Australian Road Trains.
For something a little bit different, and perhaps interesting to those who visit us from outside Australia or North America.
Australia is a large country, with a smallish population (80% or so desert in fact - the continent most like us in terrain is probably Africa). There are railways, but they are only economical for high traffic routes.
What we do use in the sparsely populated interior is road trains (and even near the main cities you'll see plenty of B-doubles). The smallest rig which will pay it's way doing 'interstate' is a semi usually consisting of a bogie drive prime mover and tri-axle trailer - 22 wheels in all. The US standard is an 18-wheeler.
We call the drivers 'Truckies' (as opposed to the US 'Trucker') and they have a thriving industry - you could probably more term it a subculture actually.
More here, here, and here.
posted by Phil at 8:14 pm
2 Comments:
This is really a very interesting post again. And I looked at the links and will have things to do for hours going through all this. I am a transport "freak" and look at anything about busses, trams, trains, ships and airplanes. Now, I will add the Australian Road trains. I will be on retirement in less then a year and have many plans of things to do. Among them, take the famous train stretch between East and West Australia were the trai goes for some 500 km without a curve. Would be a great occasion to combine it with Road Train watching.
Road train drivers are really skillful truck drivers. However, they do not rely on skill alone in maneuvering a road train with several trailers. In fact, investing in good replacement steering wheel to precisely control the vehicle.
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