You mean how like Hamburg Sud (Germany), ZIM (Israel), MSC (Switzerland), CMA CGM (France), Hanjin (South Korea), COSCO (China), and Mitsui O.S.K. (Japan) on all those containers suggest a magical world waiting to be explored? All those boxes full of the produce of the world, brought right to our doors, from exotic lands.
There’s no magic left, it’s all pure, cold hearted, commerce now. Boxes full of produce heading for walmarts around the country. [:P]
Sorry, but no. We were more innocent back them. Half way across the country was a distant dream. That is no longer true. With all the saturation media coverage and the Internet, not to mention horrific events, Hanjin and the others are no more mysterious than your random town in Any State or Province.
And in a lot of ways, that’s too bad.
CG
I don’t see large text on shipping containers, at least not on the ones in the region where I live. I see blank containers. If the name is on the container someplace, it is not legible from reasonable distances. On the mid-century boxcars, the slogans generally took up a quarter or more of a side.
Right.
EVERGREEN spread all along the side of a green container is being shy and dainty?
Visually, the paint and lettering schemes on the sides of containers are exactly the same as boxcars fron the '50’s and '60’s.
Actually, I will agree. Sort of. As much as I see a pretty broad use of “big letters” across containers, I don’t see ANY great graphics.
THAT is pathetic.
All hail McGinnis!!!
Ed
I’m fortunate enough to live close to a CN line and a NS yard. The variety of locos and cars is great! Regional short lines in our area also make for varied consists. Check out the Facebook “Foamer Nation” page managed by one of our local modelers and see stills and video from all over the country, as well as our area.
Hi!
Can’t disagree with the OP… I’ve been a train nut since the late “40s” (that is 1940s) and spent my youth marveling at the CNW and IC trains in Chicago and southern Illinois. Those awe inspired experiences drove me into the hobby (Marx, then Lionel, then HO).
Most of the trains today (that I see) are consisted of the same type cars - auto carriers, or container flats, or covered hoppers, or tank cars. It is very unusual to see a mixed car freight train here.
I still marvel at the immensity and power and size of the trains, but they just don’t inspire me at all.
As far as their effect upon youth… well I would like to think they are impressed and in awe as I once was, but I suspect most are not…
Maybe it’s because I don’t see them too often, but the only time I’m bored/disappointed with a passing train is when it’s really short.
To me the containers look better in a yard setting where you wil see all the differrent colors from my collection for example
Zim(burgandy) P&O (white and Blue some silver) CMA CSM (blue and white) Matson (White with big blue letters) Hanjin (Red) US Army (Olive) Evergreen (Green and White or White on Green).
Thats why I have an intermodal yard The SIW has no room for long trains but then neither does Staten Island 
So having a yard full of containers and one string of Kato well cars works for me.
I’ve always thought that the Santa Fe 40’ boxcars with the system maps were cool. I learned my geography as a kid from watching those cars! I also loved the way railroards used their boxcars to advertise their named trains. The Chief, The Super Chief, The El Capitan, The Grand Canyon, etc. Each one as exciting as the next.
“Shovel all the coal in, gotta keep 'em rolling” John.
I agree there is a lot of variety in the names on those modern containers, but I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder. A name like P&O, or Maersk, Hanjin, or Matson, or even Evergreen, may evoke something in somebody’s imagination, but not mine. In the old days, those names were accompanied by slogans: “Everywhere West”; “Linking Thirteen Great States With The Nation”; “The Southern Serves The South”; “The Route of Phoebe Snow”. I agree with Ed (7j43k): Logos were more distinctive, perhaps best examplified by New Haven’s intertwined script. My imagination is not jolted and captured by those modern paint schemes, irrespective of the equipment they are painted on.
Tom
Another factor that the OP may be getting at is that modern trains tend to be unit trains. All one commodity or rolling stock. Looking at 150 well cars with domestic containers all labled “JB Hunt” for example or 150 tank cars etc can get tedious.
I still call mine a station wagon even if FORD does not:
And it is interesting that its major dimensions match this very close:
Yes, without question, “boring” is in the mind of the individual…
I don’t like modern trains or most modern cars…But the FLEX, well that is the best car I have owned since I owned one of those Checkers…
Sheldon
VERY nice, Sheldon! [Y][8D] You sure don’t see too many of those these days. I bet the back seat of a Checker has more room than the entire interior of most modern economy cars.
Tom
I think they accept the realities of their environs that the containers live in. They have short, brutal lives getting banged around and exposed to salt air. Why waste paint?
I watched an intermodal train go by my office today and learned (from the side of a bright blue CMA CGM container) that some containers use bamboo flooring these days.
And Dong Fang’s little dolphins amuse me. I miss Mitsui OSK’s alligator. Haven’t see one of those in a long time.
Tom,
I learned to drive on a 1969 Checker wagon almost identical to the one in the photo, same colors and all. My father special ordered it brand new. Then I later owned three others, two sedans and a wagon.
All Checkers have a flat back seat floor, no drive shaft tunnel. The sedans have 57" of leg room, about 30" of flat open floor, the rear seat is basicly behind the doors. The wagons have less for the folding seat, but still have plenty of room.
That 1969 wagon I learned to drive on lasted 14 years, 270,000 miles, when my sister crashed it…others had similar life spans in terms of mileage…in a day when most cars only lasted 100,000 miles.
I saw American Graffiti seven times at the drive-in in that red Checker wagon…
The FLEX is the first modern car to have the comfort, utility and space that can compete with the Checker design, combined with modern features - 360 HP twin turbo V6, all wheel drive, etc. The Checker actually got slightly better gas mileage than the FLEX does. Some of the Checkers had V8’s, they got about 20 mpg on the highway. Some had inline 6 cylinders, the wagon I had with a six got 28 mpg highway…from a full sized car.
The red FLEX in t
Sheldon,
With a 35" inseam, 57" of leg room is music to my thighs. [:P]
I had heard that the Checkers had great life spans; making them quite adept for taxi service - with the bonus of their abundance of rear seating room for multiple fares. I’ve known only one other person to have owned a Checker. And I remember it being a very quiet car - both inside and out.
Tom
Myself, I’m especially fond of Evergreen: Big old billboard lettering. AND. They haven’t changed the lettering scheme in about forever. Very convenient, era-wise.
As opposed to Hanjin and Hyundai, that each have at least two lettering variations to consider.
I’m also fond of this one:
http://www.athearn.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=ATH27847
It’s Saudi. Not something ya see too often over here.
Ed
If you have to repeatedly put a child into a car seat and get them out again, you’ll notice there is much more to the difference between a station wagon and an SUV than just the name! [;)]
Respectfully, that depends a lot on the “station wagon”. The long, low, miserable cars of the 60’s and 70’s, yes. The low, small, cramped cars of today maybe so, but few of even the “crossovers” truely qualify as a “station wagon” in my view.
We care for two grandchildren at our house, and we have owned our share of SUV’s, namely FORD EXPLORERS, and we are now 60 years old, plus or minus.
As a daily passenger/pleasure vehicle I don’t want a vehicle that I have to “climb up into”, nor do I want a vehicle I have to “fall down into” and then “climb out of”. The FLEX requires niether, just like a Checker or a 55 Chevy, the seats are at the correct height for easy entry and exit. A fact not lost on my wife who has Rheumitoid Arthritis.
Originally, SUV’s were just station wagons built on a pickup truck chassis. They have evolved, but winter weather/light off road ground clearance still requires them to be high enough to require “climbing up”.
For work and winter weather I have this:
Most cars have not been designed for real utility in more than 50 years now. In most cases, i