The slider system doesn't turn, it has special railcars that have sides that drop down to allow the trailer to be slid on, and then lift up to clamp the load. So its different to Modalohr, but similar in that its conventional piggyback dual-mode freight/truck, which is the same space that Railroaders compete in. Whether they are general purpose piggyback or require special trailers, I don't recall.

The Modalohr system looks to allow conventional piggyback freight of general purpose trailers. Remember that I was a teenager in the 70's, so I think of piggyback freight as the "conventional" multi-modal that was so commonplace in the 70's, and container rail / road / ship / barge as the more modern approach that has grown so much over the past forty years.

Train to train? Should containers or truck trailers be moved for train to train? In an efficient system, all train to train movements will be coupling and uncoupling strings of freight cars. The Cargosprinter is the ultimate for that of course ...

... and at the volume of a single CargoSprinter one could load and unload containers with a forklift. And two Cargosprinter consists could run a string of Roadrailers in between, for very flexible carload freight handling abilities. Obviously either a Modalohr or the sliding system could be part of the railcar consist between the end CargoSprinter, but first the Modalohr needs to be rolled out to its major intermodal transfer gateways before it starts to make sense to extend it to smaller railheads.


I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.