by CPSK
Hi;
I just read an article in my local North Jersey paper about the problem the state is having getting rocksalt for the roads. The article says that a large shipment of salt is sitting at a port in Maine waiting for a ship to take it down to Port Newark NJ. Due to an old US law, the shipment must be made by a ship sailing under the US flag. Unfortunately, getting the appropriate ship will take 30 days or more, so smaller ships (under the US flag) which are much slower have been taking the loads.
So I immediately have this thought: Why not load the salt into hopper cars and ship it by rail to NJ?
Would this be possible?
I realize that for any government agency to make a change like this would probably take far longer than it will take for a ship flying the US flag to arrive in the port to take the shipment to NJ, but perhaps for the next load?
CP
Edit: I looked up the capacity of a hopper car - about 130 tons. This shipment of salt is 40,000 tons, so that means to ship by rail, more than 300 hopper cars would be required. I suppose scaring up so many cars in short notice is next to impossible, but perhaps - as I stated above, such a plan could be worked out as a stand-by in case the ship is not available.
I just read an article in my local North Jersey paper about the problem the state is having getting rocksalt for the roads. The article says that a large shipment of salt is sitting at a port in Maine waiting for a ship to take it down to Port Newark NJ. Due to an old US law, the shipment must be made by a ship sailing under the US flag. Unfortunately, getting the appropriate ship will take 30 days or more, so smaller ships (under the US flag) which are much slower have been taking the loads.
So I immediately have this thought: Why not load the salt into hopper cars and ship it by rail to NJ?
Would this be possible?
I realize that for any government agency to make a change like this would probably take far longer than it will take for a ship flying the US flag to arrive in the port to take the shipment to NJ, but perhaps for the next load?
CP
Edit: I looked up the capacity of a hopper car - about 130 tons. This shipment of salt is 40,000 tons, so that means to ship by rail, more than 300 hopper cars would be required. I suppose scaring up so many cars in short notice is next to impossible, but perhaps - as I stated above, such a plan could be worked out as a stand-by in case the ship is not available.