Western Railroad Discussion > Panama Canal

From the American Shipper--a China Shippng container vessel sustain damage to the hull while transiting the new canal locks.The 8467 TEU vessel scraped the side of the new locks leaving a gash to the exterior

There are a couple of studies that indicate the new locks are to small at 427 meters long and 55 meters wide

FYI

Dale Smith

mearsksealand Wrote:
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> From the American Shipper--a China Shippng
> container vessel sustain damage to the hull while
> transiting the new canal locks.The 8467 TEU vessel
> scraped the side of the new locks leaving a gash
> to the exterior
>
> There are a couple of studies that indicate the
> new locks are to small at 427 meters long and 55
> meters wide
>
> FYI
>
> Dale Smith


According to Barbara Richardson, chief engineer of the project...


(Ms Richardson is often accused of being in charge when the Acela was designed to be too wide to use the tilt mechanism on several sections of track where the high speed trains would operate.  Whoops)

Yeah, they were pretty stupid to not use the electric railway mules that made the old locks work so well. They decided to use tug boats, but didn't build in enough room for them. Something will need to be done about that sooner than later.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

bunch of images I took while on a cruise through the Panama Canal, September 2009.  Doug

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The new locks have been open for just about a month, and there have been three (3) incidents.  The Pilots warned about this over two years ago; but evidently it fell on deaf years.  In the old section of locks, the electric mules gave the pilots excellent control of the ships.  The mules moved the ships; and only occasionally were the ships engines used to help start the vessel moving.   The mules had a light on top (for nights) and a loud gong, that would flash and sound when the mules reached a certain speed.  To slow and stop the ship, the mules would drop back and hold.  Before they had two way radios, the communication was via whistles.  A police whistle for the forward tugs, and the ship's whistle for the aft tugs.  Depending on the size of the ship, determined the number of mules. There were a minimum of four, and sometimes six to eight.  The mules had a cog railway that helped them climb or go down the steep incline at the end of each lock.

A design that worked well for over a hundred years.  I believe that there were only two models of mules used in that period and are still being used on the old section of the canal.  Aircraft carriers that were able to transit the canal, required two pilots; one on the center line of the ship to work the ranges, and one on the bridge to communicate the instructions.

The Strub Cog Wheel locomotive drive system for the battery operated locomotives has been in place
since the Panama Canal was constructed and commisioned.

Around the clock operation of a Strub Cog Railway since 1920 imagine that.

The tug boat ship transfer system they have employed has certainly proven that physics cannot be made mockery
of and they will have to do something soon. DID you know that the tugs that they bought only work well while operating in reverse??
They had to be piloted in reverse from the shipyard in Portugal to the Eastern Panama Canal Entrance as they could not be
adequately controlled while operating in forward with the tug captain facing the bow. The big issue is when or if one of them gets
flipped or sinks on the Pacific entrance side of the canal due to the tides there. Hopefully that will not happen. This was discussed
very well when the New York Times talked to the Tug Boat Operating Engineers Union President there in thier two plus page spread
highlighting the canal expansions grand opening. 

I wonder if they found and fixed all the leaks yet? 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/27/16 07:13 by leonz.

The Corps of Engineers built things to last.  I'd say they did a pretty good job.

To Ted's comment, I wonder if it is too late to add in the cog rail mule system......just thinking that might be less expensive a retrofit than making the tug system work (ugh)

Bill

Posted from iPhone

Thanks all who posted this material.  I had no idea that Mules were not being used in the new dig. 

Just part of the modern world, that is all around us, costing us a lot of money and time.

Post here last week with a link to the whole fiasco with info on the tugs used being as inferior. Locks were leaking before being opened. Suspect more problems in the future.

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
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> The Corps of Engineers built things to last.  I'd
> say they did a pretty good job.

I thought that the US Gov-mnt always screwed everything up for way too much money.....

doge_of_pocopson Wrote:
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> Lackawanna484 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > The Corps of Engineers built things to last. 
> I'd
> > say they did a pretty good job.
>
> I thought that the US Gov-mnt always screwed
> everything up for way too much money.....

The Bonneville dam network on the Columbia, the TVA in southern Appalachia, etc would suggest that's not always true

doge_of_pocopson Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Lackawanna484 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > The Corps of Engineers built things to last. 
> I'd
> > say they did a pretty good job.
>
> I thought that the US Gov-mnt always screwed
> everything up for way too much money.....

I think the Army Corps of Engineers is the exception to the rule.

Thanks for the photos Doug. They do a wonder job of showing the old Canal operations.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

jst3751 Wrote:
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> doge_of_pocopson Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Lackawanna484 Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > The Corps of Engineers built things to
> last. 
> > I'd
> > > say they did a pretty good job.
> >
> > I thought that the US Gov-mnt always screwed
> > everything up for way too much money.....
>
> I think the Army Corps of Engineers is the
> exception to the rule.

There are many units of the government which do an exceptional job. Often with limited resources. 

And, many corrupt, fraud ridden politically dominated operations.

Don't you hate it when your ship is wrecked in a brand new canal???