Very much enjoyed MRR Mag’s Open Auto Rack article in the Nov. issue, especially photo #4 with those new “Fords” dressed in Mopar clothing.
Regards, Peter
Yes, the article on auto racks is interesting. After reading the article, I thought I would share some insights in the prototype information section of the forum. I’ve been busy in recent days but hope to get to it soon.
i worked in the marketing department of Grand Trunk Western RR in the 1970’s . Much of GTW’s traffic was General Motors business .
I have saved only a few photos of many I once had. I had pictures of GM vehicles being loaded in Flint, Pontiac, and Lansing. The MR article has no pictures of auto racks being loaded and unloaded, and I plan to show some of that .
I was there at GTW when the rail industry changed from open auto racks to enclosed auto racks . I will share some of that too.
At the moment , I’m posting via IPhone. So I am limited without using the computer.
Cheers
Please do post photos. I’m interested in auto racks as well for late 1970’s traffic. D&RGW did haul Ford auto’s (FAST) as well as GM (ARRO) and I am working on some loaded auto racks.
I started a thread in the prototype information section pertaining to auto racks. My photos are included with my comments.
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/13/p/272326/3095838.aspx#3095838
Here is one of the photos.
Below are some HO auto racks along with some TTX flat cars I built in the 1970’s from kits made by Quality Craft Models. The kits were mostly wood.
Garry, Thanks for sharing your interesting photos. I’ve always had a soft spot for auto racks. I would think acqiring enough same year/model vehicles to fill even one 85’ auto rack would not be easy, though I’ve seen some good work done using 3D printed automobiles.
Regards, Peter
Perhaps another reason for these types of cars not being popular is the challenge of running 85’ cars around curves. I wouldn’t risk putting them on my layout and it has 28" curves. Anothe reason many don’t put them is not sure how much of the auto industry is transported by rail. Coal is king in VA, so that’s what I mainly plan to model.
True, on my small modern era HO switching layout moving the few 60’+ cars I own is a slow and careful process, 85’ is a no go.
My interest in the big auto racks is at least part of the desire/dream to model what one sees, and growing up and living in the S.F. bay area there were and are lots and lots of auto racks riding the rails out of the ports of Richmond & Benicia.
Years ago my son worked the port of Benicia (UP served) for awhile and loaded many import cars onto enclosed auto racks. He mentioned the job being a bit unnerving at times loading the top racks.
Of course one could interestingly represent some automobile transport in numbers via tractor trailer car carrier.
Regards, Peter
A lot.
I would like to see the loading/unloading process.
Garry- Do you have pictures that had survived showing different open auto racks than the three different types.
Angel … The November MR article has photos of several types of open auto rack cars. I did not save mine unfortuantely. … (Actually, I lost photos. )
Everybody … If you have further comments you may wish to include them in the thread I started in Prototype Information section. The General Discussion section moves quickly, and soon this trhead will be on the second page.
I enjoyed reading the Article too.
From the start I was a little dismayed knowing that somewhere along the way they would have to start covering car carriers up because vandalism was a given.
To make a long story short kids started throwing rocks at trains in the 70s. (The 50s and 60s kids were still somewhat wholesome) Vandalism was a given.
I still don’t for the life of me understand how theft was involved. There was no elaboration on that.
How do you steal a car from an auto rack? Bring your own ramps onto Railroad property…IF…the train is split? How do you get it off the end and across the tracks… Things that make you go hmmm. Sorry I don’t quite get or understand the theft problem[:S][:#]
TF. The thieves did not steal whole cars . They stole parts off of the cars. In the process, they did damage to them. For example, they might break a window to get in the car to steal the radio. also, they could open the hood and take parts off of the engine. Mostly, the parts were small enough to carry away.
Oh…I don’t think like a Thief… Thanks for setting me straight Garry[;)]
PS Kids again, not that I would ever think this way, but if it was my profession, I wouldn’t risk petty theft, I would take the whole car[(-D]
kind of like the jobs I follow up on. The last construction guy opened up the cash box and took all the money out… then I come by and fix the problem[;)]
I have several tri and bi level cars both open and enclosed. I rarely run them, but they sure look nice sitting in the yard.
Why not?
Autorack cars are like another teaser to me. I would like to have some but I know they are not very practical for my layout.
Like many, I did not have the space to construct a layout with large radius curves. I did the best with what I could constructing a 4 by 8 layout with minimum radius of 18 inches in N-Scale.
Maybe I’ll just park some Autoracks in the yard too because they look really cool. To me they are in the category of Passenger cars and double stack cars. They probably wouldn’t look good on an 18 inch radius curve. They probably would look rather toy like[:(]
I’d think an 18" radius curve would do N scale auto racks reasonably well. My planned layout will have minimum 32 inch radius and while racks should operate well enough, those are still pretty sharp curves for long cars in HO but it’s the best I can manage. I will have some large curves as well but not enough to really improve appearance by much.
I am planning to model a small part of the east-west mainline of the D&RGW and auto racks were among the freight traffic. During the 1970’s there was a mix of open, semi-enclosed and enclosed racks so I have purchased a number of the Genesis bi and tri - level racks and a few of the Accurail as well for variety.
As many have noted and complained, outfitting the open racks with auto’s or trucks or other vehicles can be quite the challenge. So far I have collected enough of the Atlas Ford F-100 pickups to fill two bi-level racks. Of course some will run empty as they did when returning to the auto factories but outfitting even half of my fleet will be nutty expensive.
Ah, the advantage of the fully enclosed rack…costs nothing for the air inside.
Another advantage is that you’re not locked into a specific modelling year.
I’ve got both but unfortunately most of my enclosed auto racks are mid to late 1980’s which I bought before back dating 10 years to late 70’s thru early 80’s.
As for cars, the Atlas F-100’s are 1973 but look pretty close to later models and will do well enough. I still need to find some sedans for the tri-levels - the quest continues.
I liked that triple Autorack of 64 Mustangs as well as another had mentioned on this thread. What I would really like to see is an Autorack full of 69 Mustangs. That would be like looking at a dream that’s so far out of reach it’s not even funny. It still would be fun to look at though, especially 429 Cobra Jets
If anyone comes across something like that and would like to post it, I would be way okay with that[;)]