RRUserious
OBS Chief
- Joined
- Oct 31, 2011
- Messages
- 505
The PBS Show America Revealed had an interesting bit on double humping, the sorting process in the Chicago rail yards that assembles trains to different destinations. Anybody ever watched it. I could imagine standing there, seeing the guy walking along, stopping, flipping a handle, the freight car rolling away to one of what, 20 tracks, to join other cars bound for some freight route, and having no clue what was happening. They showed this to indicate an example of bottlenecks in the overall rail system.
Later on they showed GPS navigation for planes and Nextgen. No doubt, the planes have an edge. But I don't see them ever making a dent in moving freight. I have no idea how much more efficient trains are, but I have to guess there is at least an order of magnitude. The humorous part of the aviation history was the farmer bonfires that helped early planes know they weren't wandering off a route. Does sort of make me wonder if those planes had to fly through mountain passes to avoid hypoxia for the pilot.
Later on they showed GPS navigation for planes and Nextgen. No doubt, the planes have an edge. But I don't see them ever making a dent in moving freight. I have no idea how much more efficient trains are, but I have to guess there is at least an order of magnitude. The humorous part of the aviation history was the farmer bonfires that helped early planes know they weren't wandering off a route. Does sort of make me wonder if those planes had to fly through mountain passes to avoid hypoxia for the pilot.
