06-08-2011, 01:50 PM
When I have had to deal with them on the railroad it is generally started by the end consumer. They then contact the manufacturer with what their needs are and then a specialized transport company is then contacted to make the arragments. To my knowledge, most railroads have some sort of High Wide plan in place and depedning on the amount of hassel and location charge them accordingly. Once the end user and manufacturer come to terms the transport company then contacts the major carrier and they gerneally do all the handeling with the smaller carries. The last over size load we moved I had heard about it two years previously and it was a relativly small pressur vessel fitting on a single flat car. I have thought about modeling one of these strange loads but due to the area I model have no justification to do so. I am working on some of the 747 part cars as they did make some trips on the line I model. I always get a kick out of seeing them riding behind 5 or 6 cattle cars on a hot train.