The Port of Houston established an entire container port facility to
unload ships wanting to avoid the Panama Canal. Ships are unloaded at
Barbour's Cut facility loaded double stack style, put on the former SP
mainline to the West Coast. They also unload unto trailers for more
localized shipping much to the amazement of the locals who don't like
seeing thousands of trucks driving through the area.
Before the Barbour's Cut facility was built, Sea-Land operated some
cranes at the 'traditional' wharves near what is termed the "turning
basin". It so happens that something went wrong and the crane broke,
sending about half into the channel. Yours truly was there the next day
shooting insurance/evidence photos for Sea Land. I've been up there in
the middle of the torn pieces of metal doing closeups of welds, broken
bolts etc--just a bit un-nerving.
I was also hired to document some of the first international shipping of
the tubular tank type containers. Hapag Lloyd was probably the first,
while my client had a handful of them and wanted photo coverage for the
media. In this case the containers were below deck and were hoisted
unto trucks, as that area wasn't rail-served directly on the docks.
In the past, I've mentioned with a good client, Stolt. I don't see many
of their containers making the trips via rail. Most probably have
shorter distance routes to near-by chemical facilities. Also by the way
if you're modeling a non or low-flammable, but still liquid industry
(aka cooking oil) it's okay to use the typical box containers. For a
few years these situations use a bladder/or water-bed type container to
hold those liquids. The liquids are added in the container and simply
drained upon delivery. After that the bladder is simply folded up and
shipped back. Probably more than you wanted to know, but interesting
nonetheless.
Bob Werre
PhotoTraxx
On 2/13/12 6:05 PM, Bill Brown wrote:
> > In the real world containers are usually unloaded from ships
>> and then trucked, sometimes several miles, to a rail yard - or
>>trucked all the way if the destination is within a few hundred
>>miles.
>> Tom H
>
>
>California is always a bit different, I guess. In Long Beach, the
>west coast's largest port, the RR tracks are adjacent to the
>container ships and the trucks are non-existent for the most part.
>Most of the cargo moves from the ships to the RRs and via rail to
>points in the midwest and East. Much of it actually moves all the
>way to the Atlantic Ocean and continues on its way to Europe. Of
>course, local folks in Los Angeles and southern California receive
>their cargo via truck. The Teamsters were not happy with this
>arrangement, but efficiency trumped politics in this case.
>
>Cheers....Ed L.
>www.sscale.org
The port of Oakland operates in much the dame manner, although the
rail/highway
proportions my be somewhat different.
A promoter is trying to set up an "inland port." In this scenario most
(all?)
containers will leave Oakland by train headed for the "inland port"
where the
highway deliveries will the transferred to trailers. This could reduce
traffic on the Bay Area's highways, but powerful forces are working
against
the project. Don't hold your breath...
--
--+---+ \/ -bill
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