Germany to Shanghai China

[gray_marian]

This train is pulling 200 containers (double stacked). The travelling time is 14 days.

If the 200 containers were to go by ship it would take 2 months.

There are plans to increase the volume to 300 containers and increase the engines from 4 to 6.


Video for youtube clip, TRAIN TRAVELLING FROM GERMANY TO CHINA▶ 4:58
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oein0bh6K3U

[Peter F Chard]

Hi Marian, As a junior engineer, circa 1958, on a P&O Cargo ship, the " Somali " I had just gone on leave after a five and half month trip to the Far East only to get a recall back to London because the ship had been chartered to the Chinese government. We sailed in ballast to Antwerp and filled the ship up bags of fertilizer and when the five hatches were full we more loaded bags of the stuff on the hatch tops. In fact we were so overloaded that we had to pump fresh water ashore to get back to our marks. Showers were restricted to one shower every third day except for watchkeeping engineers and we were allowed one shower a day, We were to steam at 15 knots maximum ( our normal cruise speed on that class of vessel was 19 knots) and to sail non-stop to our destination except for bunker stops. The trip took 55 days. We ran out of fresh water three days after sailing and the skipper had to issue cans of beer to all on board, four cans per man per day but watchkeeping engineers were allowed six cans. We took on some water at Malta but again ran out again half way down the Red Sea. We bunkered fuel and water at Aden On arrival at Shanghai we picked up a Pilot who took us through Shanghai and down the Yellow River so far that the river banks were almost touching the sides of the ship. And then they left us there for a month, it was January would you believe and incredibly cold. For fun the authorities would have sudden raids by the Immigration people in the middle of the night and we would have to stand on deck in our night clothes for a couple of hours whilst the Immigration people searched the ship for spies. Then they spent a month unloading our cargo, bag by bag using manual labour !! Boy, were we glad to leave that place !! Regards Peter in NZ.

[j.sabourn]

Don't think today the modern mariner thinks how important to us water was on a ship Peter. Think one time we lay off Jeddah one time for a couple of months due to conjestion in the port. Think we had to get the water boat out a couple of times. Some ships lay at anchor a lot longer than us. A lot were carrying camels and was common to see them hanging over the side on a cargo hook, dead of course, and the camel that is. there were also plenty floaters as well. The Middle east holds no charm for me, if you see it once in all its nitty gritty that's once too many. My favourite parts of the world were North America, Australia and N.Z. Japan was ok and South Africa at one time. Most other places once seen hard to forget for the filth and lack of facilities for the people. Many over here spend a lot of time in Bali, mainly I suppose for its cheapness, I would rather stay in my own backyard. Cheers JS

[happy daze john in oz]

From Red Sea to Melbourne on two pints of fresh water per day and salt water showers. Only time I have seen blues turned to whites, so much salt in the clothes.

John, Bali is a fantastic place if you stay away from the major tourist spots such as Kuta. I have driven just about every road on that island and on Lombok. Both are such wonderful islands once away from the city.

[Hugh Ferrier]

Very intresting Marian,great video. However one train would take approximately 668 days to move the 9550 forty foot containers from China to Felixstowe/ Germany that the Largest container ship can do in 30/32 days and this does not include return trip element. 48 trains could do in 14 days, but I Think that might make for some rail congestion. Good for quicker delivery perhaps if that is required but there again how does that compare with airfreight? I think I will stick with shipping.
Kind Regards

[John F Collier]

To add to Marian's post#1, The first ever UK to China export train left yesterday laden with containers full of British goods.
It is set to make the 7,500 mile, three week journey from DP World London Gateway's rail terminal in Stanford Le Hope to
Yiwu in the Zhe Jiang province in eastern China. It is the first export train bound for China and departs just under three months
after the first import train arrived in the UK. The service is part of China's one belt one road program which aims to revive
the ancient Silk Road trading routes to the West. Bosses claim the journey is cheaper than launching a airfreight service and
faster than sending goods by ship' After passing through the Channel Tunnel into France and Belgium, the Locomotive will
call at Duisburg Germany, before Inter Rail pull the cargo through Poland, Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan until the train
crosses into Yiwu, China. Stanford Le Hope is right on top of the new super container port at Tilbury, the London Gateway
is a huge container complex and is an ideal distribution point it has certainly put Essex on the map, but thankfully I live
a little further up river and off the main routes so I miss all the traffic it brings but I think as the export train gets more
established it will be developed and become more efficient and serve more countries, where possible. cheers JFC

[John Pruden]

the ships that carry 22.000 containers will always have the market I think the train was a publicity stunt how long would a train have to be to carry that load? jp

[John F Collier]

The train service is only a very small part of the London Gateway John, the redevelopment of the container berths was
started in 2010 and finished a couple of years ago at the cost of £1.5 billion, the Thames was dredged to allow the worlds
largest ships to be able to berth at the purpose built outer container berths at Tilbury superport as they would be to big for
the locks that access the inner port, "and they are big" as you know Tilbury was a passenger ship port where all the oldies
used to berth, so they are expecting ships to be around for a long time yet . cheers JFC

[happy daze john in oz]

The Melbourne port was dredged out a few years ago to accomodate the larger container ships now sailing the oceans.

The heads at Port Phillip bay are not very wide and a group of concerned persons living along the coast line attempted to have the dredge stopped.
Why you may ask?
They honestly believed that by dredging at the heads more water would be alowed in the bay and flood half of Melbourne.

Sadly these people live and breathe and breed.