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and highway
semi-trailers in "
piggy-back" service, on flatcars, passes through the Cajon Pass in February, 1995.
Intermodal freight transport involves the transportation of cargo in a containerization or
vehicle, using multiple modes of
transportation (
rail transport,
ocean ship, and
truck), without any handling of the freight itself when changing modes. The advantage of utilizing this method is that it reduces cargo handling, and so improves security, reduces damages and loss, and allows freight to be transported faster.
Prehistory
Containerisation is not a new idea, but earlier attempts were not as comprehensive or internationally standardised enough to take off. That happened with the containers introduced by
Sea-Land Service, Inc.
History
Pallets made their first major appearance during
World War II, when the
United States military assembled freight on pallets, allowing fast transfer between warehouses, trucks, trains,
ships, and
aircraft. Because no freight handling was required, fewer personnel were required and loading times were decreased.
Truck Trailer (vehicle) were first carried by railway before World War II, an arrangement often called "piggyback", by the small
Class I railroad, the Chicago Great Western in 1936. The Canadian Pacific Railway was a pioneer in piggyback transport, becoming the first major
North American railway to introduce the service in 1952.
While rudimentary freight containers, then known as lift vans, were used in the United States as early as 1911, it was not until the 1950s that containers started to revolutionize freight transportation. One pioneering railway was the White Pass and Yukon Route, who acquired the world's first container ship, the
Clifford J Rogers, built in 1955, and introduced containers to its railway in 1956. Starting in the 1960s the use of containers increased steadily. Standards for containers were issued by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) between 1968 and 1970, ensuring interchangeability between different modes of transportation worldwide. The containers became known as containerization for this reason. An example of such a major intermodal project was the $740,000,000 Port of Oakland intermodal rail facility begun in the late 1980s.
Initial Study: Intermodal Interface Demonstration Project, Port of Oakland, Oakland, California, Earth Metrics and Korve Engineerning, December 20, 1989 Port of Oakland Official Site: Facts and Figures (2006)
In the United States of America, rail intermodal traffic tripled between 1980 and 2002 according to the Association of American Railroads (AAR), from 3.1 million trailers and containers to 9.3 million.
Double-stacked container transport
.Since 1984, a mechanism for intermodal shipping known as double-stack rail transport has become increasingly common. Rising to the rate of nearly 70% of United States intermodal shipments, it transports more than one million containers per year. The double-stack rail car's unique design also significantly reduced damage in transit, and provided greater cargo security by cradling the lower containers so their doors cannot be opened. And a succession of large, new domestic container sizes was introduced to further enhance shipping productivity for customers. As early as the 1970s, doublestack designs and equipment were introduced, but the cars were heavy and uneconomical to operate.
Equipment
Sizes
Containers, also known as intermodal containers or as ISO containers because the dimensions have been defined by the ISO, are the main type of equipment used in intermodal transport, particularly when one of the modes of transportation is by ship. Containers are eight feet (2438 mm) wide by eight feet (2438 mm) high. Since introduction, there have been moves to adopt other heights, such as eight feet six inches (2591 mm), nine feet six inches (2896 mm) and ten feet six inches (3200 mm). The most common lengths are 20 feet (6096 mm) nominal or 19 feet - 10½ in (6058 mm) actual, 40 feet (12192 mm), 48 feet (14630 mm) and 53 feet (16154 mm), although other lengths exist. They are made out of steel and can be stacked on top of each other (a popular term for a two-high stack is "double stack"). On ships they are typically stacked up to seven units high. They can be carried by truck, rail, container ship, or aeroplane. When carried by rail, containers can be loaded on flatcars or in
Gondola (rail)#container well cars. In Europe, stricter railway height restrictions (smaller loading gauge and structure gauge) and overhead electrification prohibit containers from being stacked two high, and containers are hauled one high either on standard flatcars or other railroad cars.
