Their is a shortline that is storing probably hundereds of TTX cars. It has them on its Hartwell line and its Athens line here in Georgia. Their are spine cars, container cars, and frame cars. It is hard to say how many they have because they go into the trees in many places. However it looks like they have found a way to generate revenue on unused track!
Many of the cars have that “Do Not Load Home Shop For Repair” tag on them. Is somebody just defering repairs until they are needed? I threw in some pics looking both ways down a grade crossing, but this doesn’t even begin to give an idea of how far they go.
Wow, that’s pretty interesting. The intermodal industry has been having all-time record volume weeks (last week was 7th highest ever), but they have these cars moth-balled. The Do Not Load placards would indicate a need for maintenance.
I know that TTX had selected a group of 48’ spine cars to stretch to 53’ cars. Is there possibly a contract car shop in your area that would do this sort of work?
I bet that’s what’s happening, if there are so many going at the same time, then they are probably all getting the same kind of thing done – some sort of up-grade.
The only shops that I can think of are way down in south Georgia. Also their are many other kinds of cars such as the frame cars. They happen to be marked Ford, so I don’t know why they are there. Also these are at the end of dead end spurs, and have been there for quite some time. They recently had to temporarly pull the ones in Athens out in order to get in and spray the weeds.
Most are less than 20 years old so the idea that they are going to be worked on makes sense. However the spine cars are mixed in with centerwell and frame cars, and it would take a lot of effort to pull them out. So if that’s true then they apprently don’t plan on doing it in quite some time.
I’ll look through what I have and try to get back to you. Unfortunatly I don’t have a whole lot of pics of the TTX cars up in the Hartwell area where most of them are stored. I’ll go take some more pictures next week. I can also get a friend of mine, who lives down south of Athens where they are storing a few (40-50) of the Ford frame cars, to take and send some pics of those your way. Also check out my other related post about the boxcars up their. Their are only four and they are the only non TTX being stored there.
the ones taken in Hartwell are on the Hartwell RR. They’ve been storing those for a while now, as well as on the Athens Line, in Athens. Those two lines are part of the Great Walton family as they are all owned by the same people. Someone I know who worked the Hartwell and Athens lines said it was a major pain having to pull a whole cut of those cars out whenever a customer needed a switch. I have no idea as to how long they will sit, or where they will ultimately end up, I’m just glad I don’t have to deal with em.
Thanks again for the info blaze. I didn’t think about if they ever came out in small groups. That really must be a nightmare as they go on for miles. I did see when they had to pull them out in order to spray in Watkinsville, but they don’t have nearly as many there. I also noticed that they blocked in their entire shop area and an engine up in Hartwell, but I guess that it makes good use of unused rail.
glad to help. yea, theres a good portion of both those lines that dont get used, so storing cars was a good idea. I think the company is also getting paid for use of the track.
