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102-450: The Lake Shore Electric Railway (LSE) was an interurban electric railway that ran primarily between Cleveland and Toledo, Ohio by way of Sandusky and Fremont . Through arrangements with connecting interurban lines, it also offered service from Fremont to Fostoria and Lima, Ohio , and at Toledo to Detroit and Cincinnati . The LSE was formed in 1901 and was composed of four predecessor streetcar and interurban lines, all owned by

204-543: A light rail line. Intermodal freight transport Intermodal transportation has its origin in 18th century England and predates the railways. Some of the earliest containers were those used for shipping coal on the Bridgewater Canal in England in the 1780s. Coal containers (called "loose boxes" or "tubs") were soon deployed on the early canals and railways and were used for road/rail transfers (road at

306-474: A boom in agriculture which lasted through the First World War , but transportation in rural areas was inadequate. Conventional steam railroads made limited stops, mostly in towns. These were supplemented by horse and buggies and steamboats , both of which were slow and the latter of which were restricted to navigable rivers. The increased capacity and profitability of the city street railroads offered

408-721: A court-appointed bankruptcy receiver. In 1937, LSE freight-service employees went on strike, and the LSE receiver terminated freight operations that day. The next year, the railroad abandoned its remaining operations, which were passenger only. This also affected the Toledo connecting C&LE with the loss of freight business to Cleveland, and the C&;LE was abandoned in 1939. The Lake Shore Electric at its height operated multiple-unit trains of interurban cars to and from Cleveland and Toledo on an hourly schedule. Eastbound trains split at Fremont on

510-524: A crane. Handling equipment can be designed with intermodality in mind, assisting with transferring containers between rail, road and sea. These can include: According to the European Commission Transportation Department "it has been estimated that up to 25% of accidents involving trucks can be attributable to inadequate cargo securing". Cargo that is improperly secured can cause severe accidents and lead to

612-771: A line that was later operated by the Lake Shore Electric. In addition, wooden coach #150 (1906 Niles) and wood interurban box car #810 (1924 Kuhlman) are on trucks and undergoing restoration at Illinois Railway Museum as of February 15, 2010. LSE steel coach #174 (1918 Jewett) is preserved as a static exhibit at The Works in Newark, Ohio. Car #38 is parked in the Avon Lake Shopping Center, located on Lake Road, very near Electric Blvd. Interurban The interurban (or radial railway in Canada)

714-400: A matter of days. At Toledo in 1936, 17,000 pounds of freight passed between the two lines. Although barely profitable, the resulting freight business generated income allowing the two lines to survive and keeping its employees working. However, the deepening Great Depression further reduced this freight business, and the LSE declared bankruptcy in 1933. Operations continued under the direction of

816-534: A mechanism for intermodal shipping known as double-stack rail transport has become increasingly common. Rising to the rate of nearly 70% of the United States' intermodal shipments, it transports more than one million containers per year. The double-stack rail cars design significantly reduces damage in transit and provides greater cargo security by cradling the lower containers so their doors cannot be opened. A succession of large, new, domestic container sizes

918-566: A progressive loss of their initial passenger service over the years. In 1905, the United States Census Bureau defined an interurban as "a street railway having more than half its trackage outside municipal limits." It drew a distinction between "interurban" and "suburban" railroads. A suburban system was oriented toward a city center in a single urban area and served commuter traffic . A regular railroad moved riders from one city center to another city center and also moved

1020-511: A second standard for European containers: In the 1950s, a new standardized steel Intermodal container based on specifications from the United States Department of Defense began to revolutionize freight transportation. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) then issued standards based upon the U.S. Department of Defense standards between 1968 and 1970. The White Pass & Yukon Route railway acquired

1122-502: A small part of their extensive business empires, which often include real estate, hotels and resorts, and tourist attractions. For example, the Keikyu network has changed unrecognizably from its early days, operating Limited Express services at up to 120 kilometres per hour (75 mph) to compete with JR trains, and inter-operating with subway and Keisei Electric Railway trains on through runs extending up to 200 kilometres (120 mi);

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1224-436: A substantial amount of freight. The typical interurban similarly served more than one city, but it served a smaller region and made more frequent stops, and it was oriented to passenger rather than freight service. The development of interurbans in the late nineteenth century resulted from the convergence of two trends: improvements in electric traction, and an untapped demand for transportation in rural areas, particularly in

1326-522: A term encompassed the companies, their infrastructure, their cars that ran on the rails, and their service. In the United States, the early 1900s interurban was a valuable economic institution, when most roads between towns, many town streets were unpaved, and transportation and haulage was by horse-drawn carriages and carts. The interurban provided reliable transportation, particularly in winter weather, between towns and countryside. In 1915, 15,500 miles (24,900 km) of interurban railways were operating in

1428-487: A tight overnight schedule; they could thus provide next day delivery, whereas competing steam railroads would take at least two days longer. LSE also introduced an early intermodal service called the "Railwagon" that enabled truck trailers to load on a specially designed flatcar without the need for a loading ramp or crane. Bureaucratic delays by Ohio motor carrier regulators doomed the service. A poorly planned strike by LSE freight agents and office staff in 1938 caused

