It’s almost the time to order some containers for my well cars and I am looking for suggestions and lengths. I model Canadian Pacific in HO. I currently have 2 sets of the Walthers 53’ 3-Unit Well cars and 2 sets of the Athearn RTR Maxi III 5-Unit Well cars. Thank you in advance to everyone who helps me with my 4 questions below.
What lengths of containers should I be on the look-out for?
Any particular brands/manufacturers that are better?
Do the containers come with “pegs” (or a similar system) to enable one to double-stack them?
Is it normal to put a long container on the bottom and a shorter one on top?
Tips and suggestions are appreciated in case I have missed anything relating to containers.
I would recommend looking at some film of actual stack trains for placement on the wells. I’m pretty sure the long ones go on top. There’s not peg in the middle of the long container to position 2 short boxes on top of it.
Length?
Any length will do as long as they are positioned on the car properly.
As for brands?
I have a mix of Athearn, Walthers & a few others. For the Athearn cars, the small peg on the bottom of the containers fit an Athearn cars but the Walthers are more oblong & won’t fit, unless you modify either system.
I’ve placed a few weights in each box as well to weigh the cars a bit better.
I’ve got a Maxi-III and a three-car drawbar set loaded with containers, so I can probably make useful suggestions. First off, if you don’t already have metal wheels fitted, buy them. Loaded double stacks tend to wobble unless you have metal wheels and a decent amount of ballast inside the lower deck container. I used Walthers 20ft, 40ft and 48ft containers with a couple of Athearn 53ft ones, all these have moulded pegs on the base to fit into the car. What I’ve seen is that 20ft containers will always be loaded on the lower deck, and that longer containers are often stacked on top of shorter ones. Best advice I can give here would be to take a look around a few photo sites and see what’s out there - I just bought containers more or less randomly (my main criteria was that they had to be in a paint scheme I liked the look of!) and loaded them in. Hope this is of use!
Yep, Protos. On the Maxi-III you’ll need 36in wheels for the intermediate trucks and 33in wheels for the end trucks, while single-unit or drawbar cars take 33in wheels.
The containers coming off ships are 20ft, 40ft (both 8ft high x 8ft wide) and 40ft hi cube (102" high). North American containers are the above, plus 45ft, 48ft and 53 ft (all 102" high).
my wife works for the port of Houston authority and all she deals with off the ships as nfmisso suggested are 20’, 40’, 45’ and 40’ high cube containers…these are most common to rail service …i’ve never heard of her speaking of 53’ sized containers coming off the ships unless they are piggyback vans…chuck
I don’t know when they started or where they ran but there were also 28’ containers. I think that they were used in parcels service.
40’ came first, then 20’. Then the US started to stretch them a few feet at a time to each of the lengths above. Then they added the high cubes. 20’ Tank containers were a bit later on the scene than the straight 20’ boxes.
If you hunt around the indexes there have been several articles on containers in the mags.
I use all makes including some European and even Bachman UK (H0) containers with no significant problems. The little difference between attachments doesn’t creat a big problem.
One thing you might do is use a blob of blue-tac (stuff for tacking posters to walls… if it’s not got the same name over there).
A lot come complete so adding weight means making a hole in the bottom. Not sure that you really need extra weight in the containers… remember you’re locos will have to pull it.
If you look at pics (try www.rrpicturearchives.net/ ) you will see that containers tend to run in complete pick-and-mix muddles and solid blocks. Like others I go for the ones that look good. If you’re date fussy you’ll need to do some research.
Remember that double stack requires full height clearance. I’ve heard that this can be a problem with the Walthers double track truss bridge. It could be an issue with some tunnel mouths.
Personally, because of height and era I load my containers mostly on 89’ all purpose flat cars (Accurail). Some of the displaced trailers get loaded into All Purpose well cars… nothing like being awkward
Excellent links, tips and suggestions. Thanks again to everyone who responded/helped. Sounds like I can get quite a variety etc and should not have to worry.
The basic dimensions are 40 foot length and 8 foot width. That’s the size of most of the container rails on ocean-going ships.
If you look at the over-40 footers, they all have attachment points spaced 40 feet apart as well as at their extreme ends. That’s why, for example, a 53-footer can ride atop a 40-footer in one well of a stack car.
Those bigger sizes closely follow the contemporary maximum length for semi-trailer boxes, which have been growing a few feet every ten years or so.
The container web sites are superb!
I like this pic especially… http://www.matts-place.com/intermodal/part1/images/aplu702493.jpg
Shows both the 89’ flats I was on about and trailers and containers in same consist.
I also meant to remind you to not forget to run some empty cars in with your loads. As far as I can tell they don’t fill up all the wells before starting to double stack… anyone correct me on this?
Working trackside with the flats at night you have to be real careful that all of the train has gone by when the last container whooshes past. following empties make much less noise and can be hard to see in the dark. I’ve heard that this can produce wrecks at country grade crossings in Texas.
I think they have to load the lower deck on the two end cars and the centre car, though I could be wrong - I know the 5-unit spine cars work like this (or so the instructions with my Walthers set said). It would make sense anyway as that arrangement would ensure a load on each truck to reduce the risk of derailment.
The 20,40 and 45 ft lengths are international containers,the longer 48 and 53 ft are North American domestic.20’s can only be bottoms,any other length can be a top.Hazardous 20’ tankers do not get tops.
48’ well cars will typically be loaded with2 20’s or 1 40 bottom,and 53’ toppers
40’ well cars,same bottoms as above,but due to spacing concerns,toppers are loaded 53’ on the ends and the middle,40’ in the other 2 positions or 2 empty spots.(48’ spine cars are loaded much the same way,53" TOFC on the ends and middle hitches,40’ COFC or empty in the other 2 positions)
Empty topper positions are not a concern,bottoms need to be filled on the ends and the middle as previously mentioned
Here is a good source for all lengths of containers. http://www.imrcmodels.com/ho/hocontainer.htm
