On Mon, 30 Jun 2014 10:25:42 Trent W. Buck wrote:
Russell Coker wrote:
There shouldn't be any difficulty in designing a cargo tram for transporting 20 foot long intermodal containers (which are 8 feet wide) and RACE containers (which are about the same size).
That'll take a while (i.e. years, maybe decades), especially if it's continuously filibustered by vested interests (e.g. linfox). It'd be better to reuse existing solutions as much as possible.
Designing a new model of car takes a lot of time and effort because there is no separate chassis. The skin of the car forms a large part of the structural strength. Getting the appearance, aerodynamics, and strength right in a new shape isn't easy. Trams are relatively slow (theoretical top speed for trams is ~80Km/h) so aerodynamics isn't a big issue and they don't need to pass the crash tests that cars have to pass (I bet they don't even do a rollover test on trams). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combino#Technical_specifications The above URL mentions the way that the body work is bolted on to the frame on one tram. Designing a cargo tram for intermodal containers wouldn't take the 2-3 years that it takes to design a new car.
(In the same way it'd have been better to tweak oyster or octopus than design myki from scratch.)
One difference between software engineering and mechanical engineering is the issue of testing. Testing a vehicle for various types of crash etc is a lot simpler than trying to test a good sub-set of the huge number of input conditions that a large and complex software system experiences. There's nothing at all new about transporting intermodal containers by train. There is no great difference between trams and trains as the various light- rail projects demonstrate. One could consider a tram designed for transporting 20 foot containers to be a "tweak" of existing train designs. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-class_Melbourne_tram The E class tram is 110 feet 9 inches long in 3 sections of unequal length and the width is 8 feet 8 inches. The track probably has sufficient load gauge for a tram that can carry a 40 foot intermodal container (which is only 8 feet wide). -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/