International Railroad Discussion > Double stacks throughout the world

I believe Austrailia runs some double stack container trains. Besides North America, does any other country have them? Russia? China?

India - on the 5'6" gauge between Mundra (on the Indian Ocean coast) and Gurgaon (near Delhi).  

Brazil is starting with double stack with MRS, Rumo and Brado railroads, all broad gauge.

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Pedro Rezende
Vespasiano MG,
https://youtube.com/c/minasgeraisrailways1



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/01/18 15:22 by pedrop.

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I saw some double stacks in a rail yard in Beijing when I passed through in 2005.  I'm just back from a couple thousand miles of rail travel in Russia but saw none there.  In fact, very few containers at all.  The Russians still seem to rely heavily on box cars, much like US railroads in the 1950s and 60s.

RL Cabin

RL_Cabin Wrote:
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> I saw some double stacks in a rail yard in Beijing
> when I passed through in 2005.  I'm just back
> from a couple thousand miles of rail travel in
> Russia but saw none there.  In fact, very few
> containers at all.  The Russians still seem to
> rely heavily on box cars, much like US railroads
> in the 1950s and 60s.
>
> RL Cabin

I also did not see any double stacks in Russia. About half of what I saw were high-side drop-bottom gondolas. 2nd most common type were tank cars.

How strange - I was just going to post an article where I just learned they are being used in Kenya, which I think would be the first example in Africa, and I see this thread.

This article shows a picture of them in Kenya on the Chinese-built line, all the equipment is Chinese made.

I was wondering what the worldwide list would be as well. Outside of North America, I was thinking Australia, India, China (just found out since they made the Kenyan cars), Kenya, Saudia Arabia, and Brazil.

I believe that they are used in Panama, too.

It is interesting that the double-stack containers in India ride on platforms that are not depressed betwwn the trucks.

With the opening up of some open access routes in Australia to double stack, logistics group SCT has taken the opportunity to introduce "box cars" the same height as double stack containers

These cars have ultra wide doors, with reinforced floors for forklift truck loading/unloading

Flick through a few editions of this online magazine for photos https://jimbisdee.com/?p=787
Try page 11  West_Australian_Rails_2018-09
Note the Chinese SDA1

SCT on long haul, drag a fuel tender for automatic refueling, and a relay caboose for the second crew

 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/02/18 23:01 by jmt.

LTCerny Wrote:
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> It is interesting that the double-stack containers
> in India ride on platforms that are not depressed
> betwwn the trucks.

This is due to the broader gauge (5,6”) allowing a wider car and higher center of gravity apparently.

I have just noticed something curious about the Indian stacks - they don't seem to be unrestricted, allowing any size containers. In videos I watched, every single platform can only have one high cube (9ft 6 inches (2.90m) container; it has to be matched with a standard (8ft 6 inches (2.59m) container, weather 40' or 20's. So it seems like there may be an issue with stability. It is a strange sight when you start to notice that every platform has two different height containers.

zorz Wrote:
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> LTCerny Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > It is interesting that the double-stack
> containers
> > in India ride on platforms that are not
> depressed
> > betwwn the trucks.
>
> This is due to the broader gauge (5,6”) allowing
> a wider car and higher center of gravity
> apparently.

Also, as far as I know, double-stacks in India will be restricted to the new freight-only lines which are being built with much higher clearances than the older lines. For these lines, they are also testing high-level catenary, with the main wire set at about 24 ft. above the rail (I don't remember exactly, it is several months since I saw this article). Standard Indian Railways clearance diagrams are much too small to run double-stacks; max vehicle height, IIRC, is only about 15 ft.

Roger Lewis (airbrakegeezer)

A contrarian view: countires that modernized their systems by electrification accidently blocked double stack operations.