What's the cheapest way to ship something & can trains go up hills?

Welcome to Dr Spritzler's Science YouTube Channel. What James May is getting at, in addition to some cool physics is the fact that trains and tankers are by far the most efficient way to move things or transport cargo (as Claude describes below).

https://youtu.be/KbUsKWbOqUU?si=BhMHS8c04HAg36II&t=14

Here's roughly how they stack up, in BTU needed to move one ton of cargo one mile (log scale, since the spread is huge):

• F-150 pickup (gas): ~4,600 BTU/ton-mile — based on DOE/ORNL data for large pickups (~38.5 gal per 1,000 ton-miles). Pickups are the least efficient here because most of what they're hauling is their own ~5,000-6,000 lb weight, not payload.

• Semi truck (diesel, fully loaded): ~900 BTU/ton-mile — DOE data for Class 8b combination trucks (~6.5 gal per 1,000 ton-miles).

• Diesel locomotive: ~280 BTU/ton-mile — based on 2023-2025 rail industry data (freight rail averages ~480-535 ton-miles per gallon of diesel).

• Ocean tanker (large crude/bulk carrier): ~90 BTU/ton-mile — derived from carbon-intensity data for bulk carriers (~4 g CO2/tonne-km), which is the standard way these vessels' efficiency gets reported.