piggyback (transportation)

Piggyback is a corruption of pickaback, which is likely to be a folk etymology alteration of pick pack (1560s), which perhaps is from pick, a dialectal variant of the verb pitch.{{cite web|last=Harper|first=Douglas|title=piggyback|url=http://etymonline.com/index.php?term=piggyback|publisher=Online Etymology Dictionary|access-date=24 October 2012}}

File:Handball_pick-a-back_Ancient_Greece.jpg circa. 500 BCE]]

A person carrying someone else on their back is most commonly seen in the modern day in the form of a parent carrying an underage child, either for travelling or for children's games. It can involve the carrier crawling on hands and knees with the child straddling over the back like riding a horse, or with the carrier standing upright with the child hugging or cradled behind the back, often with the child's arms leaning over the carrier's shoulders and legs wrapping around the flanks.

Piggybacking may also feature in the context of play or sport, and evidence of this dates back to Ancient Greece where games involving piggyback riding were combined with the requirement of catching or throwing a ball.Gardiner, E. Norman, 'Athletics of the Ancient World', Oxford: OUP, 1967, illustration 209 / facing p. 230 In the modern era, wife carrying competitions, where the female participants ride on the back of their male partners running the race, are popular in some countries.

{{Main articles|Trailer-on-flatcar}}

File:Train Carrying Trucks in Konkan Railway.jpg

File:Commonwealth Railways narrow-gauge cattle cars on rails laid on standard-gauge flatcars, Stirling North-Marree line, 1955.jpgs on continuous rails laid on standard gauge flatcars (outback Australia)]]

{{See also|Rolling highway|Modalohr|Roadrailer|Well car|Flatcar#Spine car|l5=Spine car|Class U special wagon#Intermodal container well wagons{{!}}Well wagon|Loading gauge}}

In rail transport, the practice of carrying trailers or semi-trailers in a train atop a flatcar is referred to as "piggybacking".{{Cite web |url=http://people.hofstra.edu/geotrans/eng/ch3en/conc3en/pbdblstk.html |title=The Geography of Transport Systems |access-date=11 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120324103201/http://people.hofstra.edu/geotrans/eng/ch3en/conc3en/pbdblstk.html |archive-date=24 March 2012 |url-status=dead }} Early drawings of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway c1830 show road coaches being piggybacked on railway flat wagons."The Train Book" by DK, p23

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)". In the United States, TOFC traffic grew from 1% of freight in 1957 to 5% in 1964 and 15% in 1986.Piggback: The Trailer Train story Railway Age May 25, 1964 page 44{{cite book

|title=A great leap forward: 1930s depression and U.S. economic growth|last=Field|first= Alexander J|year= 2011|publisher=Yale University Press|location=New Haven, London|isbn=978-0-300-15109-1|page=114}}

A rail vehicle of one track gauge can be carried on a flatcar (transporter wagon or rollbock) of another gauge. In addition, an entire train of coupled cars of one gauge can be carried on continuous rails on a train of flatcars of another gauge. This was achieved, as a temporary expedient, by the Commonwealth Railways on the Marree railway line in South Australia between Telford Cut and Port Augusta in the mid-1950s.[https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/11935586 Pick-a-back operation solves gauge-break problem] Adelaide AdvertiserComplete narrow-gauge trains on standard-gauge wagons Railway Gazette International September 9, 1955 pages 305-308 Japan Railways planned a similar "Train on Train" scheme, but at much higher speeds, to operate from 2016.{{cite news | script-title=ja:独自の研究開発 人と物流 高速化に活路 |trans-title=Own R&D leading to increased speed| newspaper = Hokkaido Shimbun | location = Japan | language = ja | publisher = The Hokkaido Shimbun Press | date = 20 December 2008 | url = http://www.hokkaido-np.co.jp/cont/shinkansen/45633.html | access-date = 30 September 2009}}