1530-559: Is a type of electric railway , with tram -like electric self-propelled railcars which run within and between cities or towns. The term "interurban" is usually used in North America, with other terms used outside it. They were very prevalent in many parts of the world before the Second World War and were used primarily for passenger travel between cities and their surrounding suburban and rural communities. Interurban as

1632-426: Is by ship. Containers are 8-foot (2.4 m) wide by 8-foot (2.4 m) or 9-foot-6-inch (2.90 m) high. Since introduction, there have been moves to adopt other heights, such as 10-foot-6-inch (3.20 m). The most common lengths are 20 feet (6.1 m), 40 feet (12 m), 45 feet (14 m), 48 and 53 feet (15 and 16 m), although other lengths exist. The three common sizes are: In countries where

1734-418: Is more common. TOFC terminals typically have large areas for storing trailers pending loading or pickup. Thievery has become a problem in North America. Sophisticated thieves learn how to interpret the codes on the outside of containers to ascertain which ones have easily disposable cargo. They break into isolated containers on long trains, or even board slowly moving trains to toss the items to accomplices on

1836-480: Is necessarily blurry. Some town streetcar lines evolved into interurban systems by extending streetcar track from town into the countryside to link adjacent towns together and sometimes by the acquisition of a nearby interurban system. Following initial construction, there was a large amount of consolidation of lines. Other interurban lines effectively became light rail systems with no street running whatsoever, or they became primarily freight-hauling railroads because of

1938-638: Is now owned by the state of Indiana and uses mainline-sized electric multiple units . Its last section of street running, in Michigan City, Indiana , was finally closed in 2022 for conversion to a grade-separated double-track line. SEPTA operates two former Philadelphia Suburban lines: the Norristown High Speed Line (Route 100) as an interurban heavy rail line, and the Media–Sharon Hill Line (Routes 101 and 102) as

2040-554: Is often measured in TEU or FEU. These initials stand for " twenty-foot equivalent unit ," and " forty-foot equivalent unit ," respectively. For example, a vessel that can hold 1,000 40-foot containers or 2,000 20-foot containers can be said to have a capacity of 2,000  TEU . After the year 2006, the largest container ships in regular operation are capable of carrying in excess of 15,000  TEU . On board ships they are typically stacked up to seven units high. A key consideration in

2142-491: Is sufficient for two containers to be loaded in a " double-stack " arrangement. In Europe , height restrictions imposed by smaller structure gauges , and frequent overhead electrification , prevent double-stacking. Containers are therefore hauled one-high, either on standard flatcars or other railroad cars – but they must be carried in well wagons on lines built early in the Industrial Revolution , such as in

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2244-652: The Badner Bahn , operates a classic interurban passenger service, in addition to some freight services. Some interurban lines survive today a local railways in Upper Austria are such as the Linzer Lokalbahn , Lokalbahn Vöcklamarkt–Attersee and Lokalbahn Lambach–Vorchdorf-Eggenberg . While others operate as extension of as local city tramways such as the Traunseebahn which is now connected to

2346-518: The Gmunden Tramway . Today, two surviving interurban networks descending from the vicinal tramways exist in Belgium. The famous Belgian Coast Tram , built in 1885, traverses the entire Belgian coastline and, at a length of 68 kilometres (42 mi), which is the longest tram line in the world. The Charleroi Metro is a never fully completed pre-metro network upgraded and developed from

2448-518: The Hardt Railway . Other examples include: Milan operates one remaining interurban tramway to Limbiate with another interurban route to Carate Brianza / Giussano suspended since 2011. These two lines were once part of large network of interurbans surrounding Milan that were gradually closed in the 1970s. In Japan, the vast majority of the major sixteen private railways have roots as interurban electric railway lines that were inspired by

2550-758: The Japan Railways Group along highly congested corridors is a hallmark of suburban railway operations in Japan. For example, on the Osaka to Kobe corridor, JR West competes intensely with both Hankyu Kobe Line and Hanshin Main Line trains in terms of speed, convenience and comfort. However, a number of urban lines in Japan did close as late as the 2000s, with networks in Kitakyushu and Gifu being shut down. Between Vienna and Baden bei Wien

2652-667: The Japanese National Railways network at the time. The (former JNR) Hanwa Line was a wartime acquisition from Nankai, operating 'Super Express' trains on the line at an average speed of 81.6 kilometres per hour (50.7 mph), a national record at the time. The old Sendai station terminus of the Miyagi Electric Railway (the predecessor of the JR Senseki Line ) was situated in a short single-track underground tunnel built in 1925; this

2754-1023: The Long Beach Line in Long Beach and Los Angeles, California (this was the last remaining part of the Pacific Electric system). The Long Beach Line was cut in 1961, the North Shore Line in 1963; the Philadelphia Suburban's route 103 and the NYS&;W in New Jersey both ended passenger service in 1966. Today, only the South Shore Line, Norristown High Speed Line (SEPTA Route 100), and SEPTA Routes 101/102 remain. Some former interurban lines retained freight service for up to several decades after

