Harbor Freight Tools that don't suck

[aczlan]

I don't have a dog in this fight. Not part of either the Trains or the Trucks and the fight involved. I'm not in the transportation business. Yet I have done a great deal of loading and unloading of trucks. And I find them to be mostly marginal, just enough to get by, and the drivers.... less then professional. I don't know about trains. I've never loaded one of those. I do know that I have witnessed the almost insane increase of the number of trucks now on our public roads in the last 30 years. I'm sure they all pay their taxes on those roads.... well maybe. My last Congressman, I wrote to, who was on the transportation committee, didn't have have any answers, and never presented any solutions, as to why rail gets so little attention in this country. Long haul should be by train, short haul by truck. That makes sense to me to get a more long haul trucks off the roads.

The problem is that shipping stuff by train takes a long time (one week via truck versus a minimum of two and a half, usually closer to 3 weeks via train for a cross country trip) and you are far more likely to have shipping damage, we get stuff in by training truck at work and despite the train car being labeled as "do not hump" (ie: don't uncouple and let it slam uncontrolled into the stack of cars building up on a siding at the bottom of a small hill) pretty much every car comes in having been humped in some rail yard and everything is slid to one end of the car.
If we are lucky nothing is broken open and we can unload it.
If we are not it has to go out to a rework facility which adds the better part of a month for them to unload the car, clean everything off, load it onto trucks and ship it back to us.

Cause what?, the roads need to be expanded to accommodate the trucks? And we pay for it? Well if we are paying for it, nationalize the damn rail roads. They were given this in the first place. Served the original purpose, and now we should take them back.

Except for the millions and probably billions of dollars that the railroads have invested in signaling and tracks since they were given the land way back when.
In order to make it more efficient we would need to spend at least a couple trillion to make sure everything is double tracked and has high quality rail end to end across the country.

The other problem is in order to make high-speed rail work properly, you have to spend $500,000 to a million dollars per intersection for full interlocking gates at every single road crossing in every podunk town between New York and California (many counties around here have 30 to 50 rail crossings in them), or else you would have to set up an over or underpass for every rail crossing.

Aaron Z

 

[5030]

Good post. I believe FEC is discovering that with their Brightline high speed light rail service in Florida (especially your last paragraph)....

Far as nationalizing rail service, the more government involvement, typically the less efficient it becomes.

 

[sea2summit]

The problem is that shipping stuff by train takes a long time (one week via truck versus a minimum of two and a half, usually closer to 3 weeks via train for a cross country trip) and you are far more likely to have shipping damage, we get stuff in by training truck at work and despite the train car being labeled as "do not hump" (ie: don't uncouple and let it slam uncontrolled into the stack of cars building up on a siding at the bottom of a small hill) pretty much every car comes in having been humped in some rail yard and everything is slid to one end of the car.
If we are lucky nothing is broken open and we can unload it.
If we are not it has to go out to a rework facility which adds the better part of a month for them to unload the car, clean everything off, load it onto trucks and ship it back to us.


Except for the millions and probably billions of dollars that the railroads have invested in signaling and tracks since they were given the land way back when.
In order to make it more efficient we would need to spend at least a couple trillion to make sure everything is double tracked and has high quality rail end to end across the country.

The other problem is in order to make high-speed rail work properly, you have to spend $500,000 to a million dollars per intersection for full interlocking gates at every single road crossing in every podunk town between New York and California (many counties around here have 30 to 50 rail crossings in them), or else you would have to set up an over or underpass for every rail crossing.

Aaron Z

My job has involved chartering several trains to travel most of the way across or all of the way across the country. I've never had one take three weeks.

 

[Root Cause]

I have been guilty of derailing a thread but how about starting a train thread so the HF thread is about HF stuff?

 

[sea2summit]

I have been guilty of derailing a thread but how about starting a train thread so the HF thread is about HF stuff?

This isn't the harbor freight train thread?

 

[5030]

Already a thread existing 'railroads and their tracks....

I will say that rail transportation can be slow. One of my friends owns the propane dealership up town and he just happens to own (in another location) are large propane storage yard with a rail siding and he told me that the rail is not only slow on delivery but inconsistent as well plus, the rule is it the propane tank cars aren't unloaded within 48 hours of delivery, the railroad company charges him detention for each hour over the 48 allowed.

Consequently he only uses the rail only during the off season (summer time) to fill them. His gas is coming from Sarnia, Ontario and he told me it can take up 2 weeks from loading them to them arriving at his tank farm. From Sarnia to his tank farm it's less than 150 miles. Consequently, he uses his own semi's to haul it or contracts with a private propane carrier to deliver it and he told me the cost is about equal (before the diesel price went through the roof). Not sure about now as he has not said one way or another.

I think the issue with rail is, it's never a direct shipment, that is no matter what you ship, the rail will take an indirect route and of course not every business has it's own rail siding to unload anyway. Why you see a ton of semi trailers on flat rail cars. Those trailers go to a marshalling yard somewhere and are offloaded and a semi takes them (the last mile) to the retailer for off loading. That also applies to Harbor Freight. Never seen any HF stores with rail sidings out back.

 

[Root Cause]

This isn't the harbor freight train thread?

Apparently so! My mistake, LOL

 

[IrishLoader]

road crossing in every podunk town between New York and California

Aaron Z

Hey now! The folks of Possum Crossing take offense to that sir! They like to belive they are a very cosmopolitan bunch with a healthy constitution and zest for life! Why they have just added another Caution Light at the end of Main street so that the Building commission could justify the added cost in the towns budget for a cross walk!

 

[5030]

Hey now! The folks of Possum Crossing take offense to that sir! They like to belive they are a very cosmopolitan bunch with a healthy constitution and zest for life! Why they have just added another Caution Light at the end of Main street so that the Building commission could justify the added cost in the towns budget for a cross walk!

That is funny....

The caution light at the main intersection up town has been burned out for a month now.

 

[MossRoad]

How about Harbor Freight training?