Using all my fingers two 45’ trailers/containers come out as too long for an 89’ flat car. I don’t know the time scale for the introduction of different lengths of trailers…
What did the RR do? put one 40’ and one 45’ on each car?
I do know that at some point / some lengths of cars/trailers were loaded with three trailers distributed over two cars. Anybody know what/when/where?
What happened with the articulated double 89’ cars (I have two by Walthers)
I do know that well cars are loaded with a 40’ in the well and 48’ on top. Were any well cars long enough to take 48’ in the well?
TTX modified the 89’ flatcars so that the ‘buff’ on the drawbars was reduced. This way the small ‘overhang’ from a pair of 45’ trailers do not cause a problem. It is still quite a load though!
When 2 45’ trailers are on one car… about how far apart are they?
Are they loaded nose to nose, back to back or elephant style?
Are consecutive cars loaded the same way round?
The hitches are on either end. The trailers are back to back. There is virtually no space between the two. It’s rare to see consecutive cars the same way, as they usually are mixed up quite a bit, as in: Triple 28’, Twin 45’, triple 53’, etc. etc. etc.
david you might want to get the kalmbach book on intermodal operations. it gives a history of trailer train and tofc and cofc (trailer on flat car-container on flat car) in the early days trailers were 30 some feet then grew also trailers were loaded elephant style till vandals kept breaking into the exposed doors then they were loaded back to back.
Two 45’ trailers are loaded back to back on 89’ flat. They just hang a bit over the end, but with long drawheads it’s not a problem. Different size trailers can be (and ofter often are) mixed on the same car.
The drawbar coupled twin flats are still around, although, due to some tracking issues, the middle hitch is normally not used. We had several accidents where the middle trailer swung out and hit an adjecent train or lineside pole.
We have well cars that take 48’ and 53’ containers. The 40’ well cars are rapidly dissappearing.
As far as loading back to back or front to front it depends on how you load it. If you load it using a ramp on the end of the train they will all be facing the same way as you can’t pull the trailer onto the train and get the tractor off. with a ramp they are always backed onto the car. If you are more modern useing a lift (over head or as giant fork lift ) they will probably be facing the same way as the trucks bringing them to the train will probably be coming from a drop yard, so if the drop yard is west of the track all of the trailers will be faceing east.
