What sort of freight do trains carry?

Question

I am doing a project! Plz help, I need to jknow wahat trains carry e.g. like milk or something, thanx in advance!!!

Answer 1

Almost anything that can be carried by truck can be carried by train. There are very few cold foods that go by train because those items have to be refrigerated and it is more expensive to transport cold food because of the refrigeration needed. Trains transport lumber, coal, logs, automobiles, feed, seed, oil, steel, sea containers that are imported and exported. the list goes on. Train transportation is cheaper than by truck but is actually slower than shipping by truck because of all of the stops the train has to make.

Answer 2

I am a truck driver that specializes in rail freight. So it is true mostly anything and everything. They even put truck trailers full of freight on the railcars then another truck picks it up near the customer. This is cheaper than driving the whole way. Today I took a load of diapers and feminine products that went from Chicago to California on a Norfolk Southern rail car. Yesterday all kinds of Proctor and Gamble products the same.

Answer 3

As other's have stated... EVERYTHING !!

Personally, my brother's power-plant gets two COAL trains a week delivering the coal... next door, hopper cars deliver CORN to a plant that converts it to CORN SYRUP, CORN STARCH, and BULK FIBER for cattle feed. When I take the ACE Commuter train, we pass LOTS of AUTO CARRIERS, LUMBER and GYPSUM BOARD cars, GRAVEL and STONE cars, as well as the ever-popular ISO CONTAINERS that carry EVERYTHING: Foods (refridgerated or canned), toys, electronics, diapers, clothes,etc.

Specialty cars carry steel, wire, scrap iron, paper, oil, clay, etc...

About the ONLY thing we no longer carry in the USA is LIVE ANIMALS... the manufacturers built more slaughter-houses / processing plants instead of single location plants. So the animals are TRUCKED the short distance... but then often go OUT on rail-cars.

Answer 4

Indeed, as mentioned above, railroads today haul about any type of commodity that someone will pay to have shipped via rail and which they can make a profit at. While they will haul about anything, typically railroads make most of their profits with bulk commodities, like coal (which makes up a large percentage of annual tonnage and revenues), chemicals, or large blocks of ocean-going containers (intermodal services).

Answer 5

Most everyone summed it up, quite well. With the advent of intermodal transport, trains are becoming the fastest growing mode of shipping goods and materials, over great distances. As a result, hiring by most of the Class 1 carriers is up, considerably.

Answer 6

Yep, almost everythign is correct. We even hauled radioactive waste from the Three Mile disaster to Idaho, rocket engines to northern Montana for the cold War. Airplane fuselages to the west coast fro Boeing aircraft, and blades for huge wind generators. Apples to zinc.

Answer 7

haha, this is actually a very good question but as a lifelong railroader I can tell you there are some pretty high forces, not every day but I have observed some very strange things. I really think you should contact the specific RR you are wanting to ship with, they can give you instructions, after all, they dont want anything falling off their cars.

Answer 8

Trains carry almost everything. If the maker makes it, he wants to sell it, he must ship it somehow. Autos are shipped via trains, Our coal is shipped via trains, Computers, Electronics, you name it, it is shipped. The buyer decides what method of shipment he or she wants, and that's how it works. Even bodies are shipped, say, to a city it will be buried. Pretty yuk, but its life.

Answer 9

next time you go to the supermarket take a look at what is on the shelves. everything you see can and has/is transported by rail. take a look at the shelves next time you go to a lumber yard or hardware store. everything you see can or has / is transported by rail.

Answer 10

General freight. By this, I mean anything that can be hauled on rails.