[gabrielthomas]

Saw these two huge containers parked on GST road, Chennai. I was wondering what could these containers contain in them. Does anyone have any idea? Please post your thoughts.

[parrys]

This type is not termed as containers, they call it ODC. (Over Dimension Cargo)

In this case, it can simply be an enclosure to carry something that needs to be kept away from dust and dirt.

Similar examples: (Source - Google)





You will usually find these parked during the day. Most movement happens at night when the traffic is at minimum, a lot of changes have to be made, throughout the route.

There is one car / bike always around these so that they can check for any obstacle en-route, and either make a diversion, or move the cables higher, etc. for example.

[srishiva]

Maybe turbines (wind or thermal). I have sometimes seen them not being covered.

[pushpender_s]

I also saw them parked near vandalur zoo signal.

Though not sure of this particular cargo, but many a times big boilers and turbines are transported in such a manner

[tharian]

The thread below would be the right place for this,

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/commer...go-movers.html

[KaandBaaz]

Whenever I see these parked besides the highway, I just think of the skill that is required to manoeuvre this load. Specially in the Ghat section.

[Gannu_1]

I'll share what I know.

Although I work for the ship-building sector, the shops here build various heavy engineering structures such as process plant equipment and submarine structures. Once the work is completed, they are supported using custom-built fixtures, secured onto long trailers using heavy steel ropes and dispatched to the customer. The customer could be located within India or abroad. As far as transportation goes, there are several ways to do this.

- If the customer is located close by or if there is no port nearby and it is feasible to transport the consignment entirely by road, the manufacturer would transport it on a multi-axle trailer and a puller. Like these:





- Sometimes, it is not possible to transport a huge consignment by road because it blocks the road by a great deal or it is too high that it may come in contact with high tension electric cables that cross the roads or a bridge that cannot take such high loads. In such a case, the consignment is loaded into a barge from a nearby jetty, the barge transports it to the sea and a heavylift ship would deploy its cranes to pick up this load from the sea during calm waters and takes it to the customer’s location.



It may be possible to pick up this consignment from a port itself (say Mumbai) so the heavylift ship picks up the consignment from the port. Like this:



- Sometimes, the consignment is completely covered in metal sheets so as to disguise the contents entirely so it does not fall into prying eyes (who would click the snaps and upload it to some forum ) or isn’t captured by satellite imagery (Google Maps for instance) during transportation. For instance, when we built the hull for INS Arihant and it had to be shipped to Vizag, we covered the structure entirely in metal sheets so that no one would know what is inside.

- Sometimes during railway crossings, they may have to remove these bars:

(frequently faced by us during our dispatches; we have 2 similar railway crossings here)

And then proceed:


Images courtesy - Google

[tharian]

Originally Posted by Gannu_1

- Sometimes during railway crossings, they may have to remove these bars:

(frequently faced by us during our dispatches; we have 2 similar railway crossings here)

And then proceed:

The check bars at rail level crossings will be found only on electrified rail lines. How do you manage to cross the tracks that are electrified?

[Gannu_1]

Originally Posted by tharian

The check bars at rail level crossings will be found only on electrified rail lines. How do you manage to cross the tracks that are electrified?

I will have to get back to you on this. I shall ask the logistics department and let you know. I have seen trailers waiting for days together near a railway crossing. Probably to get a proper clearance before proceeding.

A colleague here tells me, the overhead lines are lowered after paying a huge sum of money (amounting to few lacs) to the railway authorities. Anyhow, I shall get back. Give me some time.

[tharian]

Originally Posted by Gannu_1

I will have to get back to you on this. I shall ask the logistics department and let you know. I have seen trailers waiting for days together near a railway crossing. Probably to get a proper clearance before proceeding.

A colleague here tells me, the overhead lines are lowered after paying a huge sum of money (amounting to few lacs) to the railway authorities. Anyhow, I shall get back. Give me some time.

No hurry.
Was just curious . I thought of the same , removing the wires for a certain section which Indian Railways will make a big deal of since the only time they do that is when replacing the worn out wires.

[.sushilkumar]

Originally Posted by Gannu_1

- when we built the hull for INS Arihant and it had to be shipped to Vizag, we covered the structure entirely in metal sheets so that no one would know what is inside.

Not nit picking but

you should not be putting in classified info on public forums. I now know that if i Need some info related to a sub marines hulls, whom i need to ask .

[akshay380]

Interesting thread. OT but in 2003 Indian navy decided to carry a decommissioned Sea Hawk via narrow NH17 in Goa. They kept the thing parked near my house the entire day and proceeded at night

[Gannu_1]

/OT

Originally Posted by .sushilkumar

Not nit picking but

you should not be putting in classified info on public forums. I now know that if i Need some info related to a sub marines hulls, whom i need to ask .

Oh absolutely not!

The news was out when Arihant was launched. Wiki also mentions it so no harm there. It would have been classified info if I were to mention anything about the ongoing defence projects here.

[badboyscad]

Originally Posted by gabrielthomas

Saw these two huge containers parked on GST road, Chennai. I was wondering what could these containers contain in them. Does anyone have any idea? Please post your thoughts.

Spotted these things near tindivanam on 21st. Seems like it took nearly a week to reach chennai.

BTW, these box things are humongous to say the least.

[Traveller Nayak]

Originally Posted by Gannu_1

I'll share what I know. Sometimes during railway crossings, they may have to remove these bars:And then proceed

Thanks for the insight. I am curious to know how do these navigate at the new toll gates. These have defined width and while I have seen such trailers parked on one side of the toll gate, I haven't ever seen one passing through. May be they do it really late night. For me it will be Gurgaon toll gates (now free). On a related note, I assume a lot of effort would be going to plan the route too.