• China launches direct weekly train to London stuffed with go

  • Discussion about railroad topics everywhere outside of Canada and the United States.
Discussion about railroad topics everywhere outside of Canada and the United States.

Moderators: Komachi, David Benton

  by george matthews
 
David Benton wrote:Interesting article. I don't think double stack is the way to go though, The need is for speed , and the double tacks have terrible aerodynamics. Could be improved no doubt, but it also restricts the routes they can take in Europe.
Once again the problem is change of gauge. Whereas it is not a problem to lift single stacks from one train across to another, as is done at present at gauge change points, it would be more complicated to shift a double stack. And in any case double stack is really only found in America where there are few over the track bridges. In Europe there are many bridges and tunnels too, all of them limited in height to one stack.
  by bellstbarn
 
In Jonathan Dimbleby's tome, "Operation Barbarossa," he does not mention the gauge problem. At one point, he says the use of freight wagons to transport Jews east meant that food and armaments were denied train service, apparently because of idiot priorities. Twice more, the author says that using trains slowed supplies rather than being reliable. The tanks, horse-drawn carts, and infantry had much trouble from thick mud. In sum, he writes that insufficient forethought, misjudgment of their replacement needs, and the overriding dogmatism casting Slavs as stupid, made for bad planning. Mud and winter were secondary, not primary causes of defeat.
  by kato
 
bellstbarn wrote: Mon Sep 06, 2021 5:19 pm In Jonathan Dimbleby's tome, "Operation Barbarossa," he does not mention the gauge problem.
About 16,000 km of track west of the front (i.e. virtually all) were regauged by Wehrmacht troops to 1435mm between July and October 1941 - and regauged back to 1524mm by the Soviets in the years after the war.