Would it be safe to assume that unless wrecked, these cars probably were converted to ETTX cars?
First listed car is operating as ETTX 852996 - a 19 foot high auto-rack with a CSXT rack mounted. The 2nd listed car is operating as TTGX 852604 with a 19 foot high UP auto-rack mounted.
I’d be willing to bet that the current racks are one or two installations removed from the ones in the photographs.
Most of those CTTX racks were owned by eastern railroads, Chessie and Conrail in particular. Once these railroads were able to run double-stack trains over certain routes, there was no longer a reason not to have racks with roofs.
That TTKX rack is interesting–it almost looks like a roof was removed from it, and the ends look like they were designed for doors. I don’t recall any that were actually built so that they could have these things added later, but I suppose it’s possible.
Thanks, guys.
Carl, do you know if WP ever had fully enclosed, tri-level racks on flatcars like those in the photographs? I have never seen a photograph of any, but before Friday, I had never seen these types of WP autocarriers.
I don’t know of any way to check for them, but it’s possible that WP didn’t have any enclosed racks. If I remembver correctly, there were still some open (but shielded) racks around in 1982-83, when WP was merged into UP.
I have found photographs of fully enclosed, tri-level WP racks (http://www.railcarphotos.com/PhotoDetails.php?PhotoID=46551), but not on the type of flatcar I am looking for. I do periodically check the three websites that have large quantities of photographs of freight cars.
In 1997 and 1998 these WP Auto Racks were still in service. I saw them and photographed them on the GTW/CN line.
The new UP Rack directly replaced the original WP Auto Rack on the Trailer Train TTX Flat Car.
Andrew Falconer