Eastsidepilot
Western Thunderer
Thought this would be of interest.......First direct train service from China to the UK arrives in London
Col.
Col.
CHINA to UK by RAIL
- Thread starter Eastsidepilot
- Start date
Ressaldar
Western Thunderer
I wonder how many people clocked that the staged train 'arriving' is actually being pushed
Jon
pushed all the way by a nuclear powered Chinese 2-10-0 perhaps
cheers
Mike
John Miller
Western Thunderer
pushed all the way by a nuclear powered Chinese 2-10-0 perhaps
The loco was changed several times during the trip to accomodate the different track gauges.
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oldravendale
Western Thunderer
You are correct, John. The clue is within the article detailed by Col in the first post which says "Different types of rail track in different countries mean the same train cannot travel the whole route and so the containers have to be removed and reloaded onto different carriages at several stages of the journey."
Brian
Brian
oldravendale
Western Thunderer
That's the point though, isn't it Mick? The through train is the half way point for those who want stuff a bit quicker but don't want to pay for air shipping. Having said which, I have no idea what the total capacity of the system would be - and at this point I'd hazard a guess that no one else does either. It must be a pain in the butt to have to trans-ship several times though. Perhaps this may contribute to reaching standardisation, but I doubt it.
B
B
Osgood
Western Thunderer
Further to Mick's comment above, despite my best efforts I've been unable to decipher any of the online shipping statistics in order to understand how many containers come to the UK from China each year, and thus what proportion the 34 on this train represents - other than to work out that it would need 167,650 similar trains to shift the total number of containers (5.7 m) handled from everywhere through UK ports in 2015! Although I think the bulk of these movements are transhipments from ship-to-shore-to-ship for onward journey?
Hi,
The success of this venture may depend on using dedicated trains with variable gauge bogies.I agree with Oldravendale and furthermore, the simple expedient of a third rail within the Russian rail gauge is not feasible.
Peter
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mickoo
Western Thunderer
Trans-shipment won't take long, if they have their heads screwed on and someone thought about this before implementation then you'll have two tracks side by side, one in one gauge, the other in the new onward gauge, the crane then just lifts the boxes from one to the other.
Given an averagely modern crane and staff with gumption you could do the 34 containers in about 90 mins with one crane.
We have five cranes and can strip a 30 set (max 90 20' containers but average 50-60) in under an hour and that's loading to wheels, not a straight track to track. Quite a few trains are in and out in under three hours on the new North terminal and not just one, most of the time at least five of the eight tracks will have a train being worked on it.
Even a reach stacker on a road way between the two tracks could do in two hours.
MD
Given an averagely modern crane and staff with gumption you could do the 34 containers in about 90 mins with one crane.
We have five cranes and can strip a 30 set (max 90 20' containers but average 50-60) in under an hour and that's loading to wheels, not a straight track to track. Quite a few trains are in and out in under three hours on the new North terminal and not just one, most of the time at least five of the eight tracks will have a train being worked on it.
Even a reach stacker on a road way between the two tracks could do in two hours.
MD
John Miller
Western Thunderer
I would have thought something like this ..........
BRAVA, variable gauge bogies - CAF
........ would be the most likely solution to the varying gauge problem.
BRAVA, variable gauge bogies - CAF
........ would be the most likely solution to the varying gauge problem.
mickoo
Western Thunderer
I think it's more than just track gauge that's different, the wagons would need to be UIC compatible and to suit UK loading gauge, height you might get away with but I fear some far east wagons the load bed might be a bit higher and then there's braking systems, are they compatible across the whole continent, single or dual pipe air, glad hands and positioning of cocks, operating pressures etc.
Then there's couplings, fairly sure most of Russia or those states that make up Russia and China are buckeyes, primarily due to the extreme cold where hook and link freeze solid, even then the buckeyes may not be the same height or type.
Just some random thoughts that might impact the simplicity of a straight through system.
Then there's couplings, fairly sure most of Russia or those states that make up Russia and China are buckeyes, primarily due to the extreme cold where hook and link freeze solid, even then the buckeyes may not be the same height or type.
Just some random thoughts that might impact the simplicity of a straight through system.
John Miller
Western Thunderer
That's not really true - there is a train from China known as the 'East Wind train' (from a quote by former Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong, who said: "The East Wind shall prevail over the West Wind").
For planning and logistics purposes it is treated as a single weekly train service that runs between Yiwu Xi and Barking, that just happens to have equipment changes along the way - much like the 19:02 Victoria to Southhampton service has equipment changes at Horsham (coaches added or taken off)
I think it's also interesting to note that the train does not go home empty - on board for the return journy will be hams from Spain, cheeses, wines, and beer from Germany and other goods now being exported to China by rail including British-made cars, machinery and food items.
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