I About Shat My Panties

[dalesys]

Last summer, a tractor trailer went completely off the highway and crashed into the river, spilling everything in the water. He was hauling Pop Tarts.

Then there's this song : Viagra In The Water.

[Shalom]

There's also Harry Chapin's "30,000 Pounds Of Bananas", and Bill "CW McCall" Fries's "Wolf Creek Pass".

The first one is based on a true incident (3/18/65), and while the second song was fictitious, there was one later incident (6/25/87) that pretty much duplicated it, involving 60,000 pounds of potatoes, if I remember correctly. The driver lost his brakes on the pass, came barrelling down the hill at 70-80 MPH and smashed into the side of the Durango & Silverton's locomotive 473, knocking it off the tracks. See photo, AP news article.

[wolfie]

there was one later incident (6/25/87) that pretty much duplicated it, involving 60,000 pounds of potatoes,

Holy shit! For anyone not familiar with trucking, a 5 axle combination (your basic "18 wheeler") is allowed a maximum gross combined weight of 80,000 pounds. By the time you take into account the curb weight of the tractor and an empty 53 foot dry van (conventional box trailer), that leaves around 45,000 pounds for cargo. To haul 60,000 pounds, they'd need at least a 4 axle trailer, probably 5 axles. Knocking a locomotive off the tracks takes a LOT of force.

[Shalom]

Well, I can think of three possibilities:

1. The AP article was misinformed or guessed at the weight;

2. They mixed up gross and net weight (60,000# seems a reasonable maximum gross); or,

3. The truck was overloaded. I was at the airport about 8 years ago waiting for a flight somewhere, and struck up a conversation with a trucker who was on the same flight. He was boasting about how he regularly hauled 100,000 pounds of potatoes at once, on a spread-axle flatbed trailer. I asked him, really a hundred thousand pounds, no exaggeration? He said yeah, exactly that much: 2000 fifty pound sacks. I asked him how he managed to get away with this when he stopped at the "chicken coops", and he described to me how he had rigged the air suspension on his tractor/trailer such that he could make the scale display whatever the hell he wanted it to, depending on how he distributed the weight among the various axles.

Oh, and the locomotive in question is a 3-foot gauge steamer, so not as heavy as a modern standard-gauge loco. I'm also pretty sure that the two middle drive axles don't have flanges on the wheels, which would make it easier to derail it with a hard side impact.

[smileyeagle1021]

and he described to me how he had rigged the air suspension on his tractor/trailer such that he could make the scale display whatever the hell he wanted it to, depending on how he distributed the weight among the various axles.

Umm... I don't think physics works like that
At least out west the entire truck is on the scale, the plate for the scale is the length of a truck... no matter how you distribute the weight, the total will still be the same...

[mhkohne]

Umm... I don't think physics works like that
At least out west the entire truck is on the scale, the plate for the scale is the length of a truck... no matter how you distribute the weight, the total will still be the same...

And this guy is the reason they do it that way. I don't know if anyone uses axle by axle measurements anymore, but at one time they were common. I think they've even made single-wheel scales that are portable - in case you want to set up on a back road that guys are using to avoid the main road's scales.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Once at the supermarket, an entire shelf gave up the ghost in the BWS section, sending a metric ton of white wine on to the floor. It was so bad, that the entire section was blocked off with trolleys while the janitor was located. Despite the fact that the floor was covered with an ocean of wine and shitloads of glass, customers were STILL trying to get past the trolleys. Look, cretins, there's no reason to go down that aisle.

[Amayis]

Ack. That sounds terrifying :x

And yeah, they'd of had to legally turn you down. They'd be liable if you got hurt cleaning up the glass, and all.

Only ever heard of stuff like that happening. Luckily. PTSD and loud, sudden crashes do not mix well.

[pzychobitch]

Umm... I don't think physics works like that
At least out west the entire truck is on the scale, the plate for the scale is the length of a truck... no matter how you distribute the weight, the total will still be the same...

That is exactly what I was thinking.

[Shalom]

The weigh stations around here have, or had then, a portable scale that goes under a single wheel. I've seen them do it.

The truckstops generally have the full-length scales.