Having worked in an intermodal yard since 1994, I’ve noticed the trailers have grown over the years from 45’ to 48’ to 53’. Aside from 28’ pups, an ocasional 35’ trailer shows up and until about 3 years UPS 42’(?) were regulars for loading. But never have I seen a 40’ trailer being sent anywhere. The question then is when did the 40’ trailer generally disappear from service?
If my memory serves me right the 40 ft trailer started to disappear in the 70’s or early 80’s. The 45 ft trailer not only offered more length, but they were also wider. For a period of time you could see rebuilt 40 ft trailers as 45 trailers and used on TOFC trains. The longer trailers continued to grow into the 48 ft and now 53 ft trailers.
During this period of change it was sometimes difficult to send the newer bigger trailers out east. The longer and taller trailers had problems in older neighbiorhoods with less turning clearance and lower bridges.
I’m guessing 1982 plus three of four years to clean up. That was during the time Conrail could claim a profit if not for the unions, so it’s hard to say.
Ah, the old 40’ trailers, many of them are still around, mostly in storage service. Some were lengthened into 42-45 footers, giving them a few extra years of life, but most were retired in the mid-to-late 80’s. Many 45’ trailers were retired in the 90’s as the 48 footers were the mainstay of the day, and the new (at the time) 53 footers were still not legal in many places. Today, a small handfull of 45 and 48 footers still haul freight, the USPS has a few shorter ones, as does UPS, but the mainstay today is the 53’ trailer.
Brad