Eastern Railroad Discussion > WACR Intermodal Design.

The intermodal ramp on the Washington County at St. Johnsbury, Vermont appears to be complete, its near the southern terminus of the yard basically parallel to the former Grand Union supermarket. As I surveyed the scene yesterday could not help but to ask some questions.
Does the WACR plan on adding a crane or overhead? The dimensions for the platform (guestimate) of 70' by 45' seems rather narrow to accomodate heavy equipment and turning radiuses to load and offload 53' trailers.
Is this the best location for this ramp? Considering turning radiuses it also seems tight to bring in 53'trailers into basically the center of the yard. The area is unpaved and could snow removal be another significant obstacle for this ramp? I think a better location would have been closer to Bay street north of the turntable. And this brings my last question: If intermodal is the objective why was St. Johnsbury selected in lieu of places like Newport or even Lyndonville-- locations that might have offered better access and more importantly serve to create intermodal traffic from the interstate.

St. J is at the junction of two Interstates (91 and 93), while the other two locations are not. There's probably a greater concentration of potential customers at or near St. J, too.

wlankenau Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> St. J is at the junction of two Interstates (91
> and 93), while the other two locations are not.
> There's probably a greater concentration of
> potential customers at or near St. J, too.

Flawed thinking. If connections with the interstate were the only arguement then White River Jct. with access to 89 and 91 would be preferable. The goal of this terminal is to generate traffic. I think 93 is not a consideration. 91 might be because of the substantial north-south traffic flow but if this is case would not Newport be the better location? And for whatever it is worth, I think this St. Johnsbury terminal will ba a non-starter; the only way, I think, to generate intermodal traffic is to move both trailers and containers in density and volume from a well placed terminal similar to what is done along the SLR at Auburn, Maine.