All Aboard for I-81 in VA: Would you take this load?

Just turn US29 or US15 into another interstate (even toll one) and solve your problems with traffic on I81 and i95 all together....

 

Switzerland has a major tunnel, the Gothard if I remember right. They put all hazmat trucks and trailers ON trains to get around it with their mountain engines. Easy enough.

I don't have a problem being cargo on a train. Just PAY me for that slack action and truck hunting (Railcar wheels that jerk violently side to side at approximately between 21 to 28 mph due to harmonics) and the few puke bags I will need. And you are going to pay me for this trouble. My poor truck and trailer will probably have some sort of shop work with the experience, not to mention idling to keep cool or hot as needed the whole time on that train. It will take a while.

I have ridden 89 foot railcars in the past and they are a BEAST to ride on. There is not enough airride in all of Heaven to soak up that abuse. Hauling tanks two to each is one thing. 140 tons. Easy. But two relatively fragile and delicate plastics 40 ton 18 wheelers with humans inside of them? Ugh. Actually just one to a 89 footer. That's even worse.

My solution? Just bypass 81 all together. We have enough horse to run Danville, Lynchburg and dead north towards Harpers Ferry via Charlestown. OR hop up from Nashville or Memphis into Kentucky and run west virginia across to Cumberland and then anywhere east and north.

Once tens of thousands of trucks quit using I-81 it is going to affect the economy of that entire valley in a HURRY. And not for the better. Other states will harvest the bounty.

Very early in my trucking experience over my life time I learned about the then new railheads for container freight in VA among other things like Triple Crown Trailer Train service on the Horseshoe in PA. I thought oh good. Stack 500 boxes truckloads on a train, fire 500 drivers OTR and just round up a few washed up derelicts in a daycab or 10 to gather the delivered containers on the other end.

No. In anything it got worse. Service got slower. If you really cared about customer service and wan that freight there fast (Especially in today's Amazon...) you rehire that 500 OTR drivers you just fired for filling that nice train.

I wonder what is the next big idea? Leasing russian Heavy lift to stuff your 18 wheeler and it's load of imported china dishes to be in Philadelphia from Long beach california in 6 hours? HA...

Finally if there is any congesting is because the stupid companies casterated the trucks to 61 mph, unable to run Ironton Ridges worth a #### without having to downshift and crawl each of the hills. No wonder 81 is all effed up every night, just like all the other states in trucking.

In my day we sorted 81 out fast. Fast trucks and empties to the front door, most everyone in the rocking chair and the drags in the back along with the heavies. By the time we got to Ironton we all are already sorted and there is NO congestion to speak of because we were not governed or casterated back then.

 

I've used the Swiss rail system several times as a tourist. One of the tunnels saves you quite a bit of driving. We just drove onto a string of railcars and sat in our car. Not a harsh ride at all, I think the ride lasted about a half hour but saved us a few hours of driving around the mountain. Seen a lot of the truck trains passing through the train stations and just assumed the drivers are tucked away in their bunks...

 

In reality, trains could effectively only move such a small percentage of trucks as to not even make a difference as far as truck traffic volume on the interstate.

 

Just get rid of governed trucks, and quit cutting horsepower in the name of fuel mileage. Do away with speed limits, and let God sort out the rest. Oh, and eliminate the utterly ridiculous left lane restrictions in Carlisle to Harrisburg.

Usually when I travel anywhere on 81, it's the larger fleets holding things up. Usually hanging out in the center lane while everyone is whipping by at 80mph, without a thought of moving to the right.


Edit: better yet, let's put those mega fleet trucks on such a train, thereby eliminating them from the highway. Then the rail system will thrive (make America great again!), And then the rest of the world can go back to paper maps, real truckstop, paper logs, pre emission engines, and PAYPHONES!

I say all this in jest of course

 

God wanted a American Engine for truckers. He gave CAT a phone call.

JESTING. TEASING. Etc. no need for anyone to get bunches in a wad over it.

I wish the collective blinded fleets across the industry wake the hell up and see that THEY are the problem screwing with the speeds to save a dollar.

 

I don’t think the Interstates in Carlisle and Harrisburg were designed for 80 mile an hour traffic.
With all the short on and off ramps and all the traffic 55 miles an hour seems like a safer speed.
Maybe they need wider shoulders so more cops can pull over the outlaws.

 

PA towards NJ has short ramps as a exception. to what everyone else usually did

It's one of the few places you learned to for example in a bobtail put her into 6th high, stomp the hammer and dump the clutch to take off and be at 35 in a few seconds before having to shift up straight to top gear. There was usually extreme clutch dust clouding the situation behind you enough to scare the people away from you. Of course it was recorded in the company computers and there were a number of one way yelling followed by "WELL?!"

I tell them to quit dispatching me that way. So they send me to altoona etc. Fishertown in particular. One of my favorite dedicate runs. Every one of those were one to three minutes early of 8 am which was absolute required of us. DM Bowman would have fired me if I was one minute late after they lost that account.