{"id":122072,"date":"2024-09-07T09:21:40","date_gmt":"2024-09-06T23:21:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=122072"},"modified":"2024-09-07T09:21:46","modified_gmt":"2024-09-06T23:21:46","slug":"australia-tried-pulling-trains-with-semi-trucks-heres-how-that-went","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=122072","title":{"rendered":"Australia Tried Pulling Trains With Semi Trucks. Here\u2019s How That Went"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Your average pickup truck might be able to tow a few tons, but a semi-truck can tow close to 30. A train car, though, is another order of magnitude heavier still, with some exceeding 150 tons. Using, say, a semi-truck to tow train cars seems like as good an idea as\u00a0trying to move a manufactured home with a pickup<\/a>. But that\u2019s just what one Australian railroad did in a pinch, and it worked better than you\u2019d imagine. Mostly, anyway, because the adaptation had problems that might not be the ones you expect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This story\u2019s documentation is limited, as some of the primary sources are victims of link rot. The pages are gone; we have only secondhand accounts of what was on them. However, as a supplement to the still-extant primary sources, they\u2019re enough to begin our story sometime in 1995 with the production of a 1996 Western Star Trucks 4900 semi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This truck would make its way to Australia via Canada (hi Seabiscuit<\/a>), specifically by way of Brandt Industries, which is suggested to have upfitted it into something called a \u201croad-transferable locomotive.\u201d That\u2019s a road vehicle that can also be used to transport rail cars. It\u2019s basically a hi-rail like the Polaris with drop-down train wheels like the Los Angeles metro uses<\/a>, but at semi-truck scale. That sounds both like every four-year-old boy\u2019s dream and an impossibly niche piece of equipment\u2014in what scenario could this<\/em> be the best tool for the job? Well, like it always is<\/a> with automotive cryptids<\/a>, the purpose is as unique as the vehicle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n