A Couple of Modern Intermodal Questions....

[ljudice]

Just to confirm or deny my suspicions...

- 48' containers are pretty much out of service today, except for the trash containers in the PNW

- 48' husky stacks (and other 48' wells) are becoming rare (scrapped or cut down to 40' for lanes with a lot
      of international traffic.

- Generally speaking, you would not see BNSF cars (or containers) on UP trains, as this equipment is assigned
    to various services, not free floating. 

- I thought at one time there were some exclusions on where pool containers showed up - ie.  No Hub on UP,
   no EMP on BNSF (or something like that) - but this does not seem to be the case anymore....

thanks,
- Lou

[cv_acr]

- 48' husky stacks (and other 48' wells) are becoming rare (scrapped or cut down to 40' for lanes with a lot
      of international traffic.

Or stretched to 53'.

http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=dttx471716&o=ttx

[One of One-Sixty]

So where does the 57' come into play in all of this?  Never seen them, but apparently, they ride in the top position of the Maxi IV's.  What carriers actually use these monsters?

http://www.gbrx.com/files/files/NAR/Stack_Cars/StackCarsMaxiIV.pdf

[ljudice]

I need to watch intermodal trains more closely....  Kind of ignored them until these Kato cars started showing up on the layout...

[rswinnerton]

57' are relegated to the west, generally for medium hop and / or heavy haul. I don't recall them being used for intermodal, but there are provisions for them. The drawbarred 89' flats were referred to as 'Triple 57s' because the can carry 3 of these big guys. (one on each end and one over the drawbar).

[Wardie]

I personally hope it is a long time before I see a 57' trailer/container in my area. The 53' already pose clearance problems in a lot of older areas of town. I once had to wait 45 minutes to make a delivery to a loading deack at a dead end alley because there wasn't room to get my truck around the 53' trailer and jumbo sleeper cab tractor at one of the loading docks halfway down. A 57' would probably flatten most of the stop signs at inetersections in town, if it could even get around some of them. One of the milk companies up here still runs 45' and 48' trailers because so many of the older grocery stores don't have clearance for larger trailers.

[GaryHinshaw]

Just to confirm or deny my suspicions...

- 48' containers are pretty much out of service today, except for the trash containers in the PNW

Confirmed.

- 48' husky stacks (and other 48' wells) are becoming rare (scrapped or cut down to 40' for lanes with a lot
      of international traffic.

Partially confirmed.  There are a lot of 48' wells used in the above-mentioned PNW service.  There are still a respectable number of 48' wells in intermodal service as well, mostly hauling international 20' and 40' cans.

- Generally speaking, you would not see BNSF cars (or containers) on UP trains, as this equipment is assigned
    to various services, not free floating. 

That is true on Tehachapi at least.

- I thought at one time there were some exclusions on where pool containers showed up - ie.  No Hub on UP,
   no EMP on BNSF (or something like that) - but this does not seem to be the case anymore....

I don't know the business partnerships here, but HUB and EMP cans are mostly on UP trains today, e.g. their LA-Portland (ZLCBR) train.

[Hyperion]

I don't know the business partnerships here, but HUB and EMP cans are mostly on UP trains today, e.g. their LA-Portland (ZLCBR) train.

Those contracts change frequently, so unless you're one anal-retentive a$$hat, you won't keep it all straight.  The HUB contract was BNSF, then it was lost to UP about 2.5 years ago and was a real kick in the pants in the downturn.   I believe we've been able to get some back and have some sizeable percentage of HUB going over BNSF today.

[ljudice]

OK, this all makes sense now....

[James Costello]

- I thought at one time there were some exclusions on where pool containers showed up - ie.  No Hub on UP,
   no EMP on BNSF (or something like that) - but this does not seem to be the case anymore....

There is now some HUB on the UP and some Pacer on the BNSF, but still no EMP on BNSF and very little JB Hunt on UP (only in some corridors). This is another good way to help define a modelling era.

Well cars are still interchanged a lot - BNSF wells seem to be common enough on the UP and certainly before BNSF had any Pacer traffic you could see the Pacer Maxi-IVs commonly enough on the Transcon - so I don't have a problem mixing the wells up amongst the fleet.

Also, just because a Maxi-IV can carry a 57' container, doesn't mean it does. I'm not aware of any in-service at the moment.

[Ike the BN Freak]

57' are relegated to the west...

I don't think there are any 57' trailers/containers out there yet.  The triple 57s were designed for when the 57' came around.  Think 53s are still the longest trailers out there.

[Hyperion]

I don't think there are any 57' trailers/containers out there yet.  The triple 57s were designed for when the 57' came around.  Think 53s are still the longest trailers out there.

57-footers most definitely exist.  They've been around a long time.  Better part of at least 20 years.  They're just not very common because they're restricted in use to certain states.  They also are limited in use because often times a trailer will weigh out before it cubes out.

[rswinnerton]

Mark's right. Swift uses some out west on our Costco Dedicated fleet. 57' tri-axel trailers with trucks that have a tag axle. Heavy stuff!

[rswinnerton]

http://www.pbase.com/intermodal/image/102339851/original

Trinity 57' spine w/ trailer.

[nkalanaga]

BNSF well cars are common in the NS trains between Kenova and Williamson, WV.  Now that they've enlarged their tunnels it seems that there are almost as many double stacks as coal trains.