File:Piggyback trucking.webp

For semi trucks the trucks can be stacked 4 deep if it is just a day-cab truck and only 3 deep if it has a sleeper-cab. The trucks drive up a ramp or are lifted into place by a tow hook on the front bumper, from a heavy-duty tow truck or overhead crane. A saddle is placed on the fifth-wheel, that the front axel of the next truck is attached to, which is called decking. The mirrors are folded in on the trucks being hauled for width requirements and safety. For undecking the trucks, a tow truck or overhead crane is used again. It is typically used to transport newly built or purchased trucks.{{cite web | url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJr7Wdjb_1Y | title=Big Rig Delivery ALERT! UN-Decking New Peterbilt Semi Trucks | website=YouTube | date=7 October 2020 }}{{cite web | url=https://www.truckersnews.com/shedrives/article/15059973/this-driver-is-up-for-the-challenge-of-piggyback-hauling | title=This driver is up for the challenge of piggyback hauling | date=21 August 2018 }}

Small ships of all kinds can be piggybacked on larger ships. Examples include lifeboats, landing craft, and minesweepers on motherships,{{citation| url = http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article27038730?searchTerm=piggyback#pstart1911980| journal = The Mercury (Hobart) |date = 5 June 1951| title = Mine-Sweepers By "Piggyback"|page =5}} as well as midget submarines on larger submarines, such as those used for the 1942 Japanese submarine attack on Sydney.

The 1930s British Short Mayo Composite, in which a smaller, four-engine floatplane aircraft named Mercury was carried aloft on the back of a larger four-engine flying boat named Maia, enabled the Mercury to achieve a greater range than would have been possible had it taken off under its own power. The American Space Shuttle was carried on top of specially-modified Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft when the shuttle landed at places other than Kennedy Space Center.

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. It is often the case of small satellites and cubesats, since they can not usually afford accessing space on a dedicated launch and they choose instead to take profit of the remaining payload capacity in a big satellite launch. However, this is usually at the cost of not being able to fly to their desired orbit and having to remain on a similar orbit to that of the big satellite.

The metal caterpillar treads of a tank wear out quickly when travelling long distances on ordinary roads. Also, tracked vehicles seriously damage the tarmac layer of ordinary roads (unless the caterpillar treads are specially fitted with rubber pads to avoid this). It is therefore necessary to provide tank transporters, which have rubber tires, to the battlefield.

File:MBC Ua 235A.JPG|Timber wagon on rollbocks

File:20090803 hellenic spirit25.jpg|Trucks on board a ro-ro ship

File:South Australian Railways narrow gauge locomotive T232 on broad gauge crocodile car.jpg|A South Australian Railways T class narrow-gauge locomotive on a broad-gauge crocodile car

File:Atlantis on Shuttle Carrier Aircraft.jpg|The Space Shuttle Atlantis atop a NASA Boeing 747

File:Trajekt im Strom.jpg|Bonn–Oberkassel train ferry

File:ROLA Kelenfold.JPG|Rolling road

File:The Queen Mary's Army Auxiliary Corps during the First World War, France Q11512.jpg|A person being carried piggy-back at the beach (1918)

File:The End (for now) (6265367138).jpg|Trailers on flatcars in the United States

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• Autorack
• Bière–Apples–Morges Railway
• Car carrier trailer
• Car float
• Double-stack rail transport
• Ferry
• Fireman's carry
• Hupac
• Konkan Railway Corporation
• Loading gauge
• Modalohr
• Motorail
• Pichi Richi Railway
• Roadrailer
• Rolling highway
• Roll-on/roll-off
• Structure gauge
• Train ferry
• Two-foot-gauge railways in South Africa

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{{Reflist}}

{{Wiktionary|piggyback}}

{{Commons category|Piggy-back transport}}

• [https://books.google.com/books?id=DeEDAAAAMBAJ&dq=piggyback+train+australia&pg=PA120 Double Piggyback p120]
• [https://archive.today/20121217174606/https://www.railwaygazette.com/news/single-view/view/10/modalohr-plans-europe-wide-expansion.html RGI Modalohr]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Piggy-Back (Transportation)}}

Category:Transport operations

Category:Intermodal transport