2856-586: The Low Countries , Poland and Japan , where populations are densely packed around large conurbations such as the Randstad , Upper Silesia , Greater Tokyo Area and Keihanshin . Switzerland, particularly, has a large network of mountain narrow-gauge interurban lines. In addition, since the early 21st century many tram-train lines are being built, especially in France and Germany but also elsewhere in

2958-841: The Meitetsu opened their first interurban lines in 1912, what today form parts of the Meitetsu Inuyama Line and Tsushima Line . In 1913, the first section of what will become the Keiō Line opened connecting Chōfu to just outside Shinjuku with street running on what is today the Kōshū Kaidō or National Route 20 . Kyushu Electric Railroad, predecessor to Nishitetsu opened its first interurban line in 1914 serving Kitakyushu and surrounding areas, taking heavy inspiration from Hanshin Electric Railway . The fortunes of

3060-552: The Midwestern United States . The 1880s saw the first successful deployments of electric traction in streetcar systems. Most of these built on the pioneering work of Frank J. Sprague , who developed an improved method for mounting an electric traction motor and using a trolley pole for pickup. Sprague's work led to widespread acceptance of electric traction for streetcar operations and end of horse-drawn trams. The late nineteenth-century United States witnessed

3162-632: The Railway Clearing House (RCH) in the 1920s, allowing both railway-owned and privately-owned vehicles to be carried on standard container flats. By modern standards these containers were small, being 1.5 or 3.0 meters (4.9 or 9.8 ft) long, normally wooden and with a curved roof and insufficient strength for stacking. From 1928 the London, Midland & Scottish Railway offered "door to door" intermodal road-rail services using these containers. This standard failed to become popular outside

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3264-602: The Rhine / Danube in Europe and the Mississippi River in the U.S. The term landbridge or land bridge is commonly used in the intermodal freight transport sector. When a containerized ocean freight shipment travels across a large body of land for a significant distance, that portion of the trip is referred to as the "land bridge" and the mode of transport used is rail transport . There are three applications for

3366-576: The loading gauge allows it. It is also common in North America and Australia to transport semi-trailers on railway flatcars or spine cars , an arrangement called "piggyback" or TOFC ( trailer on flatcar ) to distinguish it from container on flatcar (COFC). Some flatcars are designed with collapsible trailer hitches so they can be used for trailer or container service. Such designs allow trailers to be rolled on from one end, though lifting trailers on and off flatcars by specialized loaders

3468-480: The port of Harwich . The early 1900s saw the first adoption of covered containers, primarily for the movement of furniture and intermodal freight between road and rail. A lack of standards limited the value of this service and this in turn drove standardisation. In the U.S. such containers, known as "lift vans", were in use from as early as 1911. In the United Kingdom , containers were first standardised by

3570-536: The 1970s, the remaining interurban tramways have enjoyed somewhat of a renaissance in the form of the Sneltram , a modern light rail system that uses high floor, metro-style vehicles and could interoperate into metro networks. Various other interurbans in Europe were folded into local municipal tramway or light rail systems. Switzerland retained many of its interurban lines which now operate as tramways, local railways, S-Bahn, or tram-trains. Milan's vast interurban network

3672-609: The Everett-Moore Syndicate. The Lake Shore Electric operated a 60-mile route between Cleveland and Toledo. In 1907, the company constructed a cutoff between Sandusky and Fremont , Ohio, which reduced the distance between Cleveland and Toledo by five miles and decreased travel time by 30 minutes. The old and the new routes were operated with hourly passenger service where a two-car interurban from Cleveland separated at Sandusky and recoupled at Fremont to continue to Toledo. This service continued until 1939. Business for

3774-466: The LSE receiver to immediately abandon the business. A brief article in a Cleveland newspaper noted that 150 interurban employees lost their jobs immediately. The loss of the Cleveland connection seriously hurt the C&LE leading it to bankruptcy in 1939 and the nearby Indiana Railroad interurban the next year. The LSE ended all interurban rail operations on May 15, 1938. Several physical remnants of

3876-498: The LSE was good until the mid-1920s, as many roads were unpaved, muddy, or dusty, and cartage and passenger transportation was horse drawn and slow. Around 1925, the states began paving highways, the counties began paving rural roads, the cities began paving streets, and inexpensive cars began to be produced in growing numbers. Business for interurbans began to drop as a result, and by 1930 many interurbans had stopped operating. The LSE barely remained in business, but to make matters worse,

3978-826: The Lake Shore Electric can still be found today. In the cities of Bay Village and Avon Lake are streets named "Electric," running over the former right-of-way. Also, bridge piers can be found at the Cleveland Metroparks Huntington Reservation and in Cahoon Memorial Park, both in Bay Village, and at several other locations. Some former LSE structures remain standing, and have been converted to other uses. Much of its route can still be traced in northern Ohio by power lines on unusually high utility poles , where LSE's former electrical transmission infrastructure became

