Does Union Pacific run any Auto-Max’s in their auto trains?
No–not on this end of the railroad, anyway.
The Auto-Max cars’ chief user is apparently Toyota, and I suspect that their trains are handled by BNSF.
I don’t think those cars went over as well as planned.
i hate the u.p down with u.p
MKT killaz. let me tell you something. i once thought as you did. only with the Chicago and North Western. do you miss the MKT power? take my advice. try to get one donated when UP starts retiring them. UP doesnt kill jobs either. they GIVE jobs. look at their website. THEY’RE HIRING RIGHT NOW!
look i miss CNW as much as you miss MKT. maybe even more. but you must find other ways to bring some of the katy back. dont hate UP for being a business! crap happens in the corporate world. but be patient and help out. and you’ll get some MKT back. just like me with CNW. and i dont even consider 8646 and 8701 to be CNW because of how horrendousely ugly the crash 9 is. so i know how hard it is.
oh right. auto maxes. my favorite rolling stock is the autorack. but i really dont like the looks of these things. and my name is Max too even. it’s unfortunate such a name was given to these things. but eh… they DO get the job done. and that’s all that matters
and i would imagine UP and some other roads might start using these sooner or later. if the automobile companies who are customers with them want to ship more or something.
my guess is CSX will be next. i’ve been to Delaware and there are a LOT of automobile manufacturing plants there. and i believe CSX owns the trackage in the area i was in (Newark. close to Wilmington)
Toyota has a major import facility at Portland on the Willamette between Barnes and Albina. Served by UP. Unless “they” are going out via Reciprocal Switch, these cars, at least, are going UP. Having said that, I do not recall anything there except standard autoracks.
I should have remembered that, Kenneo. Those cars that come into the country there usually get shipped to West Chicago, practically in our backyard (within 12 miles, anyway). I think the Auto-Max cars are used on some Mexican move of Toyotas. Operators of the cars are BNSF, KCS, Soo, CSX, and one or two of the Mexican railroads (can’t remember which).
Carl
Sometimes I got so busy (well, that’s what I tell folks) I can’t even remember my own name so I come here to figure it all out. I can’t ever remember seeing one of these cars.
Just as a side note, some folks at the AAR are researching the Verta-Stak. Remember those?
Don’t worry about not having remembered what ever it is you forgot. (I know — them pesky Toyota’s. I wonder now if my wife’s Corolla went from Japan to Chicago before it came to Portland. Now wouldn’t that be a laugh!)
Carl, I think the AutoMax cars are used for Hondas, not Toyotas. I know that the majority of the cars are initialled as BNSF, but there are KCS and CP cars too. Somebody else has reported seeing CSX cars also. Hondas were coming into the US via San Diego.
Athearn makes a model of the Gunderson AUTO-MAX in HO Scale.
Photos of them are on the Athearn website. They have all the roadnames.
Andrew
This a list of AUTO-MAX Articulated Auto Carriers made by Athearn. Click on the links.
by Roadname
Arkansas-Oklahoma (2)
Burlington Northern Santa Fe (2)
Canadian Pacific (2)
CSX (2)
Ferromex (2)
Ferrosur (2)
Kansas City Southern (2)
Maybe that’s why we don’t see them on the Toyota moves! Thanks–more than likely you’re correct. The CP Auto-Max cars carry Soo reporting marks. I’ve seen at least one of just about every group that exists, but rarely on UP. Yes, CSXT racks exist, as does everything else on Andrew’s Athearn list.
One thing I’ve wondered about. At one time, the Norfolk Southern was going to get a batch of Auto-Max cars. They were even listed in the Equipment Register for a while (you had to compare dimensions with other railroads’ Auto-Max cars to know what these were). But they never did show up, and the series was eventually deleted from the ORER listings. They would have been about as old as NS’ Thrall-built articulated racks, which are still around, for the most part.
Thanks for the links
Yes, and Athearn has discontinued the two Auto-Max carriers with BNSF markings.
Art imitating realit
I see them on BNSF vehicle trains that go thru Tulsa, but not ever have I seen one on UP.
Mike in Tulsa
BNSF Cherokee Sub
Is that the railcar design which carried the automobiles vertically? GM used that (maybe helped develop it) for shipping those Chevrolet Vegas and Pontiac Astres back in the 1970’s. I used to see those tall carriers parked along the Alameda tracks near the GM South Gate plant in California. They were marked for SP, CRI&P, and maybe others.
It seemed like a really clever design, but it never had any staying power after the demise of that particular GM compact car design. Maybe the unfortunate product it carried had a reverse “halo effect” and people wrote off the conveyance along with what it conveyed!
http://www.railgoat.railfan.net/spcars/byclass/flat/f070-58a.htm Please click that to see more about the Vert-A-Pac Andrew |
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Andrew-
Thanks for the link to those pics. I am now reminded of my misspent youth.
Also nice to see those new '71 Chevy vans on that bi-level auto rack.
garyla
Atlas produces a model of the yellow articulated autoracks for FEC (3), TTX (3), Norfolk Southern (3), and Union Pacific (3). Their website claims the models are based on prototypes. I picked up 2 last weekend. They have TTX markings with a UP shield. Car numbers for UP are TTX 880064, 880059 and 880055.
Dewey, the reporting marks on your UP-lettered racks should be BTTX. The numbers are authentic (those on the TTX racks without the UP shield might be a little higher in the 880000 series). NS cars had/have their own reporting mark, and are in the 110000 series. The FEC cars should also carry 110000-series numbers, as I believe they were NS cars at one time.
But these aren’t the Auto-Max cars.