Greetings Railfans!
Have a question for somebody. I’m watching the Roanoke Webcam on the Trains website and have noticed some strange looking cars. They have three trucks/ bogeys on them and they are used to carry containers of some type. Do you know what kind they are and who manufactures them?
Thanks!
That question was asked on the Roanoke Rail Cam thread some time ago… but rather than you having to read all 62 some pages of that thread, I found the starting page number where the cars were 1st questioned; this link should take you there…
http://cs.trains.com/TRCCS/forums/t/154777.aspx?PageIndex=24
Start there and then there is a photo of the cars on page 29, and I finally got around to doing a google search about them and found an answer to post on page 36.
Tell me if this is the car (s)? : ECXX East Coast Carbon Car w/containers on spine cars
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=355092
Or this is EPIC Spine car with Trash Containers:
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1530100
And several years back they were a topic on this Thread here:
Sam, thanks for finding and posting those photos - I was going to do the same - and the earlier link as well. [tup]
For those who are wondering about the details of the odd container loading pattern of 2 - 1 - 1 - 2 = 6 containers total, here’s the equivalent number of containers carred on each truck (based on all containers weighing the same, and that they are loaded evenly - the Center of Gravity is in the middle of the container, etc.):
EDITED: 1.75 - 2.50 1.50 - 1.75 = 6.00 total - note how they’re closer to almost equal on each truck.
If these cars were loaded 2 - 2 - 2 - 2 = 8 containers total, then the weight distribution would be:
2.00 - 4.00 - 2.00 = 8.00 total, so you can see how there’s a much greater risk of overloading the center truck - or, how the middle containers would be limited in weight, which would be expensive to arrange and a hassle to handle.
The manufacturer of these cars was Bethlehem Steel or its successors (Johnstown America, Freight Car America).
One interesting thing I noticed, Paul, back in the days when these cars were going through our hump yard, was that the empties (empty containers, that is) were concentrated on the center truck, with the boxes loaded 1 - 2 - 2 - 1. Don’t know the reason for that, but it was always easy to tell the loads from the empties because of it. The cars quit going over the hump when through service between North Platte and CSX (Willard, I believe) was instituted.
I thought they weren’t supposed to be humped.
When those cars first came out, there was no restriction on humping them, nor (as far as I know) is there one now. The container placards are Class 9, which are the only placarded intermodal vehicles that are OK to hump. While we never humped normal articulated double-stack cars, these would go over regularly without any problems.
This is just conjecture, but I think convenience in unloading/loading may have been the cause for this pattern. Unload a loaded inner (single) container, come back with an empty and put it where the first one came from. Pick up the upper loaded one, come back with an empty and put it on top of the first empty. Pick up the last loaded one and come back with an empty to put in its place. The weight of the empty containers was not enough to overload the center truck. Again, I’m just guessing.