The railroads need vertical clearances on their lines of 20-feet, 8 inches to handle the new domestic double stack cars with their high-cube containers. These clearances now exist in virtually all of the western States and most of the States in the East, but not in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania cannot even handle the smaller international double stacks. Without double stack rail service the ports serving Philadelphia cannot hope to compete for the international liner trade-particularly the new Canadian markets. Tri-level auto rack cars, for carrying new automobiles, also require higher clearances. These newer railcars cannot reach Philadelphia and central New Jersey. Older, less efficient auto rack cars must use impossibly circuitous routes to reach a handful of locations in eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and northern Maryland. Also, there are a number of Pennsylvania-based industries (such as Air Products, Fuller Industries and Joy Products) that construct very large equipment for export which are difficult to ship by highway that could use special horizontal clearances.


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    Title :

    High-Profile Rail Clearances in the State of Pennsylvania. Report 6. Executive Summary


    Publication date :

    1992


    Size :

    62 pages


    Type of media :

    Report


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English





    Flanges and guard rail clearances

    Tatnall, George | Engineering Index Backfile | 1893


    Executive summary report

    Thomson Tubes Electroniques GmbH / European Space Agency | SLUB | 1990