Has anyone ever seen trucks being shipped by rail? Not trailers, not pickups, but class 8 trucks (Peterbilt, Kenworth, Mack, et al.). I see them all the time on the freeway being towed 2-3 at a time piggyback style, but I’ve never seen them loaded up on a railcar. I thought it might make an interesting flat car load.
I was nosing around RailPictures last night, but came up empty handed.
I’ve never seen them being shipped by rail, either. Hundreds of them on I-10 heading west across Arizona, but none on the Union Pacific unless they’re concealed in auto rack cars. They probably would not be shipped in the open on a flatcar even if they were going by rail.
So to answer your subject line’s question – Plausible: No.
I’d have to agree with probably not. It’s possible, but I’ve never heard of it…
But it is cool seeing railcars shipped on trucks. Over the past few years, they’ve been shipping new MTA subway cars on I-80. They always travel in their sets of four. For a while, I saw them really frequently, then it kinda died down, but now it seems to be picking up again…
years ago we received dozens of piggy back flat car loads of old milk trucks from a large dairy back east. i think it was Hood’s. they were two ton refrigerator vans going to some used truck outfit in St Louis. they were unloaded at the Rose Lake piggy back ramp. at least they were all headed the same way.
i doubt if we will ever see many new road tractors on rail cars since a lot of truckers consider railroads to be their enemy and there is probably never enough volume going to one destination to make it economical.
grizlump
That’s kind of what I thought. I have never seen it either, but thought I would ask
That might work. I was wanting to incorporate some type of equipment dealership…maybe a used equip. dealer or auction house would make it feasable to ship large quantities of older fleet equipment by rail.
Two loads, March 1993 in the CNW (ex-RI) North Yard, Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Nope, don’t know where they were going. This was a quick “grab shot” as it was unusual.
Also, fire apparatus used to be shipped via rail. I recently saw a picture of an early 1970 Ward LaFrance (Elmira, New York) pumper on a standard flatcar. Will see if I can find it again to post.
Merry Christmas
Chris[8]
Awesome. Thanks, Chris.
When new…
http://freight.railfan.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=cna750105&o=cn
http://freight.railfan.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=cna750218&o=cn
http://freight.railfan.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=cna750232&o=cn
I’ve also seen dump trucks, cranes, road graders, front-end loaders, military armoured vehicles, locomotive trucks …
Some time ago I asked about front end loaders and one of the things that came back was pics of such trucks loaded on TOFC cars complete with trash load being given a ride from their city of origin to a landfill for emptying. Someone had figured out that it saved on gas and drivers’ hours. I guess that it also saved on special cars and loading facilities… Plain gons of trash don’t seem to be popular with the neighbours. [xx(]
As above there’s always military stuff. I think that some big construction companies also ship whole teams by rail… maybe pipeline contractors shifting to a new site.
I’ve seen semis with a stack of flats on the back of one truck and their tractors on a second. Again it saves fuel and wear and tear. I vaguelly recall seeing stacks of flats being returned in similar heaps on TOFC cars… but no tractors. They often flip some of the trailers to get more layers in the same height - with the axles at alternate ends on alternate levels.
If you’re feeling inventive you can think about the age/condition of trucks… some going for scarp might go in Gons… haven’t seen it but it’s possible… cars get crunched into cubes but big trucks might get cut into chunks that can be slotted together… they do new cabs on racks on flat cars so why not old cabs in a line in a gon?
[8D]
Excellent pics. I really appreciate the effort.
A very long time ago we thought that Rail hauling trailers coast to coast in 2 weeks time or less will destroy trucking in the USA. Imagine a Fleet of 10,000 trailers but only a few hundred drivers located at all the rail heads gathering loads and delivering them locally with no sleeper trucks.
Today we call that Dedicated.
I think it comes down to how much it costs to ship three freightliner tractors from… Portland Or to Texas. Rail cost and how long versus tying two to each other and hooking up number three and drive em 4 days to Texas.
Towaway done right is still faster, cheaper and safer than trains.
Now the Military will stack whatever it is, beans, bullets, humvees, tanks, artillery etc onto the trains and roll em. They might keep important stuff off the vehicles to render them inoperative and neutered. It wont take long to ship a Division to a seaport.
But the fantasy of driving a 18 wheeler onto a flat car in… Jersey and hanging out in the bunk watching TV or flying to… California to waiting on that train to get your truck and load to you?