4080-611: The Netherlands a line from The Hague to Delft. Which opened as horse-tramway in 1866. Nowadays the line operates as Line 1 of The Hague Tramway . Line E, run by Randstadrail , was an interurban line connecting Rotterdam to The Hague and in the past also to Scheveningen. It now interoperates with the Rotterdam Metro . A large interurban network called the Silesian Interurbans still exists today connecting

4182-581: The Netherlands in earnest with the founding of the Tramweg Stichting (Tramway Foundation). Many systems, such as the Hague tramway and the Rotterdam tramway , included long interurban extensions which were operated with larger, higher-speed cars. In close parallel to North America, many systems were abandoned from the 1950s after tram companies switched to buses. Instigated by the oil crisis in

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4284-536: The U.S., starting in the 1960s, the use of containers increased steadily. Rail intermodal traffic tripled between 1980 and 2002, according to the Association of American Railroads (AAR), from 3.1 million trailers and containers to 9.3 million. Large investments were made in intermodal freight projects. An example was the US$ 740 million Port of Oakland intermodal rail facility begun in the late 1980s. Since 1984,

4386-457: The US during their heyday. While most interurbans in Japan have been upgraded beyond recognition to high-capacity urban railways, a handful have remained relatively untouched, with street running and using 'lighter-rail' stock. To this day they retain a distinct character similar to classic American interurbans. These include: The only surviving interurban line is also the oldest regional tramway in

4488-739: The US. But instead of demolishing their trackage in the 1930s, many Japanese interurbans companies upgraded their networks to heavy rail standards, becoming today's large private railways. To this day, private railway companies in Japan operate as highly influential business empires with diverse business interests, encompassing department stores, property developments and even tourist resorts. Many Japanese private railway companies compete with each other for passengers, operate department stores at their city termini, develop suburban properties adjacent to stations they own, and run special tourist attractions with admission included in package deals with rail tickets; similar to operations of large interurban companies in

4590-585: The United Kingdom, where loading gauges are relatively small. 610 mm ( 2 ft ) narrow-gauge railways have smaller wagons that do not readily carry ISO containers, nor do the 30-foot (9.14 m) long and 7-foot (2.13 m) wide wagons of the 762 mm ( 2 ft 6 in ) gauge Kalka-Shimla Railway . Wider narrow gauge railways of e.g. 914 mm ( 3 ft ) and 1,000 mm ( 3 ft  3 + 3 ⁄ 8  in ) gauge can take ISO containers, provided that

4692-456: The United Kingdom. Pallets made their first major appearance during World War II , when the United States military assembled freight on pallets, allowing fast transfer between warehouses , trucks, trains, ships , and aircraft . Because no freight handling was required, fewer personnel were needed and loading times were decreased. Truck trailers were first carried by railway before World War II, an arrangement often called " piggyback ", by

4794-447: The United States and, for a few years, interurban railways, including the numerous manufacturers of cars and equipment, were the fifth-largest industry in the country. But due to preference given to automobiles, by 1930, most interurbans in North America had stopped operating. A few survived into the 1950s. Outside of the US, other countries built large networks of high-speed electric tramways that survive today. Notable systems exist in

4896-454: The United States, particularly in the states of Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Iowa, Utah, and California. In 1900, 2,107 miles (3,391 km) of interurban track existed, but by 1916, this had increased to 15,580 miles (25,070 km), a seven-fold expansion. At one point in time beginning in 1901, it was possible to travel from Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin , to Little Falls, New York , exclusively by interurban. During this expansion, in

4998-678: The area serves as a common relay point for containerized freight moving across the country. Many of the motor carriers call this type of drayage “crosstown loads” that originate at one rail road and terminate at another. For example, a container destined for the east coast from the west will arrive in Chicago either via the Union Pacific or BNSF Railway and have to be relayed to one of the eastern railroads, either CSX or Norfolk Southern. Barges utilising ro-ro and container-stacking techniques transport freight on large inland waterways such as

5100-523: The border of the neighbouring City of Mississauga , unlike other Toronto radial lines which were all abandoned outside of the 1960s boundary of the City of Toronto . In Germany various networks have continued to operate. Karlsruhe revitalized the interurban concept into the Karlsruhe model by renovating two local railways Alb Valley Railway , which already had interoperability with local tram trackage, and

5202-525: The cars of westbound trains rejoined at Fremont. The Lake Shore Electric achieved nationwide note after motorman William Lang climbed out of his moving trolley car and snatched a 22-month-old child off the tracks on August 24, 1932, near Lorain, Ohio. The young girl, Leila Jean Smith, grew to adulthood and they remained friends for the rest of Lang's life. The LSE went into bankruptcy on October 5, 1932. It continued operation under court-ordered receivership until abandonment. As its passenger business waned with

