I recently saw a few ex SP and SSW former auto carriers that were converted to carry panel track. They had cut off everything above the flatcar except the bottom few feet of the posts at the ends where the ladders are. The interesting thing was that the panel track had concrete ties. Unfortunately, I was only able to see them through some covered hoppers, so I could not get a photograph of them.
I guess this is why I have not been seeing much SP or SSW autocarriers lately. Carl, have you seen any of these?
No, not really. We still get quite a few SP and SSW auto racks (many repainted for UP).
However, it’s possible that Transco or somebody in Oelwein, Iowa, is doing something to some of the older racks–we’ve been sending a lot of these to Oelwein.
The reuse of auto racks and pig cars is not really uncommon–TTX does it all the time (most of its 89-foot cars built for trailers now have auto racks on them). Since UP was not heavily into using its own auto racks (even their recent Q2 racks from Thrall have been transferred elsewhere), it doesn’t surprise me that they can find a better use for the cars.
I wouldn’t think you could carry more than two or three 78-foot panels with concrete ties on such a car!
I was in LA a few years ago, and we were drivin g along one of the freeways where an additional lane was being added alongside. Now and then there were bridges where “surface” streets crossed over. I noticed that one of them said “Trailer Train” on the side. (Obviously just for temporary use!)
I’ve been an advocate for converting old auto carriers into “double stack” TOFC carriers, with the bottom portion roll-on/roll-off and the top portion lift-on/lift-off. Of course, that would require height clearances to be raised to about 30’, but hey, if we can get the feds to pay for it like they are with NS’s current project…[:P]
I may be wrong but these flats as built are not rated to carry very much weight, somewhere around 125 to 150K gross weight. There original loads were mostly air with some cars or trucks thrown inbetween.
I see that Transco does derack autocarriers. Are those Q2 racks of which you type the UP 800000 series cars that appeared to be an integral unit?
I guess that UP decided to keep the SP container cars. It is interesting that I seem to see more of these on BNSF than on UP. Of course I see more intermodals on BNSF than on UP.
SP’s cars had a nominal capacity of 70 tons (140,0000 lbs).
The bearing size on auto rack cars is good for 70-ton nominal capacity (220000 pounds gross rail load), but quite often springs were intentionally removed, which would reduce the permitted loads. A lot of racks have a “starred” load limit of only 40 tons. The racks themselves are fairly heavy–relatively speaking, there’s little difference in weight between a typical empty rack and a loaded one.