Variations
, the containers are owned by
Pacer Stacktrain.Some variations on the standard container exist. Open-topped versions covered by a fabric curtain are used to transport larger loads. A container called a
Tank car#tanktainers, consisting of a tank fitted inside a standard container frame, allows liquids to be carried. Refrigerated containers are used for perishables. There is also the
swap body, which is typically used for road and rail transport, as they are built too lightly to be stacked. They have folding legs under their frame so that they can be moved between trucks without using a crane.
Truck trailers are often used for freight that is transported primarily by road and rail. Typically, regular semi-trailers can be used, and do not need to be specially designed. When travelling by rail,
semi-trailers are transported on railway
flatcars, an arrangement called "piggyback."
In North America, containers are often shipped by rail in container well cars. These cars resemble flatcars but the newer ones have a container-sized depression, or well, in the middle (between the
bogies or "trucks") of the car. This depression allows for sufficient clearance to allow two containers to be loaded in the car in a "double stack" arrangement. The newer container cars also are specifically built as a small articulated "unit", most commonly in components of three or five, whereby two components are connected by a
single bogie as opposed to two bogies, one on each car (The photo above under "Equipment" shows an example of the new setup.) Double stacking is also used in parts of Australia.
A newer method of transporting trailers, the roadrailer, has been developed by
RoadRailer Corporation, which is owned by the Norfolk Southern Railway. When the trailers are transported on rail, railway wheel assemblies are placed between the trailers, in effect turning the trailers into one large articulated railway car. This method is faster than carrying trailers on flatcars and requires no extra railway cars, but the trailers need to be specially designed (strengthened).
Container ships
image:CMA_CGM_Balzac.jpg
Container ships are used to transport containers by sea. These vessels are custom-built to hold containers. Some vessels can hold thousands of containers. Their capacity is often measured in TEU or FEU. These initials stand for "twenty foot equivalent unit," and "forty foot equivalent unit," respectively. For example, a vessel that can hold 1,000 40-foot containers or 2,000 20-foot containers can be said to have a capacity of 2,000 TEU. In the year 2005, the largest container ships in regular operation are registered to carry in excess of 8,000 TEUs.
A key consideration in the size of container ships is that larger ships exceed the capacity of important sea routes such as the Panama and Suez canals. The largest size of container ship able to traverse the Panama canal is referred to as Panamax, which is presently around 5,000 TEUs. A third set of locks is planned as part of the
Panama Canal expansion project to accommodate container ships up to 12,000 TEUs in future, comparable to the present Suezmax.
Very large container ships also require specialized deepwater terminals. Available container fleet, route constraints, and terminal capacity plays a large role in shaping global container shipment logistics. http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2004/09/19885/42551http://www.cme-mec.ca/toronto/05/documents/Oldfield.pdf
See also
Line note references
General reference
- DeBoer, David J. (1992). Piggyback and Containers: A History of Rail Intermodal on America's Steel Highway. Golden West Books, San Marino, CA. ISBN 0-87095-108-4.
External links
- White Pass and Yukon Route - pictures of 8'x8'x7' containers from 1955
and highway semi-trailers in "
piggy-back" service, on flatcars, passes through the
Cajon Pass in February, 1995.
Intermodal freight transport involves the transportation of
cargo in a containerization or vehicle, using multiple modes of
transportation (rail transport, ocean ship, and truck), without any handling of the freight itself when changing modes. The advantage of utilizing this method is that it reduces cargo handling, and so improves security, reduces damages and loss, and allows freight to be transported faster.
Prehistory
Containerisation is not a new idea, but earlier attempts were not as comprehensive or internationally standardised enough to take off. That happened with the containers introduced by
Sea-Land Service, Inc.
History
Pallets made their first major appearance during World War II, when the United States military assembled freight on pallets, allowing fast transfer between warehouses, trucks, trains,
ships, and aircraft. Because no freight handling was required, fewer personnel were required and loading times were decreased.