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5304-519: The country's railway infrastructure and cater to the post-war baby boom. The companies continued their policies of improvement they had followed before the war; lines were reconstructed to allow higher speeds, mainline-sized trains were adopted, street-running sections were rebuilt to elevated or underground rights-of-way, and link lines to growing metro systems were built to allow for through operations. Many of these private railway companies started to adopt standards for full-blown heavy rail lines similar to

5406-629: The dense vicinal tramway network around the city. Similar to the United States, in Canada most passenger interurbans were removed by the 1950s. One example of continuous passenger service still exists today, the Toronto Transit Commission 501 Queen streetcar line. The western segment of the 501 Streetcar operates largely on what was the T&;YRR Port Credit Radial Line, a radial line that remains intact through Etobicoke and up to

5508-492: The discontinuance of passenger service. Most were converted to diesel operation, although the Sacramento Northern Railway retained electric freight until 1965. After World War II , many interurbans in other countries were also cut back. In Belgium, as intercity transport shifted to cars and buses; the large sections of the vicinal tramways were gradually shut down by the 1980s. At their peak in 1945,

5610-517: The early 1900s with some assistance from Thomas Edison . By the 1930s a vast network of interurbans, the Società Trazione Elettrica Lombarda , connected Milan with surrounding towns. In the first half of the 20th century, an extensive tramway network covered Northern England , centered on South Lancashire and West Yorkshire . At that time, it was possible to travel entirely by tram from Liverpool Pier Head to

5712-710: The east at 339 miles (546 km) and had provided Pittsburgh-area coal country towns with hourly transportation since 1888. By the 1960s only five remaining interurban lines served commuters in three major metropolitan areas: the North Shore Line and the South Shore Line in Chicago, the Philadelphia Suburban Transportation Company, the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway in northern New Jersey, and

5814-489: The economic collapse of the Great Depression was underway. Starting around 1930, the LSE established a productive and growing freight business with neighboring interurban Cincinnati and Lake Erie RR. Together, the two traction lines with their connection at Toledo provided overnight delivery from the approximately 300 miles between Cincinnati and Cleveland. Steam railroads were unable to provide such fast service by

5916-441: The ground. Trucking is frequently used to connect the "linehaul" ocean and rail segments of a global intermodal freight movement. This specialized trucking that runs between ocean ports, rail terminals, and inland shipping docks, is often called drayage , and is typically provided by dedicated drayage companies or by the railroads. As an example, since many rail lines in the United States terminate in or around Chicago, Illinois,

6018-609: The increasing number of private automobiles on paved roads and the effects of the Depression, it outlasted most connecting interurban lines by concentrating on freight business. LSE had developed a marginally profitable freight service interchanging with the Cincinnati and Lake Erie Railroad at Toledo to deliver less-than-carload (LCL) freight from southern Ohio factories to Cleveland. The C&LE traction freights continued through Toledo to Cleveland on LSE trackage, operating on

6120-557: The industry in the US and Canada declined during World War I , particularly into the early 1920s. In 1919 President Woodrow Wilson created the Federal Electric Railways Commission to investigate the financial problems of the industry. The commission submitted its final report to the President in 1920. The commission's report focused on financial management problems and external economic pressures on

6222-522: The industry, and recommended against introducing public financing for the interurban industry. One of the commission's consultants, however, published an independent report stating that private ownership of electric railways had been a failure, and only public ownership would keep the interurbans in business. Many interurbans had been hastily constructed without realistic projections of income and expenses. They were initially financed by issuing stock and selling bonds. The sale of these financial instruments

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6324-656: The interurban whose private tax paying tracks could never compete with the highways that a generous government provided for the motorist." William D. Middleton , in the opening of his 1961 book The Interurban Era , wrote: "Evolved from the urban streetcar, the Interurban appeared shortly before the dawn of the 20th century, grew to a vast network of over 18,000 miles in two decades of excellent growth, and then all but vanished after barely three decades of usefulness." Interurban business increased during World War II due to fuel oil rationing and large wartime employment. When

6426-497: The interurbans were the fifth-largest industry in the United States. In Belgium , a sprawling, nation-wide system of narrow-gauge vicinal tramways have been built by the NMVB / SNCV to provide transport to smaller towns across the country; the first section opened in 1885. These lines were either electrically operated or run with diesel tramcars, included numerous street-running sections, and inter-operated with local tram networks in

6528-448: The larger cities. Similar to Belgium, Netherlands constructed a large network of interurbans in the early 1900s called streektramlijnen . In Silesia, today Poland, an extensive interurban system was constructed, starting in 1894 with a narrow-gauge line connecting Gliwice with Piekary Śląskie through Zabrze , Chebzie , Chorzów and Bytom , another connected Katowice and Siemianowice . After four years, in 1898, Kramer & Co.

