I’m building an HO intermodal facility on my layout. I got some good deals on Athearn 48’ chassis trailers,but when i went looking for 48’ containers they were hard to find. Walthers has a few and the Athearn containers,which were very little of variety, are sold out. Apparently 48’ containers were not popular with the railroads,why is that?
48’containers were popular, but due to their size, their use was limited to intermodal transport within North America…internationally, only 20’, 40’ and sometimes 45’ containers could be used.
Are you modeling CURRENT modern era (as in 2010s)? If so, then 48’ containers are going obsolete. 53’ containers have basically replaced them. You rarely see 48’ containers on the rails today. The 45’ and under containers are still popular though.
If you model 1980s to early 2000s, then 48’ containers were very common.
Hi
This page has 7 different kinds of 48’ containers…about half way down the page in the middle of the page:
http://www.wholesaletrains.com/HOProducts2.asp?Scale=HO&SPECIAL=0&offset=175
You can paint them, decal them etc.
How many different ones do you want?
Or are you looking for a specific one like J.B.Hunt intermodal containers? They are here listed.
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The same chassis can be used for other size containers. Even in the real world, I sometimes see shorter containers on longer chassis, or even two 20’ containers sharing one chassis. It all depends on what’s available at the time to haul what needs to be hauled…
I was just going to edit my post to reflect what was said by Steven Otte, but he just beat me to it.
Nothing says you have to use 48 footers, 2 20 footers will work,and I, too, have seen them on the tracks that way.