In Europe, intermodal has developed somewhat differently, with one
of the key differences being that there are many more smaller
intermodal terminals, closer together. That, in turn has resulted
in some "loose-car" (non-unit train) intermodal operations. The
intermodal terminals are often at the edge of a major railyard, so
it does not take a huge effort to have a local switcher move two or
three intermodal cars from a through freight to the intermodal terminal.

Some of this may come to the U.S., as both boxcars and some types of
highway trailers are gradually replaced by domestic containers.

One of the things that helps loose-car intermodal railroading is the
use of side-door intermodal containers, again fairly rare in the U.S.

An example of this is the use of side-door postal containers. A car
with two or three 20-ft intermodal containers (with side doors) is
spotted at the loading track of a major post office in a large city.
Through its side doors, the containers are loaded with mail going to
a particular region of Germany, but already pre-sorted into cities
in that region. When loaded, the car moves in a freight train to an
intermodal terminal in the destination region. The containers are then
road hauled to their respective cities (where the post offices are not
located on railroad tracks).

Another interesting example I saw on one trip to Austria was a 60-ft
utility railcar with intermodal fittings (but also a wooden deck)
spotted at a factory's siding. The car had two 20-ft containers on it,
placed on the ends, with the doors facing toward the center. At the
factory loading dock, bridge plates had been put down allowing forklifts
to drive onto the deck of the railcar, where additiona bridge plates
allowed hte forklifts to drive into the containers. I assume what was
being loaded were goods for export, and that the containers would
ultimately go to a port to be loaded onto ships.

This eliminated the truck haul at the origin end.


Smaller wheeled intermodal container handlers are becoming more available
and would make smaller intermodal terminals more affordable, as they would
not need the huge gantry cranes and other infrastructure of high-volume
termindals. The U.S. military services now have so-=called rough-terrain
intermodal container handlers (a variant of a popular Kalmar unit), which
would allow it to handle containers at many locations. These container
handlers can be landed on beaches by landing craft and collapse enough to
fit into the largest U.S. cargo aircraft. So, they can be deployed
anywhere in the world on relatively short notice. And, thereby any rail
siding could be turned into a container unloading point.

-- Ernest