Hi Cappysmart,
I read your post and the subsequent replies regarding road trains with interest. Your post presents some very good questions about hauling resources in northern Canada. The following is some background that might be useful for everyone who was giving a little thought to this topic.
In Canada, we already use road trains that are three units long such as the ones we see in the Australian video. They come in several configurations that use A, B, or C train systems. These are all just different ways of connecting the trailers to one another. If one was to drive on Alberta's Highway 2 between Calgary and Edmonton, particularly at night, you would see many of these units hauling a variety of cargoes. They have minimum horsepower requirements in order to handle the extreme weight of the train and 550+ hp diesel engines with very high torque curves are fairly common in Alberta and BC highway tractors. They often have night time permits only in order to keep them away from the heavy daytime car traffic. General traffic safety is an issue with these units and so their use is generally restricted to high quality divided highways because they are extremely difficult to pass on a standard two-lane road and would greatly impede traffic flow.
As for all season haul roads, in northern Canada this is problematic for triple trains due to the rather extreme conditions. These include snow, ice, mud, broken and hilly terrain and tight curves. In Australia, the outback roads are generally very flat, straight and dry. The triple trains simply present too much rolling friction and cumbersomeness to be used successfully on many resource roads in Canada. Having said that, we do currently use some 10 axle configuration B-Train Doubles for log hauling on resource roads, mostly one and a half lane with turnouts (yes there really is such a thing), or two lane gravel roads because these trailers are more manageable, and can carry nearly as much weight as, for example, a "standard" C-Train Triple.
Just to clarify, an all season gravel surfaced road will actually carry much more weight than a paved road as the surface will not be irreparably damaged by excessive individual axle weights. Also, in the winter, the loads that such a road can carry are virtually unlimited. To this day, we still have some log hauling where we pull "off highway" loads (weights as much as double those allowed on the paved highways) up to a "sort yard" where the loads are sorted and reloaded on trucks with legal highway weights (or sometimes on rail) for dispersal elsewhere. Also, I noticed that someone used the term Tundra in relation to the Ring of Fire. There is no tundra there. Most of the way up to the Ring of Fire is through what would be considered fairly standard Boreal Forest road access... something in which Canadians have no problem building roads. Only the last few kilometres actually run over the James Bay Lowlands where there is less high ground (more water) to deal with for road construction. Even at that, it is not Tundra, thank goodness, and can be accessed with careful engineering and some well established construction methods that are well known and well used in the north... if that is what is needed.
The problem of moving large weights over resource roads is something that is under constant analysis and trial and error in Canada and this is because few in the world are so constrained by both long distances and harsh conditions (all at the same time) as we are. I should qualify what I have said here with the proviso that this is only the most elementary of information on the subject. The entire topic is really very complex and heavily studied.
I hope some of this background is a little bit helpful for a general understanding of the situation.
RHammer