Truck Trailer (vehicle) were first carried by railway before World War II, an arrangement often called "piggyback", by the small
Class I railroad, the Chicago Great Western in 1936. The
Canadian Pacific Railway was a pioneer in piggyback transport, becoming the first major
North American railway to introduce the service in 1952.
While rudimentary freight containers, then known as lift vans, were used in the United States as early as 1911, it was not until the 1950s that containers started to revolutionize freight transportation. One pioneering railway was the White Pass and Yukon Route, who acquired the world's first container ship, the
Clifford J Rogers, built in 1955, and introduced containers to its railway in 1956. Starting in the 1960s the use of containers increased steadily. Standards for containers were issued by the
International Organization for Standardization (ISO) between 1968 and 1970, ensuring interchangeability between different modes of transportation worldwide. The containers became known as containerization for this reason. An example of such a major intermodal project was the $740,000,000 Port of Oakland intermodal rail facility begun in the late 1980s.
Initial Study: Intermodal Interface Demonstration Project, Port of Oakland, Oakland, California, Earth Metrics and Korve Engineerning, December 20, 1989 Port of Oakland Official Site: Facts and Figures (2006)
In the United States of America, rail intermodal traffic tripled between 1980 and 2002 according to the
Association of American Railroads (AAR), from 3.1 million trailers and containers to 9.3 million.
Double-stacked container transport
.Since 1984, a mechanism for intermodal shipping known as double-stack rail transport has become increasingly common. Rising to the rate of nearly 70% of United States intermodal shipments, it transports more than one million containers per year. The double-stack rail car's unique design also significantly reduced damage in transit, and provided greater cargo security by cradling the lower containers so their doors cannot be opened. And a succession of large, new domestic container sizes was introduced to further enhance shipping productivity for customers. As early as the 1970s, doublestack designs and equipment were introduced, but the cars were heavy and uneconomical to operate.
Equipment
Sizes
Containers, also known as intermodal containers or as ISO containers because the dimensions have been defined by the ISO, are the main type of equipment used in intermodal transport, particularly when one of the modes of transportation is by ship. Containers are eight feet (2438 mm) wide by eight feet (2438 mm) high. Since introduction, there have been moves to adopt other heights, such as eight feet six inches (2591 mm), nine feet six inches (2896 mm) and ten feet six inches (3200 mm). The most common lengths are 20 feet (6096 mm) nominal or 19 feet - 10½ in (6058 mm) actual, 40 feet (12192 mm), 48 feet (14630 mm) and 53 feet (16154 mm), although other lengths exist. They are made out of steel and can be stacked on top of each other (a popular term for a two-high stack is "double stack"). On ships they are typically stacked up to seven units high. They can be carried by truck, rail, container ship, or aeroplane. When carried by rail, containers can be loaded on
flatcars or in Gondola (rail)#container well cars. In
Europe, stricter railway height restrictions (smaller loading gauge and structure gauge) and overhead electrification prohibit containers from being stacked two high, and containers are hauled one high either on standard flatcars or other
railroad cars.
Variations
, the containers are owned by
Pacer Stacktrain.Some variations on the standard container exist. Open-topped versions covered by a fabric curtain are used to transport larger loads. A container called a
Tank car#tanktainers, consisting of a tank fitted inside a standard container frame, allows liquids to be carried. Refrigerated containers are used for perishables. There is also the swap body, which is typically used for road and rail transport, as they are built too lightly to be stacked. They have folding legs under their frame so that they can be moved between trucks without using a crane.
Truck trailers are often used for freight that is transported primarily by road and rail. Typically, regular semi-trailers can be used, and do not need to be specially designed. When travelling by rail,
semi-trailers are transported on railway flatcars, an arrangement called "piggyback."
