Dual gauge trackage. Narrow gauge trucks on the car on the left, standard gauge trucks on the car on the right.
Posted on 01/18/2017 5:48:36 AM PST by Gamecock
The first freight train service from China to the UK arrived in London on Wednesday completing its 18-day trip.
Some 34 containers packed with mainly clothes and other high street goods completed the 7,456-mile (11,999km) journey in east London.
The train departed east China's Yiwu City in Zhejiang Province on New Year's Day and is scheduled to arrive in Barking just after lunchtime.
The 7,400-mile journey passed through Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Poland, Germany, Belgium and France before entering the UK via the Channel Tunnel.
It is hoped the China Railway train will become a cost-efficient and time-saving way of transporting trade between China and the UK.
A number of different locomotives and wagons were used as the railways of the former Soviet Union states have a larger rail gauge than the other countries involved.
The service is cheaper than air freight and faster than sending goods by sea.
Fang Xudong, vice general manager of Tianmeng Industrial Investment, said: "The fast train route between Yiwu and London takes 30 days less than maritime transportation, while only costing a fifth of air transportation."
The trains will run weekly initially to assess demand.
So far there have been 40 freight train routes connecting Asia to 14 European cities, which form part of a trade route launched in 2013.
They are part of China's One Belt, One Road programme of reviving the ancient Silk Road trading routes to the West, initially created more than 2,000 years ago.
Doesn't sound like a direct train to me if they need to use [a] number of different locomotives and wagons...
Perhaps will provide motivation to standardize rail gauges, at least on these international routes.
Another target for jihadis.
They could support dual-guage. That way Russia doesn’t have to change all their rolling stock.
Changing locomotives is not uncommon on railroads, especially when going from electrified territory to non-electrified. And with gauge changes, there are truck-changing stations (where the wheel trucks are exchanged rather than whole cars) at many locations where Russia interchanges with standard-gauge countries.
It is also common to use the locomotives of the country that the cars are transiting. Not so much with the fast passenger trains in Europe, like the ICE, but freight and regular passenger trains anyway.
And with gauge changes, there are truck-changing stations (where the wheel trucks are exchanged rather than whole cars) at many locations where Russia interchanges with standard-gauge countries.
Makes perfect sense, but I didn't know that. Thanks!
I think this procedure is a little difficult for most people to visualize.
Near Grodekovo, Russia, bordering Suifenhe, China, is one such station, where the wagons are uncoupled. The wheel trucks are freed from the wagons with a large key wrench (one man can do this) through floor panels inside the wagon. Huge rotary (screw) lifts beside the track then lift the cars, and the wheel trucks are rolled out onto a siding. Another set of wheel trucks are rolled underneath that match the Chinese track gauge. The large key wrench locks them in.
All passengers get off the train and waited in the yard. There were no buildings in which to wait. A thirty wagon train took about an hour to change out.
I watched this at stations on the China-Mongolia border as well.
Dual gauge trackage. Narrow gauge trucks on the car on the left, standard gauge trucks on the car on the right.
Russian rail gauge.
National defense.
Poster children for paranoia.
18-day trip. Some 34 containers packed with mainly clothes and other high street goods completed the 7,456-mile.
I understand that they have the ultimate, “Murder on the Orient Express,” dress up dinner party on it.
I read that the Russians track is wider because after the Civil War, Southern engineers went to Russia and designed their rail system. They use the same width tracks used by the South at that time.
Not the reason for that particular circumstance, but before satellite surveillance, Russian maps were deliberately misleading.
the South had numerous railroads of various gauges. when the first troops arrived in Richmond before First Manassas they detrained on the south end, marched through the city to the north end and embarked on trains becaus ethe gauges were different
Russia uses different gauges to make invasion more difficult.
“Russia uses different gauges to make invasion more difficult.”
Can you give an example of when an invading army used the railroad to accomplish its invasion?
That sounds neat, but wouldn't it be quicker and easier to simply move the containers?
Nazi Germany in 1941. The logistics element of the german army relied on trains extensively to bring supplies up to the front. Given the distances involved, the quantity of supplies required and the state of Soviet era roads, there wasn’t any other serious option.
Interestingly, if Hitler had treated the Ukrainians better after they were occupied, they wouldn’t have had so many serious problems with logistics once the Ukrainian partisans started attacking their railroads.
Thanks for that, interesting stuff. Not a lot to do with your question or my answer but interesting just the same.
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