What freight train companies out there use 70-75 ft long boxcars and tank cars ?
The era where 75’ Long freight cars were the “Long” cars is the key to figuring this out.
The 1950’s and 1960’s was the time era of the newly built 75’ long Intermodal Flat Cars, Flat Cars with Auto Racks, and Auto Loading Box Cars. A large number of railroads had these cars. Many of the 75’ flat cars were in the Trailer Train paint scheme.
The 1950’s and 1960’s was the era where they finally were able to build the Jumbo Tank Cars.
On the Grand Trunk Western currently the old 75’ Flat Cars are used for maintenance of way service.
Andrew
the only 75 ft cars I can remember seeing in a long time was in one of the system track gang trains, even most of those have been changed to the 89 footers.
Do not forget the Southern Railway’s Tobacco Hogshead Cars when talking about long Freight cars:
Here’s a link to some photos of those types of cars:
http://southern.railfan.net/images/archive/southern/freight/tob/tob.html
Then there are the “Autoguard” box style auto carriers:
http://southern.railfan.net/images/archive/southern/freight/autorack/souautoguard.html
Or this Double -double door monster:
http://southern.railfan.net/images/archive/southern/freight/box/sou42364465fortworthtx.html
Then there are the Chevy Vega transports discussed in a previous thread in this Forum.
Southern RWY and Sothern Pacific fielded them to move the Vega’s from factory to Distribution Centers ( those were the cars where the Vega was loaded into a tray and then stood up into the car).
Here is a link to SRHS website and a photo of the SR’s "Vert-a-Pak cars:
http://southern.railfan.net/images/archive/southern/freight/box/sou42364465fortworthtx.html
and the Vert-A- Pak loading process: http://cs.trains.com/trccs/forums/p/166764/1832499.aspx#1832499
Start with railroads that were around in the 1950’s and 1960’s like New York Central, Illinois Central, Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, Grand Trunk Western, the Milwaukee Road, FRISCO SL-SF, Union Pacific, Missouri Pacific.
Andrew
I suspect that Mr. Alloboard is talking in present tense, and the 75-foot length merely refers to any large-sized car, such as the 86-foot (inside) hi-cube box cars, the 90-foot auto racks, and the longer modern-day tank cars (not much longer than 70 feet these days). If you’re talking modern cars, you also have to include the 73-foot Center-beam flat cars (which are about 80 feet overall), and a lot of the modern mechanical reefers (which have about as many different lengths as there are car series!).
In that case, Alloboard, the answer is that all railroads use these cars, subject to clearance conditions. They’d probably be out of place on some branch line with tight clearances and a roadbed that couldn’t support cars with a 286000-pound gross rail load (or even 263k). But most railroad lines will be able to handle these cars if that’s what the shippers want to use and the consignees are capable of receiving.
If you have any more specific questions about location, era, or something else, please ask them here.
As for the original 75-foot piggyback cars, there really weren’t that many of them, and of course they’re past the age limit now. They were built in the mid-1950s; by 1958 85-foot flat cars were the norm for piggyback (most railroads had their own such cars then). The 89-foot cars were around by the early 1960s, and the length reached 89-4 by 1966 or so (sounds insignificant, but Trailer Train actually gave 89-4 cars different reporting marks from those that were “only” 89 feet or less!).
Most of the 86-foot hi-cube box cars are on borrowed time now.
By freight train companies do you mean railroads? I ask for that clarification because railroads operate trains. Some of the cars railroads haul are owned by that railroad or any of the others and often some of the cars are owned by the shipper or by a leasing company and leased to the railroad or the shipper. So the question should be: are there any 70-75 ft box cars in use today and who owns them? With this you should get specific answers and not generalizations and histories of box car usage.
The first round of 86’ Auto Part Box Car built were from the 1960’s and painted for the New York Central, Baltimore & Ohio, Chesapeake & Ohio, Illinois Central, Detroit & Toledo ShoreLine, Detroit, Toledo & Ironton, Chicago, Burlington & Quincy and Southern Pacific plus Cotton Belt. Now through mergers they are being operated by Conrail, CSX, CN, BNSF, UP.
There are new versions of the 86’ Box Cars being built by National Steel Car.
Andrew
Andrew, can you cite reporting marks and numbers for these new hi-cube box cars from NSC? I haven’t seen any yet. The newest 86-footers I can think of are a batch built by Trinity, in the NKCR 860000 series, I believe. These are about five or six years old now. NS got an experimental higher-cube car (same length, more height, narrower width), but I don’t think it panned out. Trinity built that one, too.
You left out a number of operators in the original round, principally N&W (some ex-Wabash) and Southern–NS is one of the biggest operators of these cars today. UP, MP (including C&EI), and CNW have also contributed to UP’s current fleet. And, perhaps surprisingly, BNSF has few, if any, hi-cubes left. Many of the ATSF cars went to Conrail, and a lot of BN (including ex-CB&Q) and SLSF cars went to NS. If anyone has seen an 86-foot box car in BNSF lettering (or could come up with a photo of one) I’d be extremely surprised.
Three decades ago Union Pacific had a good number of 85-ft. flats in high-speed piggyback service. Those cars each could carry up to two (of what were then) standard-sized truck trailers. As freight trailers began to lengthen these cars became less productive because they could only hold one trailer at a time.
Fortunately, at about the same time these cars were becoming obsolete, track suppliers began to offer new steel rails in 78-ft. lengths. Recognizing these changes in the marketplace, U.P. began to convert its 85-ft. T.O.F.C. flats into a hybrid of gondolas cum low-rise bulkhead flats specifically designed to haul these new rail lengths. Also acquiring like-designed cars were The Denver & Rio Grande Western plus the Colorado & Wyoming railroads.
Today it’s not uncommon to see whole unit trains of these cars as they shuttle new rail from suppliers to various welded rail plants located throughout the system.