Things I see in intermodal

They are just sitting on the train. There are four pins in the bottom of the well car that they sit on that are basically the top part of the twistlocks on a chassis welded to the bottom of the car. Nothing is locking them down into the car. The double stacks are locked to each other with a lock in each corner.

 

That looks like an empty getting blown over. You're exactly right about it being a violation if they're not locked, but if its a load, that 6400-10,000 lb chassis ain't holding anything to the ground. If its going to go over, its going to do it regardless of if its locked. Trust me, I'm with all of you on making sure they're locked and secure. I know how those D.O.T.'s are around here.

Oh, and those tri-axles aren't fun are they? I used to get 45,000 lb Cargill loads of corn syrup in and we'd flip them onto a standard 20' to sit until we needed to load them on the train. Let's just say we'd creep them suckers over to the train.

 

Oh yeah. Those D.O.T.'s just hang out outside the yard waiting to catch something. They actually make the drivers use zip ties to make sure the locks don't drift unlocked. I believe someone mentioned that earlier.

 

This is the "catch 22" of Intermodal hauling! These containers from overseas have been loaded and sealed...then they ask us drivers to trust they've been properly loaded there while we're unable to see that.

Our only way to verify anything is when we hook up and pull off with that container. We have to "feel" the weight as well as how it's loaded...

I know one driver that was at a turn going five miles an hour and the 20 ft container rolled! Fortunately the investigation revealed the container was improperly loaded.

Everytime you pull one of these loads...you need to be very cautious!!!

 

Ya can not forget that most are way over weight.

120,000 pounds in a can rated for only 75,000 pounds.

Ya they are just fun to come across.

 

1. Saw one a few months back that the pads were gone, someone bungied a piece of 4x4 to the pins

2. Everyday occurrence

3. Had the front pins come open on a 53' during a wind storm, didn't realize it till it was too late, kind caught it, lifted and shifted it and me, off the road and 30' onto the side of the road. 1 ton wrecker winched it back into place, CSP was there the whole time. When I had grabbed it the night before, the keepers were missing, used zip ties to lock the pins, vibration had broken the zip ties. Wrecker driver had a roll of bailing wire, that worked.

In all states open pins are an unsecured load, in Colorado it's $59/per unlocked pin on the citation, and OOS until it's locked

Wanna bet.

And it's really fun when the hostlers forget to remove the lock pins from the bottom of a container coming off the train, and you find it sitting there

My area, the hostlers don't creep anything, 46K loads of popcorn, the still try to race around with them, knock on wood, they only loose a couple per year. The prefer to drag the tires to the point of blowout instead

 

#2 just slide tandems to rear then close lock and it's fixed

 

make it any easier and the rates will go down,pic ,# 2slide the tandems back,,pic#1 so what it worked

 

I expect that one would be very difficult to pull with no wheels under it.