*squeelet*

[marnanightingale]

For I am too tired for proper squee.

But I told damned_colonial I was going to squee about containers.

Cause they are deeply squeeble.

So here:

Whoever came up with the idea of having a single large sturdy container in a uniform size that could be moved by

a) a truck

b) a train

c) a ship or

d) a crane

... is an unsung hero of our age. Man, that's just ELEGANT. And there is not enough squee about container shipping. In fact, there is none. Except now there is.

*squee*

Comments

[jazz007.livejournal.com]

Actually, there is lots of (dignified, military-like) squeeing in the Air Force about container shipping. It's insane how much crap good supply officers can pack into one of the standard 17' square containers that go on the C-17s.

But somehow I doubt that's what you meant...

[commodorified.livejournal.com]

No, I suspect that is exactly what I meant.

Except if it's dignified, it may not count as squee, exactly.

[jazz007.livejournal.com]

Hrmmmm.

It's about the same sound, I think, but produced without the traditional jumping and hugging that frequently accompanies a squeee. Would that count?

On second thought, maybe it's not even close to the same sound. But the same entusiasm, there is.

[fairestcat]

Oh yes, I will most heartily second this squee!

I clearly remember the first time I realized that those boxes on the train were the same as those boxes on the trucks. And, I do believe -- at whatever tender age I was -- I did squee.

[trolleypup.livejournal.com]

I get a railroad industry magazine, there is likewise very dignified squeeing about containers and technical refinements thereof. However, high pitched jumping up and down, not so much. While there isn't anything in this month's Railway Age about containers, there was some squeeage about TTX which supplies 2/3s of North America's intermodal (mostly container) car fleet:

By the end of 2005, TTX will have grown its 53-foot doublestack fleet almost fourfold from what it was at year-end 2000. Increases in on-dock loading (from ocean vessel to rail) prompted TTX to order another 2,000 40-foot doublestack wells in 2004 for deliver in 2005.

[tuff-ghost.livejournal.com]

pallets too!

[commodorified.livejournal.com]

I can't squee about pallets. Tell me about pallets...

[kd5mdk.livejournal.com]

Pallets are those wooden rectangles you stack stuff on top of, and then has a space inbetween boards for the forklift to pick it up by.

http://www.topseng.com/images/mix_pallet1.jpg

[commodorified.livejournal.com]

i know what they are, i just want someone else to do the squeeing for me

[tuff-ghost.livejournal.com]

well they're wooden platforms for freight to go on, and they're all of the right size and shape to be picked up by a forklift and stacked into trucks, or on top of one another when they're in storage. i also imagine they're what goes inside the containers, a good deal of the time.

i just mentioned it cos of your squee about the elegance of containers. i heart standardization too. :D

[carbonelle.livejournal.com]

and they're the bee's knees for bonfires at the beach.

[widget285.livejournal.com]

Hehehehe!

You're so cute when you squee about shipping resources! ;-)

I heartily second your squee. Shipping containers are a great things, indeed.

[sjkasabi.livejournal.com]

Shipping containers? Squee, yes, but Embrace the dark side, Luke.

Elegant but deadly. How cool is that?

[melusina]

Hee! This is a truly charming squee. . .

[cionaudha.livejournal.com]

And you can live in 'em!

http://www.fabprefab.com/fabfiles/containerbayhome.htm

[bibliotrope.livejournal.com]

More squees. They are a very cool, very efficient way to ship stuff.

This is from someone whose family has been involved in that industry, in several capacities:

I first noticed them on flatbed railroad cars on trains going by our house. My dad worked for that railroad. As a yardmaster, he was to some extent responsible for them while on the trains in his district.

My brother, in his first job after college, worked for a company that loaded them on and off ships, to trains or trucks or from trains or trucks to ships, or maybe from trains to trucks too.

Then there's my brother-in-law the former 18-wheeler driver.

[tygerr.livejournal.com]

D'you mean to say that with all our talk about railroads, air freight, and related topics, I have NEVER inflicted my Canned Paean In Praise Of Containerized Shipping on you?

If not, consider it incorporated by reference.

*performs Gearhead Ferret poingy-dance*