6630-441: The last few years the use of several, relatively new and unknown Load Securing methods have become available through innovation and technological advancement including polyester strapping and -lashing, synthetic webbings and Dunnage Bags , also known as air bags. Container ships are used to transport containers by sea. These vessels are custom-built to hold containers. Some vessels can hold thousands of containers. Their capacity

6732-608: The line was legally defined as a tramway and included street running at the two ends, but was based on American interurbans and operated with large tramcars on mostly private right-of-way. In the same year, the Keihin Express Railway , or Keikyu, completed a section of what is today part of the Keikyū Main Line between Shinagawa , Tokyo and Kanagawa , Yokohama . This line competes with mainline Japanese National Railways on this busy corridor. Predecessors of

6834-648: The long Cincinnati & Lake Erie Railroad (C&LE), and in Indiana with the very widespread Indiana Railroad . Both had limited success up to 1937–1938 and primarily earned growing revenues from freight rather than passengers. The 130-mile (210 km) long Sacramento Northern Railway stopped carrying passengers in 1940 but continued hauling freight into the 1960s by using heavy electric locomotives. Oliver Jensen, author of American Heritage History of Railroads in America , commented that "...the automobile doomed

6936-441: The loss of cargo, the loss of lives, the loss of vehicles, ships and airplane; not to mention the environmental hazards it can cause. There are many different ways and materials available to stabilize and secure cargo in containers used in the various modes of transportation. Conventional Load Securing methods and materials such as steel banding and wood blocking & bracing have been around for decades and are still widely used. In

7038-420: The middle of the car between the bogies or trucks. Some container cars are built as an articulated "unit" of three or five permanently coupled cars, each having a single bogie rather than the two bogies normally found on freight cars. Containers can be loaded on flatcars or in container well cars . In North America, Australia and Saudi Arabia, where vertical clearances are generally liberal, this depression

7140-473: The mileage of vicinal tramways reached 4,811 kilometres (2,989 mi) and exceeded the length of the national railway network. Sprawling tram networks in the Netherlands extended to neighbouring cities. The vast majority of these lines were not electrified and operated with steam and sometimes petrol or diesel tramcars. Many did not survive the 1920s and 30s for the same reasons American interurbans went bust, but those that did were put back into service during

7242-435: The mountain spa resort of Hakone. Many private lines were nationalised during the Second World War. The handful that remained in the hands of JNR after the end of the war – including the Hanwa Line, Senseki Line and the Iida Line  – remain outliers on the national JR network, with short station distances, (in the case of the Iida Line) lower-grade infrastructure, and independent termini (such as Aobadori Station and

7344-574: The national rail network, and, like JR commuter routes, are operated as 'metro-style' commuter railways with mainline-sized vehicles and metro-like frequencies of very few minutes. In 1957, the Odakyu Electric Railway introduced the Odakyu 3000 series SE , the first in a line of luxurious tourist Limited Express trains named ' Romancecars '. These units set a narrow-gauge speed record of 145 kilometres per hour (90 mph) on its runs to

7446-545: The original narrow gauge network was converted to standard, which allowed a connection with the new system in Sosnowiec. By 1931, 47,5% of the narrow-gauge network was reconstructed, with 20 kilometres (12 mi) of new standard-gauge track built. A large network of interurbans started developing around Milan in the late 1800s; they were originally drawn by horses and later powered as steam trams. These initial interurban lines were gradually upgraded with electric traction in

7548-408: The overhead wiring was too low to accommodate it. However, India is building some freight-only corridors with the overhead wiring at 7.45 m above rail, which is high enough. Containers, also known as intermodal containers or ISO containers because the dimensions have been defined by ISO, are the main type of equipment used in intermodal transport, particularly when one of the modes of transportation

7650-614: The possibility of extending them into the countryside to reach new markets, even linking to other towns. The first interurban to emerge in the United States was the Newark and Granville Street Railway in Ohio, which opened in 1889. It was not a major success, but others followed. The development of the automobile was then in its infancy, and to many investors interurbans appeared to be the future of local transportation. From 1900 to 1916, large networks of interurban lines were constructed across

7752-418: The present Suezmax . Very large container ships also require specialized deep water terminals and handling facilities. The container fleet available, route constraints, and terminal capacity play a large role in shaping global container shipment logistics. Increasingly, containers are shipped by rail in container well cars . These cars resemble flatcars but have a container-sized depression, or well, in

7854-1243: The property of area utility companies. As of 2009, LSE coach #167 (that made the last run in 1938) sits at the secure parking lot of Journey Home Restoration Company, in Lorain, Ohio. It is in surprisingly good shape. #167 is a 1915 Jewett Car Co. steel coach with Baldwin MCB trucks. In 1996 LSE167 appeared at the Centennial celebration for the Steel Plant in Lorain as the icon for the original Johnson Steel Company, producers of Jaybird streetcar rail. The Northern Ohio Railway Museum (NORM) in Chippewa Lake, Ohio has several pieces of LSE rolling stock preserved, including Lake Shore Electric wood Coach #149 (1927 Niles); wood Coach #151 (1906 Niles) and steel Coach #181 (1918 Jewett). Freight equipment includes wood Freight Motor #42 (1908 Niles) and wood Freight Trailer #464 (home-built by LSE in 1919). NORM also has an original Lorain Street Railway wood City Car #83,

