[Coco] Re: Texas and highway laws in general - Road trains

[Andrew]

> Message: 1
> Date: Mon, 30 Jan 2006 16:53:14 +1030 (Cen. Australia Standard Time)
> From: "Brian" <bpa65117 at bigpond.net.au>
> Subject: [Coco] Texas and highway laws in general
> To: <coco at maltedmedia.com>
> Message-ID: <43DDB0D2.000003.03008 at TIGERS-8SZZ0LMS>
> Content-Type: text/plain;  charset="iso-8859-1"
> 
> Gidday fellow coconuts,
> 
> I was going to mention, You want to see big Trucks, look at the big Road
> trains, that cruise along the Aussie Outback, some of the these can be well
> ova a hundred metres long, If my memory serves me right, That's what you
> call terrifying.
> Example being, you driving in the opposite direction, and having 1 of these
> trucks coming pass you, they have the wind draft that can knock you off the
> road.
> They are beasts, But Great to see, on the open road.
> 
> laters
> 
> briza

I wanted to mention something about road trains - my only experience 
with one was on a highway in Colorado (IIRC) when I was younger, in the 
7th grade. My family and I had been traveling, and I saw this thing, and 
it was huge! I knew about such transport from other sources (probably 
read it in a book or saw it on TV somewhere), so I wasn't shocked so 
much by the size as by the fact that here is was in the United States 
(we lived in California at the time). It wasn't as big as the Australian 
ones, only 3 or 4 trailers long, but it was still a sight. I have never 
seen one since (though I did recently see a "pickup" made from a cross 
between an F-450 bed/cab and a unknown Ford tractor rig chassis/hood - 
not your standard SUV).

One thing I do remember about this particular road train was the size of 
the rig towing it - it wasn't a "standard" width. IIRC, it took up 
nearly the entire width of the lane it was in, leaving maybe 4-6 inches 
on either side (just enough for the lines?). Now, regular rigs are wide 
and big, but this one was easily the widest rig I have ever seen.

I don't think they allow or run these kind of rigs over here in the US 
(much) because of several reasons, the main one being our extensive 
railroad network (probably also coupled with that same RR system 
lobbying against trucking companies as well), which seems to go 
anywhere, at least for freight (and at one time, passengers - I wish we 
still had that option like it used to be). The others would be the 
amount of stress (and possibly damage) they would do to the road 
surfaces. Lastly, people's unfamiliarity with the sight of them (and 
passing them, etc) might cause accidents or whatnot, although this is 
pure speculation, but it seems likely (heck, people have problems with 
regular size rig/trailers here)...

Andrew