Piggyback (transportation)
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Piggyback transportation is transportation of goods where one transportation unit is carried on the back of something else - it is a specialised form of intermodal transportation and of combined transport.[1]
Etymology
Piggyback is a corruption of pickaback, which is likely a folk etymology alteration of pick pack (1560s), which perhaps is from pick, a dialectal variant of pitch (v).[2]
Examples
Rail
In rail transport, the practice of carrying trailers, or semi-trailers in a train atop a flatcar is referred to as "piggybacking."[3]
The rail service provided for trucks which are carried on trains for part of their journey is referred to as a rolling road, or rolling highway. A related transportation method is the rail transport of semi-trailers, without road tractors, sometimes referred to as 'Trailer on Flatcar' (TOFC).
It is also possible to carry a railway wagon of one track gauge on a flat railway wagon (transporter wagon or rollbock) of another gauge; indeed, whole trains of one gauge can be carried on a train of flat wagons of another gauge as was done temporarily in Australia for about a year around 1955 between Telford and Port Augusta.[4][5]
The loading of semi-trailers in the U. S. grew from 1% of freight in 1957 to 15% in 1986.[6]
Marine
Small ships of all kinds can be piggybacked on larger ships. Examples include lifeboats, landing craft, minesweepers on motherships.[7] Midget submarines on big submarines such as used for 1942 Japanese submarine attack on Sydney.
Air transport
The 1930s British Short Mayo Composite, in which a smaller floatplane aircraft, the four-engined "Mercury", was carried aloft on the back of a larger four-engined flying boat named "Maia"; this enabled the Mercury to achieve a greater range than would have been possible had it taken off under its own power. In space transportation systems a smaller satellite that is carried as a secondary payload on a launch is said to be "piggybacked" on the main launch.
Military
The metal caterpillar treads of a tank wear out quickly when travelling long distances on ordinary roads. It is therefore necessary to provide tank transporters, which have rubber tires, to the battlefield.
Gallery
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Timber wagon on rollbocks -
S.20 Mercury atop Maia -
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Bonn–Oberkassel train ferry -
Rolling road
See also
- Autorack
- Fireman's carry
- Bière–Apples–Morges Railway
- Pichi Richi Railway Preservation Society
- Konkan Railway Corporation
- Roll-on/roll-off
References
- ^ Pearlman, Robert Z. (7 September 2012). "Shuttle Endeavour to get one last piggyback ride across US". MSNBC. Retrieved 24 October 2012.
- ^ Harper, Douglas. "piggyback". Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved 24 October 2012.
- ^ THE GEOGRAPHY OF TRANSPORT SYSTEMS
- ^ Trove - Pick-a-back operation solves gauge-break problem, 1955 / Adelaide Advertiser
- ^ Uniform Eailway Gauge, E. Harding, Lothian Publishing Co., 1958
- ^
Field, Alexander J. (2011). A Great Leap Forward: 1930s Depression and U.S. Economic Growth. New Haven, London: Yale University Press. p. 114. ISBN 978-0-300-15109-1.
{{cite book}}: Check|authorlink=value (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help); External link in|authorlink= - ^ "Mine-Sweepers By "Piggyback"", The Mercury (Hobart): 5, 5 June 1951
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