In North America, containers are often shipped by rail in container well cars. These cars resemble flatcars but the newer ones have a container-sized depression, or well, in the middle (between the
bogies or "trucks") of the car. This depression allows for sufficient clearance to allow two containers to be loaded in the car in a "double stack" arrangement. The newer container cars also are specifically built as a small articulated "unit", most commonly in components of three or five, whereby two components are connected by a
single bogie as opposed to two bogies, one on each car (The photo above under "Equipment" shows an example of the new setup.) Double stacking is also used in parts of Australia.
A newer method of transporting trailers, the roadrailer, has been developed by RoadRailer Corporation, which is owned by the
Norfolk Southern Railway. When the trailers are transported on rail, railway wheel assemblies are placed between the trailers, in effect turning the trailers into one large articulated railway car. This method is faster than carrying trailers on flatcars and requires no extra railway cars, but the trailers need to be specially designed (strengthened).
Container ships
image:CMA_CGM_Balzac.jpg
Container ships are used to transport containers by sea. These vessels are custom-built to hold containers. Some vessels can hold thousands of containers. Their capacity is often measured in TEU or FEU. These initials stand for "twenty foot equivalent unit," and "forty foot equivalent unit," respectively. For example, a vessel that can hold 1,000 40-foot containers or 2,000 20-foot containers can be said to have a capacity of 2,000 TEU. In the year 2005, the largest container ships in regular operation are registered to carry in excess of 8,000 TEUs.
A key consideration in the size of container ships is that larger ships exceed the capacity of important sea routes such as the Panama and Suez canals. The largest size of container ship able to traverse the Panama canal is referred to as
Panamax, which is presently around 5,000 TEUs. A third set of locks is planned as part of the
Panama Canal expansion project to accommodate container ships up to 12,000 TEUs in future, comparable to the present
Suezmax.
Very large container ships also require specialized deepwater terminals. Available container fleet, route constraints, and terminal capacity plays a large role in shaping global container shipment logistics. http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2004/09/19885/42551http://www.cme-mec.ca/toronto/05/documents/Oldfield.pdf
See also
Line note references
General reference
- DeBoer, David J. (1992). Piggyback and Containers: A History of Rail Intermodal on America's Steel Highway. Golden West Books, San Marino, CA. ISBN 0-87095-108-4.
External links
- White Pass and Yukon Route - pictures of 8'x8'x7' containers from 1955
Intermodal freight transport - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Intermodal freight transport involves the transportation of freight in a container or vehicle, using multiple modes of transportation (rail, ship, and truck), without any handling ...
CIFTS
Center for Intermodal Freight Transportation Studies. University of Memphis. 302 Engineering Administration. 3815 Central Ave Memphis, TN 38152. Tel: 901-678-3940
Containerization - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Containerization (or containerisation) is a system of intermodal freight transport cargo transport using standard ISO containers (known as shipping containers, ITUs (Intermodal ...
AT045: Intermodal Freight Transport Committee
The scope of this TRB committee includes all aspects of research pertaining to intermodal freight transport. Attention will be given initially to rail ...
Intermodal Freight Transport - Elsevier
To order this title, and for more information, click here By David Lowe, Transport writer and consultant, Norwich, UK Description This book provides an introduction to the whole ...
Intermodal Freight Transport
Intermodal Freight Transport. Transport expert and intermodal enthusiast David Lowe carried out a detailed study of the combined or intermodal transport scenario ...
Transport - Intermodal Transport
The aim of the Commissions policy on Intermodal Freight Transport is to support the efficient « door to door » movement of goods, using two or more ...
TRL Report | Intermodal freight transport update (1999-2002)
This issue of Current Topics includes over 70 abstracts of reports, conference papers, books and journal articles that focus on combined freight transport by road, rail or water.
EUTP - Intermodal Freight Transport Research :: EUTP
EUTP Interactive Freight Transfer Point provide organisational and technical support for the collection and analysis of information on strategies for Research and Technological ...
Transport - Intermodal Transport
European Commission - Transport - Intermodal Transport ... Measures to support freight transport ... Call for proposals under the annual work ...
