I think 53' foot trailers and containers were permitted in the late 90's want to say some time after 1997??
no matter the weather or the country I'll still be trackside!
Railroad Forums
Moderator: Robert Paniagua
scharnhorst wrote:One thing that I have noticed more and more when I go to Canada is a lot of 28' and 30' flat bed trailers and even tanker trailers the first trailer has 3 sets of axles and a 5th wheel stand mounted to the trailer frame much like a semi truck if you follow the link and scroll down to the section showing the truck trailers in Scandanavia like Finland, Denmark and Sweden you'll see what I'm talking about. If you want to see a Road Train go farther down and check out the Semi trucks in Austrailua moveing 6 trailers at one time.Canadians call the three axle lead trailer/two axle pup trailer a 'B train' and they prefer it because it is more stable than the pintle hook/converter dolly "A train" we use in the US. The lead trailer has the 5th wheel for the trailing unit located over the rear [3rd] axle instead of having two pivot points when using the converter dolly.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semi-trailer_truck
wis bang wrote:scharnhorst wrote:One thing that I have noticed more and more when I go to Canada is a lot of 28' and 30' flat bed trailers and even tanker trailers the first trailer has 3 sets of axles and a 5th wheel stand mounted to the trailer frame much like a semi truck if you follow the link and scroll down to the section showing the truck trailers in Scandanavia like Finland, Denmark and Sweden you'll see what I'm talking about. If you want to see a Road Train go farther down and check out the Semi trucks in Austrailua moveing 6 trailers at one time.Canadians call the three axle lead trailer/two axle pup trailer a 'B train' and they prefer it because it is more stable than the pintle hook/converter dolly "A train" we use in the US. The lead trailer has the 5th wheel for the trailing unit located over the rear [3rd] axle instead of having two pivot points when using the converter dolly.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semi-trailer_truck
Remember that the Canadians allow twice the gross weight on their roads, except during a short spring season when the 'Frost Laws' cut them back to avoid breaking up the roadways during the spring thaw. They prefer the added stability with the higher weights.
In the US we used 1600 cu ft 4 hopper pnumatic trailers for plastic pellets and averaged [4] 48,000LB loads per railcar. The Canadian carrier I worked for had several three axle 2800 cu ft 5 hopper units that could empty a railcar in two trips. About once per year one of them came down to NC w/ a special load. Once one stopped in at our shop to have a flat tire changed. It barely fit through the shop door! The main shop in Montreal had larger doors and was made to hold (2) B trains in each bay. They do things different north of the border