The post office has several standard size boxes they use for priority mail. Inside the postal distribution center these boxes travel on roller conveyors and spiral elevators to reach the vehicles for the hop across the country to another distribution center. Seems logical to link some of the closest distribution centers with conveyers located above below or alongside existing rail right of ways. A metal container matching the standard priority sized box cross section would leave as soon as filled with a dozen or so boxes. And beat any truck, train, or plane over any short distance. Say New York to Brooklyn. No stop lights or drivers.
(Inverse because the wheels are not in the train, but in the conveyor.)-- popbottle, Jan 01 2014 Boxes like these https://www.usps.co...press-flat-rate.htmUS postal service web site [popbottle, Jan 01 2014] London Post Office Railway http://en.m.wikiped...Post_Office_RailwayPrior Art [8th of 7, Jan 01 2014] Boxway - Hans Thuma's invention http://www.youtube....watch?v=GL05bH7VEMI [pashute, Jan 05 2014] The new URL instead of popbottle's 2014 one https://www.usps.co...ty-mail-express.htm [pashute, Jun 24 2019] unoriginal (-)-- Voice, Jan 01 2014 What about robbers and vandals? What if something gets stuck?-- leinypoo13, Jan 02 2014 Hopefully robbers or vandals stuck in the system will be cleared by the next "train".
What would you suggest?-- popbottle, Jan 02 2014 //link some of the closest distribution centers with conveyers// at a new cost? Why? Although time is important, cost will always win this argument. Priority mail has been priced on the current system. Besides, and I don't mean to drone on...but drones...
Also NEJAB.-- 4whom, Jan 02 2014 // New York to Brooklyn. No stop lights or drivers. //
Don't you all have hairy idiots on bicycles for that?
Anyway, we did this one just a few weeks ago. I think it was an [R.Steele] or [n_m_rm] idea.-- Alterother, Jan 02 2014 NEJAB Simply means, "Not Enough Jam And Bees."
Not Occam's razor more like Occam's Knife, fork, spoon and other table settings.
It should be radioactive underwater solar powered and telepathically guided.
It should be deleted and start again? sigh.-- popbottle, Jan 03 2014 I've always felt that the spirit of NEJAB is simply a commentary on something not being Halfbakery enough. A practical idea with entertaining flaws is Halfbaked. A practical idea with boring flaws is NEJAB.
That's my take.-- Alterother, Jan 03 2014 After 15 minutes I can't find a Venn diagram of adjectives (that isn't shite), so how about you find one you like and we'll play. Be sure to get one that includes idiomatic colloquial acronyms.-- Alterother, Jan 03 2014 While practical the only flaw is that it was featured in one of those "spooky places" TV shows.-- FlyingToaster, Jan 03 2014 //A practical idea with boring flaws is NEJAB// My thoughts exactly...-- 4whom, Jan 04 2014 [+] for your reply to Voice about robber and vandal clearance.-- pashute, Jun 24 2019 That wasn't… never mind
Anyway, about the idea: The various sizes of boxes, though standard, probably span such a range that they have no dimension in common between them all. Therefore, it's impossible to make a conduit whose cross-section is filled by one box of any of the standard sizes. Therefore, I propose to send containers of boxes rather than individual boxes, the sizes of the containers being all the same so that they fit in the conduit identically, and the sizes of the containers and boxes being designed such that an assortment of several sizes of boxes, being useful for sending different payloads, can most likely be efficiently packed into a container regardless of the ratio of the various sizes of the boxes in the assortment.
And thank you, whoever asked what NEJAB means, though the question is now apparently deleted, so that I didn't have to.-- notexactly, Jul 21 2019 random, halfbakery