by lpetrich
Please don't laugh too quickly -- that was my response at first.
Someone elsewhere has mentioned that high-speed trains ought to carry automobiles, so I did some researching and some calculations.
The TGV, for instance, has an axle loading of 17 metric tons / axle, as opposed to a more common limit of 30 metric tons / axle (1 metric ton = 1.1 English-unit tons).
I found a page on a apparently-typical autorack railcar. Its empty weight is 54.5 English-unit tons, and its load limit is 35 tons, making a maximum of 89.5 tons. Its floor dimensions are 89 ft by 9 ft, and its external dimensions are 93 ft by 11 ft by 19 ft. It is bilevel, though many autorack railcars are now trilevel.
It has four axles, two per bogie, making its total axle load 14 tons (empty) to 22 tons (full).
It may be possible to build autorack railcars for high-speed duty, though their capacity would be lower than typical ones in service. They'd likely be single-level, to keep structural weight down, and they'd likely have strict weight limits. Using TGV Atlantique as a reference, they'd likely be 20 m / 65 ft long, meaning that they'd carry only about 3/4 of the automobiles that each level of a typical autorack car would carry. Each coach car carries about 54 passengers, and a maximum weight of 220 lbs / 100 kg yields about 5.4 tons of passenger per car. So 5 tons may be a reasonable target for total automobile weight per carrier car.
The lightest automobiles weigh in at about 1 ton (English or metric). Using figures for the VW Rabbit and the Honda Civic, their lengths are about 13-15 ft / 4.0-4.3 m. This means only four automobiles per level without using longer railcars.
Minivans weigh about 2 tons and being 15-16 ft / 4.4-4.8 m long. SUV's are somewhat longer and heavier than minivans, and pickup trucks even longer and heavier (3.5 tons, 17 ft / 5.2 m).
So 4 or 5 compact or subcompact automobiles will not be much trouble, while minivans and SUV's and pickup trucks will likely take up 2 or 3 compact-car weight slots.
Someone elsewhere has mentioned that high-speed trains ought to carry automobiles, so I did some researching and some calculations.
The TGV, for instance, has an axle loading of 17 metric tons / axle, as opposed to a more common limit of 30 metric tons / axle (1 metric ton = 1.1 English-unit tons).
I found a page on a apparently-typical autorack railcar. Its empty weight is 54.5 English-unit tons, and its load limit is 35 tons, making a maximum of 89.5 tons. Its floor dimensions are 89 ft by 9 ft, and its external dimensions are 93 ft by 11 ft by 19 ft. It is bilevel, though many autorack railcars are now trilevel.
It has four axles, two per bogie, making its total axle load 14 tons (empty) to 22 tons (full).
It may be possible to build autorack railcars for high-speed duty, though their capacity would be lower than typical ones in service. They'd likely be single-level, to keep structural weight down, and they'd likely have strict weight limits. Using TGV Atlantique as a reference, they'd likely be 20 m / 65 ft long, meaning that they'd carry only about 3/4 of the automobiles that each level of a typical autorack car would carry. Each coach car carries about 54 passengers, and a maximum weight of 220 lbs / 100 kg yields about 5.4 tons of passenger per car. So 5 tons may be a reasonable target for total automobile weight per carrier car.
The lightest automobiles weigh in at about 1 ton (English or metric). Using figures for the VW Rabbit and the Honda Civic, their lengths are about 13-15 ft / 4.0-4.3 m. This means only four automobiles per level without using longer railcars.
Minivans weigh about 2 tons and being 15-16 ft / 4.4-4.8 m long. SUV's are somewhat longer and heavier than minivans, and pickup trucks even longer and heavier (3.5 tons, 17 ft / 5.2 m).
So 4 or 5 compact or subcompact automobiles will not be much trouble, while minivans and SUV's and pickup trucks will likely take up 2 or 3 compact-car weight slots.