7956-521: The rail business altogether ran afoul of state commissions which required that trains remain running "for the public good", even at a loss. Many financially weak interurbans did not survive the prosperous 1920s, and most others went bankrupt during the Great Depression . A few struggling lines tried combining to form much larger systems in an attempt to gain operating efficiency and a broader customer base. This occurred in Ohio in year 1930 with

8058-561: The railway loading gauge is sufficient, truck trailers are often carried by rail. Variations exist, including open-topped versions covered by a fabric curtain are used to transport larger loads. A container called a tanktainer , with a tank inside a standard container frame, carries liquids. Refrigerated containers (reefer) are used for perishables. Swap body units have the same bottom corners as intermodal containers but are not strong enough to be stacked. They have folding legs under their frame and can be moved between trucks without using

8160-423: The regions where they operated, particularly in Ohio and Indiana, "...they almost destroyed the local passenger service of the steam railroad." To show how exceptionally busy the interurbans radiating from Indianapolis were in 1926, the immense Indianapolis Traction Terminal (nine roof covered tracks and loading platforms) scheduled 500 trains in and out daily and moved 7 million passengers that year. At their peak

8262-562: The repair costs. The rise of private automobile traffic in the middle 1920s aggravated such trends. As the interurban companies struggled financially, they faced rising competition from cars and trucks on newly paved streets and highways, while municipalities sought to alleviate traffic congestion by removing interurbans from city streets. Some companies exited the passenger business altogether to focus on freight, while others sought to buttress their finances by selling surplus electricity in local communities. Several interurbans that attempted to exit

8364-707: The same way. In 1933 in Europe, under the auspices of the International Chamber of Commerce , The Bureau International des Containers et du Transport Intermodal (BIC; English: International Bureau for Containers and Intermodal Transport) was established. In June 1933, the BIC decided about obligatory parameters for container use in international traffic. Containers handled by means of lifting gear, such as cranes, overhead conveyors, etc. for traveling elevators (group I containers), constructed after July 1, 1933. Obligatory Regulations: In April 1935, BIC established

8466-543: The size of container ships is that larger ships exceed the capacity of important sea routes such as the Panama and Suez canals. The largest size of container ship able to traverse the Panama canal is referred to as Panamax , which is presently around 5,000  TEU . A third set of locks is planned as part of the Panama Canal expansion project to accommodate container ships up to 12,000  TEU in future, comparable to

8568-509: The small Class I railroad , the Chicago Great Western in 1936. The Canadian Pacific Railway was a pioneer in piggyback transport, becoming the first major North American railway to introduce the service in 1952. In the United Kingdom, the big four railway companies offered services using standard RCH containers that could be craned on and off the back of trucks. Moving companies such as Pickfords offered private services in

8670-399: The term. The term reverse land bridge refers to a micro land bridge from an east coast port (as opposed to a west coast port in the previous examples) to an inland destination. Generally modern, bigger planes usually carry cargo in the containers. Sometimes even the checked luggage is first placed into containers, and then loaded onto the plane. Of course because of the requirement for

8772-562: The time meaning horse -drawn vehicles). Wooden coal containers were first used on the railways in the 1830s on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. In 1841, Isambard Kingdom Brunel introduced iron containers to move coal from the vale of Neath to Swansea Docks . By the outbreak of the First World War the Great Eastern Railway was using wooden containers to trans-ship passenger luggage between trains and sailings via

8874-599: The town was launched. After World War I and the Silesian Uprisings, in 1922 the region (and the tram network) was divided between newly independent Poland and Germany, and international services appeared (the last one ran until 1937). In 1928 further standard gauge systems were established in Sosnowiec, Będzin and Dąbrowa Górnicza (the so-called Dabrowa Coal Basin - a region adjoining the Upper Silesian Coal Basin). Between 1928 and 1936 most of

8976-461: The trains retain a red livery based on the Pacific Electric's 'Red Cars', true to the company's interurban roots. The Keiō Line did not fully remove the street running section on the Kōshū Kaidō outside of Shinjuku Station until the 1960s, replacing it with an underground section. Similar to passenger railway conditions in early 1900s America, intense competition still exists today between private railways and mainline railways operated by

9078-407: The upper level of Tennōji Station ). Today, trackage of the major sixteen private railways , in many places originally designed as American-style interurban railways, has been upgraded beyond recognition into high capacity urban heavy railways. Private railway companies that started out as interurbans such as Tokyu , Seibu , Odakyu , Hankyu and Tobu ; rail transportation now tends to form only

9180-478: The urban areas of the Upper Silesia . It is one of the largest interurban networks in Europe. In Łódź region, an interurban tram system connects Łódź, Pabianice, Zgierz and Konstantynów Łódzki, and formerly also Ozorków, Lutomiersk, Aleksandrów Łódzki, Rzgów and Tuszyn. Only three continuously operating passenger interurbans in the US remain with most being abandoned by the 1950s. The South Shore Line

