> > As others have noted, there are roads and there are dirt tracks and ox > cart paths. > > Compared to an ox cart path, a railroad right of way is expensive. It > takes 2 steel rails, cross ties set in a gravel roadbed, ditching and > a subsoil to support the roadbed and carry the weight. Modern paved > roads are even more expensive. They require a wider right of way, the > same or better subsoil and ditching preparation, then several layers > of materials to distribute the weight back down to the ground, > finishing with several inches of concrete. (The US has heavier trucks > than Europe and can require 10 inches of concrete.) > > But it all comes down to cost per ton of traffic handled. A dirt path > is fine for 5-10 horses a day but would never do for the 10 million > tons of coal that pass me on the railroad track on a daily coal train > (100 cars at 100,000+ tons each). Imagine trying to get 10 million > tons of coal into Chicago on a dirt path in the rain. >
Snow White and the Seven Dwarves could do it. Bob -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
