Cargo Ships. Part-One.

General.

This is the official term used for most shipping under that of the Bulk carrier, Chemical and Oil tankers. The general cargo ship comes in various sizes and they are used for a mixture of cargo's, basically what ever order or contract they can get.

Timber, fertiliser, gravel, grains scrap, rubbish are some of the general cargo's, they operate into and out of all sizes of ports and facilities. Some of this ships are in fact glorified river barges, while others at one time were known as Coasters because they kept close to the coasts in their travels.

Most of these ships today carry their own excavators or small cranes, if the quay has no facility.

Today there are so many specialised ships that are dedicated to various roles, but the cargo ship will live on because of the demand to move all sorts of small amounts of goods and 'that is a great thing in its self.'

Road-Rail Vehicles.

Atlas to Unimog.

The means to have any type of vehicle, wither it be a boat, aircraft, truck or other to have a double capability role is ever great advantage. Land and water ability, cuts out the need to depend on bridges, while aircraft do not need an airport or land, but can land and take off from water.

The next advantage is to have a truck capable of using the railway network to cross a country at speed and safer from hurting people or damaging the surface. I must admit that I have a limited knowledge to these types of vehicles, only knowing about the Atlas and the Unimog.

There are many more other Russian, American, Australian and Chinese types out there. Many vehicles (MAC, Ural, MAN) have as powerful an engines as a Locomotive, but these come to their own, when railway infustructure may not be available or defunct. 

It is not just the movement of tanks and armour, artillery that the military use such vehicles.The need to move ICBM's and other missiles can be done quickly and smoothly. Civil uses,can be large cranes and buildings.

Cranes.

Free Standing and Telescopic.

We today live in a world where we think cranes are something new? But we have had a pulley crane of some description since humans needed to lift heavy weights. Those fantastic monuments of the past such as the Pyramids in Egypt, the great wall of China and the many neolithic monuments needed cranes.

Today cranes come in all sizes and formats. They are the centre of the construction of high rise buildings and also entry work to underground tunnels. Cranes in the telescopic type are used to lift heavy weight objects, from piping units to wind turbine segments to skips of materials needed at certain heights or depths. 

Some cranes work on a segmented construction basis, while others are deployed from an eight to twelve wheel truck unit.