9282-605: The village of Summit, outside Rochdale , a distance of 52 miles (84 km), and with a short 7 miles (11 km) bus journey across the Pennines, to connect to another tram network that linked Huddersfield, Halifax and Leeds. The first interurban railway in Japan is the Hanshin Electric Railway , built to compete with mainline steam trains on the Osaka to Kobe corridor and completed in 1905. As laws of that time did not allow parallel railways to be built,

9384-537: The war ended in 1945, riders went back to their automobiles, and most of these lines were finally abandoned. Several systems struggled into the 1950s, including the Baltimore and Annapolis Railroad (passenger service ended 1950), Lehigh Valley Transit Company (1951), West Penn Railways (1952), and the Illinois Terminal Railroad (1958). The West Penn was the largest interurban to operate in

9486-628: The war years, or at least the remaining parts not yet demolished. One of the largest systems, nicknamed the Blue Tram , was run by the Noord-Zuid-Hollandsche Stoomtramweg-Maatschappij and survived until 1961. Another, the RTM ( Rotterdamse Tramweg Maatschappij ), which ran in the river delta south-west of Rotterdam , survived until early January 1966. Its demise sparked the rail-related heritage movement in

9588-565: The west, while westbound trains split at Ceylon Junction (a passenger station on the former S&I line east of Huron at the connection with the former TF&N branch to Norwalk) on the east. After splitting, some cars would travel via the Huron, Sandusky and Castalia northern route, while others would go via the Norwalk, Monroeville , Bellevue , and Clyde southern route. The cars of eastbound trains rejoined each other at Ceylon Junction, while

9690-731: The world's first container ship , the Clifford J. Rogers , built in 1955, and introduced containers to its railway in 1956. In the United Kingdom the modernisation plan, and in turn the Beeching Report , strongly pushed containerization. British Railways launched the Freightliner service carrying 8-foot (2.4 m) high pre-ISO containers. The older wooden containers and the pre-ISO containers were rapidly replaced by 10-and-20-foot (3.0 and 6.1 m) ISO standard containers, and later by 40-foot (12 m) containers and larger. In

9792-576: The world. These can be regarded as interurbans since they run on the streets, like trams, when in cities, while out of them they either share existing railway lines or use lines that were abandoned by the railway companies. The term "interurban" was coined by Charles L. Henry , a state senator in Indiana. The Latin, inter urbes , means "between cities". The interurban fit on a continuum between urban street railways and full-fledged railroads. George W. Hilton and John F. Due identified four characteristics of an interurban: The definition of "interurban"

9894-461: Was chosen to start electrification on Katowice Rynek (Kattowitz, Ring) - Zawodzie line, after which Schikora & Wolff completed electrification of four additional lines. In 1912, the first short 4 ft  8 + 1 ⁄ 2  in ( 1,435 mm ) standard gauge line was built in Katowice . In 1913, a separate standard gauge system connecting Bytom with suburbs and villages west of

9996-487: Was common. Receivership was a common fate when the interurban company could not pay its payroll and other debts, so state courts took over and allowed continued operation while suspending the company's obligation to pay interest on its bonds. In addition, the interurban honeymoon period with the municipalities of 1895–1910 was over. The large and heavy interurbans, some weighing as much as 65 tons, caused damage to city streets which led to endless disputes over who should bear

10098-611: Was introduced to increase shipping productivity. In Europe, the more restricted loading gauge has limited the adoption of double-stack cars. However, in 2007 the Betuweroute , a railway from Rotterdam to the German industrial heartland, was completed, which may accommodate double-stacked containers in the future. Other countries, like New Zealand , have numerous low tunnels and bridges that limit expansion for economic reasons. Since electrification generally predated double-stacking,

10200-425: Was often local with salesmen going door to door aggressively pushing this new and exciting "it can't fail" form of transportation. But many of those interurbans did fail, and often quickly. They had poor cash flow from the outset and struggled to raise essential further capital. Interurbans were very vulnerable to acts of nature damaging track and bridges, particularly in the Midwestern United States where flooding

10302-648: Was progressively closed in the 1970s but parts of it were reused as the outer parts of the Milan Metro . Development of Japanese interurbans strayed from their American counterparts from the 1920s. The second boom of interurbans occurred as late as the 1920s and 1930s in Japan, with predecessors of the extensive Kintetsu Railway , Hankyu , Nankai Electric Railway and Odakyu Electric Railway networks starting life during this period. These interurbans, built with straighter tracks, electrified at 1500V and operated using larger cars, were built to even higher standards than

10404-621: Was the first stretch of underground railway in all of Asia, predating the Tokyo Metro Ginza Line by two years. Meanwhile, existing interurbans like the Hanshin Electric Railway started to rebuild their street-running lines into grade-separated exclusive rights-of-way. After the war, interurbans and other private railway companies received large investments and were allowed to compete not only with mainline trains but also with each other, in order to rejuvenate

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