Aint happening.
yeah, things have changed a lot. with the growth of owner-operated trucks vs. the old interstate freight lines, they were bound to. i hope things are better than they used to be for professional drivers. even with the downturn in our economy they must be.
if not for the independents we would probably see a lot more intermodal traffic than we do. but even they know a good thing when they see one. i talked to a trucker who took on two loads on the west coast going cross country to the NY/NJ area. he got an mty trailer from the railroad and shipped it to himself and hauled the other one east with his own rig. after delivering it, he went to the railroad and got the other trailer and delivered it then took that mty back to the railroad. he told me he picked up a couple hundred extra bucks by doing that whenever he could.
there was a time when the worst commercial loan a bank could make was for an independent long haul trucker. at that time, where else would a guy go over $100,000 in debt to get a minimum wage job? it made me wonder what those drivers were doing before they got that 800 number off a trailer door.
many years ago JB HUNT himself gave a presentation at the traffic club of St Louis and said their biggest problem was a 10% turnover in drivers. my boss remarked that some railroad locations experienced the same problem. Mr. Hunt pointed out that he was referring to a monthly turnover, not anual.
of course this all relates to tofc traffic and not new trucks being shipped out of the factory but it is something to think about.
grizlump
another thought on shipping new trucks other than road tractors by rail. i can’t see it being popular because there is no way to get enough of them on a rail car to make it worthwhile. most new trucks larger than pickups are sent out cab and chassis only and that leads to convenience by running them over the road in multiples. most buyers have the body mounted near where they take delivery of the new truck.
grizlump
This might raise suspicision.
http://www.uprr.com/customers/equip-resources/cartypes/autos.shtml
A couple of months ago, I was at a hotel in Bangor, ME and saw a new fire truck cab & chassis that had come from a plant in the mid-west (don’t remember where or mfr). When I looked it over, I noticed that it had temporary manufacturer licence plates. It was bound for a town in northern Maine, another 200 or 300 miles up the road. A man and his wife were driving it from the factory to the destination. I assume the new owner had an existing pumper body they were going to install.
A few mohnths ago, TTX had posted ull color full page ont he back slab of Trains Mag, an ad about unilevel autocarriers. like the above
You aren’t gonna see them, because they’re enclosed. but the ad listed about anything that needed the headroom.
I do not know if these are class 8 trucks, but here is a photograph of some trucks being shipped by rail in the 1960s.
http://espee.railfan.net/sp_fcss-11a.html
I know someone who used to work for a fire department in Central California. In the early 1990s they bought a tractor-drawn (tiller) fire truck from a manufacturer in Florida. He said they looked into having it shipped by rail but that was more expensive than having it driven out here.
It would be too innefficient. A modern semi would not fit in an autorack. A semi with a low rise cab is still 12-13 feet high, not counting exhaust stacks. And this isn’t considering weight. A modern (by moderning meaning early 90’s up, what you’d generally see driving around) twin rear axle with air suspension rear and decen cab can way around 25,000 lbs. Even a converted 89’ flat has enough room for 3 semi’s. Not to say trucks don’t get rail hauled. Oshkosh truck does so with some of their military equipment. Now, this isn’t saying that truck parts couldn’t be hauled by rail. Fiberglass panels like the tank skirts ever so popular with Freightliner and Volvo, semi’s have been using fiberglass hoods, fenders, front fasiac’s, bumpers, and the wind breaker thingys on the roof since the 80’s at least. None of them things mentioned have been metal since the early 90’s. Many of the manufactorers even use a fiberglass shell for the sleeper cab. Not to mention axles, diesel engines, and transmissions. The trannys alone can way more than the engine AND trans from a normal car or truck/SUV. Hope this gives you other ideas.
Right, but the TTX cars are excess height, and 8?ft. (85? 89? somewhere in that neighborhood) That’s all the more those piggyback truck moves are anyway, two or three. And as there ususally are in Indina, they tend to move in 2-4 sets of three. (three being cab pulling and the two dead trucks) And, you can get four on if they’re cab-overs. Not as common, but I have seen some done this way. that kind of loading just made it practical. For a single truck, like the fire-engines above, then yes, it’s cheaper to drive. But if your producing a half dozen of the things to go the same place, or an RV dealer with more than that, the train just became an option.
EDIT:
[quote user=“TTX Corporation”]
The Uni-Level is a single level, fully enclosed 82-ft car intended to carry large and heavy equipment. It is an innovative concept, designed to ensure products like RV’s, Class 8 truck tractors, buses, fire trucks, and other similar vehicles arrive in factory fresh condition at dealers’ show rooms. In many cases where new vehicles are driven from the factory to market instead of shipped in railcars, they cannot be sold as new due to mileage and dents and dings accumulated on the trip. Special features of the TTX railcars include the tri-fold end doors (similar to those on highway trailers), creating a 10-ft wide opening for loading, and wheel harnesses, straps, and chocks used to secure loads while in transit. [/quot
I’ve seen Class 8 trucks on flat cars on CN’s lines but not very often, maybe a couple times a year. I’ve also seen lots of campers and Dodge Sprinter vans on flat cars as well.