The way the vehicles are tied down brings back memories. When I was a kid in the 60's I drove a semi trailer interstate for a couple of years and often went across the Nullarbor Plain on the "truck train". The highway was just too rough with about 1,000 miles of dirt and the trucks did 36 hours from Port Augusta, South Australia to Kalgoorlie, Western Australia on a special train.
Even at that time with the trucks weighing up to 40 tons they used plain old sisal rope twisted with bush sticks as can be seen in the top photo above. I suppose it was quick and they never lost a truck so why change? If you see a truck on a train now it has 3 ton ratchet straps all over it plus about 6 chains.
Lang
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