something that works we have to up and
> change
> it. Sometimes not for the better. Just my two cents.
>
> Irma
> Western, KY
> http://picasaweb.google.com/bellville1
> http://members.tripod.com/~DairyGoats/index.html
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