20 Oct 2001
Speaking of US Freight being one of the owners of Trailer Train, here
is a list of owners and when they joined TT, along with other TT
milestones through 1959.
(Info from Railway Age and other sources.)
11/55 Trailer Train formed by PRR, N&W and Rail-Trailer to supply
standardized TOFC equipment to member/owner railroads
3/56 TT begins operations using 500 existing PRR class F39 75ft
flats and orders 330 more; tests ACF's 2-axel Adapto flat and orders
1,000 cars (order later canceled); B&M, CB&Q, MKT, MP, SLSF, and WAB
join; CB&Q and WAB sell their 75-foot cars to TT
1957 TT begins fitting 200 existing 75ft flats with ACF hitches;
begins converting 286 PRR 50ft flats with ACF hitches to carry single
40-foot trailers (class F30G); issues design specifications for
85-foot flats capable of handling two 40-footers or one 40 and one
45-footer; C&NW joins
1958 TT orders 800 85-foot flats from ACF and Pullman-Standard; B&O,
RI and U.S. Freight (a freight consolidator and forwarder) join
1959 TT takes delivery of its first 85-foot class F85 TOFC flats
from ACF and Pullman; ACL, GM&O, IC, L&N, NKP, SAL and SSW join
--
Jim Eager
60'S AND '70'S TRAILERS
Jun 15, 1999
Sorry it took so long to respond to your thoughtful postings of a week
or so ago; it's been rather hectic at work and home.
I totally agree that there is a real information gap when it comes to
photos, drawings and general information about trailers from the '60's
and '70's. And I understand that even with the material in hand, not
all model manufacturers are going to welcome someone with open arms,
not to mention license problems with the 1:1 scale manufactures,
a.k.a. Timpte.
As near as I can tell, here's what we currently have to work with:
Athearn's 40' Trailer - An okay copy of Pacific Fruit Express RTM-40-1
class reefers built by Fruehauf in 1961; see page 234 of Signature
Press' PFE book for a picture of these trailers. Unfortunately these
are meat reefers, and not representative of the hundreds of produce
reefers that PFE had in service. And there aren't decent decals for
this model anyway.
Athearn's 45' "Fruehauf" Trailer- As Brian and others have mentioned,
this is a sloppy rendition of Fruehauf's van, something that needs
redoing badly. Yes, you can use the A-Line 40' kit with the 5'
extension, but making that look like an original-built 45-footer and
not a "stretched" 45 is a difficult task(ok, it is for me).
A-Line 40' Fruehauf "Z-Van", beaded-side and "smooth" sheet-and-post
versions - Great kits, haven't heard any complaints about them at
all, but where do you find prototype lettering and paint information
for them? Yes, there's a reference sheet of available decals in the
kit, but nothing is said about number series or paint matches to help
out the modeler who wants to be prototypically correct. Page 121 of
the new "Southern Pacific Color Guide" by Tony Thompson has a shot of
one of these in PMT paint; how about some decals, Microscale?
A-Line 40' Fruehauf with 5' extension - Again, a great kit of a sheet-
and-post "stretched" van, but again prototype pictures and lettering
diagrams are needed. Luckily there are still Z-Vans running around out
there to photograph, but they're becoming scarce.
Lone Star 40' Trailmobile flatbed - Another great model, one that
according to Dan Goins can be "backdated" into the '60's or '70's.
Dan, did Trailmobile have any photos of these trailers dating back to
original production? If so, any that made it into one of the model
magazines would be a great blessing!
As far as I know, that's it for kits of early trailers. We still need
someone to do '60's and '70's Stricks, Utilitys, Trailmobile vans-I
guess we can forget about Timptes(too bad). And I agree with Dave B.
that we need "pups" of ANY make and model from this period.
Until a model manufacturer gets the urge-and resources-to fill the
gaps in the list of available '60's and '70's trailers, we'll just
have to soldier on with what's on the market. But we have wish lists.
Shawn Beckert
TOFC DIMENSIONS
Jun 7, 1999
2 beginner questions
At 2:02 PM 6/2/99, John Kordash wrote:
>
>I have two beginner questions. Both relate to building the Accurail
>89' flats w/ trailers.
>
>Question 1:
> On the 45' Trailers, how far back from the front wall does
> the landing gear sit?
>
>Question 2:
> Where do I place the hitches on the deck (specifically)?
> I am working on TTWX, RTTX, STTX, and KTTX flats.
>
> The RTTX I want to run triple 28s.
>
> The orientation of the hitches is explained in the assembly
> documentation, but not their location in any precise sense.
On "Twin-45" flats, like the TTWX, STTX, WTTX, etc, the "front" hitch is at
the B-end, and should be set back so that the kingpin centerline is about
28" from the deck edge. The middle hitch's kingpin cetnerline should be
set about 44'4" from the A-end. These measurements can vary a inch or so.
On Twin-45s with back-to-back loading, i.e. the KTTX and RTTX flats, both
hitches will be set back about 28" from the ends.
The middle hitch on an RTTX is about 33'6" in from the A-end.
D. Scott Chatfield
INTERMODALS
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