This Is The Structure of a Schnabel Car
As I get older, I find maneuvering my natural gas turbine cycle plant (NGTCP) around the backyard fairly difficult but I suppose that is to be expected since it is a $35 million piece of machinery weighing roughly 734,127 pounds. Hard to imagine how I would get one all the way to Calgary, Alberta in Canada. I am pretty sure I’d have to pony up the cash to get my paws on a Schnabel car (diagram above – a specialized rail car to carry hella heaviness) and some other folks to pitch in.
Discerning readers will perhaps wonder why I would ever want to send my NGTCP to Calgary and, I confess, this is merely rhetorical. My NGTCP is staying put, for sure. It is hard enough to nudge it a few inches to accommodate my sprinkler. Mitsubishi Power Systems (MPS), on the other hand, hired Transportation Technology Services (TTS), Inc. to help haul its NGTCP from Duluth to Calgary. It did not work out very well.
Apparently the train carrying the NGTCP on a “schnabel car” hit a rock out-crop in McGregor, Minnesota, resulting in some $6 million in damages. Now, MPS and others are suing TTS for the damages.
Here is my question: noting that the plaintiffs in this fairly straightforward breach of contract action are insurers for the most part, noting that NGTCP + McGREGOR ROCK OUTCROP = OOPS, noting how much are plaintiffs and defendants going to waste, in terms of time and money on lawyers to fight over who owes how much, I just have to wonder whether there might not be a more efficient way to settle these disputes than civil litigation?
I should not be an ingrate, I suppose. This is how lawyers make a living. Just saying.