THE MODERN MARINE RAILWAY IN A COMPETITIVE WORLD

The author cites the early history of the marine railway and then presents an overview of various positive features of the marine railway in modern times. The two key elements, since about 1840, of a railway dry dock are the use of rollers sandwiched between plates to provide a very low friction interface between the slipways and the moving carriage and the use of open link chain for the hauling cable arranged in an endless system so both hauling and lowering can be achieved with sprocket wheels. Improved industrial materials have enabled new designs to meet the demands of environmental restrictions and regulations. The advantages of the application of numerous new materials and technologies are discussed. It is stated that versatility makes the railway drydock attractive for safely and economically launching newly built ships while leaving the dock itself available for ship repair. The modern railway drydock has provided good performance even with overloads up to 25 percent for total weight and 75 percent for load concentration. Numerous older docks are being rebuilt with modern improvements, capacity increases, and added transfer systems for multiple docking.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Conference paper
• Authors:
  • Crandall, P S
• Conference:
  • Ports '89
  • Location: Boston, Massachusetts
  • Date: 1989-5-22 to 1989-5-25
• Publication Date: 0

Media Info

• Pagination: 9p.

Subject/Index Terms

• Old TRIS Terms: Marine railways
• Subject Areas: Marine Transportation;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00659444
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Maritime Technical Information Facility
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jul 21 1994 12:00AM