1960's-70's piggyback trailers & decals

[James Costello]

Does that sufficiently explain how we can get all fired up modeling this thing?

Intermodal is fun

[prbharris]

Came across this shot today in the Kansas Historical Society collection.I'm trying to get my trailers right on my Super C and got a big surprise here.   This is January 1968

This looks as if it is a G85 Clejan Spine car too - is that right?

Peter

Peter Harris
N Scale Kits
www.nscalekits.com

[randgust]

Hey, found decals for those "Caravan" trailers, although those aren't a Super C thing....
http://www.mgdecals.com/F-336.htm

[Puddington]

Hey, found decals for those "Caravan" trailers, although those aren't a Super C thing....
http://www.mgdecals.com/F-336.htm

Thanks ! That saves decal making.....

[jagged ben]

Great thread. 

Just in the nick of time.    OK, good job, forum!   I imagine I'll have to throw a coat of Microscale decal preserver on it, but it should work.

I even went back into the Micro-Scale page and there is no indication they ever made those.   Ever.   Now I can see if you would show them as now discontinued... but.... never??? 

Unfortunately Microscale doesn't indicate any discontinued items on their website.   Which is a shame, because they've done a lot of stuff that's discontinued but still may be available somewhere, as you discovered in this case.  I'd hazard a guess that perhaps as much as half of everything they've ever done is discontinued.

BTW, if you find an HO Microscale product number such as 87-347 you should always change the 87 to a 60 and search eBay and Google for 60-347 to see if they did it in N as well.  Usually they did. 

Oh, and another thing.   I hope you bought your Clipper set on eBay because one of the sets there is now ... mine!  It was in my watchlist, and I hadn't yet pulled the trigger on purchasing, but whenever anything is discussed on TRW I get nervous.   

Check out the second trailer back...... with a bicentennial on the point.   http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/attachments/fullsize/204000/SantaFeSuperCebRiversideCa1175_4.jpg

Can you (or anyone?) post a link to the discussion thread that refers to that?   I don't have a Trainorders membership but I like to bookmark discussions with pictures I may be interested in reviewing at such time I should pay their fee.

[randgust]

That link, basically, is to one of the very last "Super C"'s (Nov 1975, I think) that has a spotless bicentennial on it, and a CLIPPER trailer is the econd trailer on the train - proving that the CLIPPER vans and bicentennials belong together.

I'll tell you, I spent a lot of time looking at old ATSF piggyback train shots this weekend.  It's a lot harder than it looks.

1)  The percentage of Santa Fe trailers (old and new schemes) is about 70%.    Astounding.   I knew it was high, but it was really high.
2)  My period - early 70's - was also notable because the circus-loaded piggyback cars were still showing up in regular scheduled trains.   The only 'all intermodal' train was the Super C.   Pretty easy to spot.   Flagstaff still circus-loaded up until the late 80's.
3)  Every trailer is so dust-covered it's hard to read.  Moving at speed really stirred up the dirt.
4)  On the Super C, the other 'majority' was NYC/Flexivan and Penn Central trailers.  There were a lot of other trailers, but no 'billboards' that were easily recognizable.
5)  Containers and Flexivan containers (with side door) were in more trains than I thought.   Mostly ATSF and NYC yellow panel sign.

For whatever reason, the freight forwarders like CLIPPER, etc., may have had the occasional trailer, but it certainly isn't like the 80's when it turned into the majority.    My train looks a lot more like an 80's train - I need to change the trailers around a lot more than I have.   There really wasn't the variety of trailers, at least on the C - that I have on my model.  Need a lot more NYC/PC/Flexivan stuff.

I'm still intrigued by that shot I led off the thread with.   Neptune appears to be a typical, run-of-the-mill moving van, as well as that Essex Wire trailer.   At that time, it would appear like you could just show up with any old truck trailer - not necessarily one with 'reporting marks' (SFTU, etc on it) and it could be piggyback hauled.   I'm saying that mostly because there's pretty much nothing on those two indicating conventional intermodal trailer markings like you'd see.   I'm not sure when the freight waybill systems changed so that the trailer was waybilled like the car number, but it must have been after 1968.

One thing I did discover - one of my oddest trailers I ever saw, a mural painting of a Llama that was on a trailer at Horseshoe Curve in the early 80's - was apparently a CLIPPER trailer - they did a series of animal mural trailers and I just happened to get a shot of that one.

Yeah, I did get a decal set.  I'm good.  Likely Decal Film solution to the rescue on those old ones though, particularly when you only get one shot at it and the old ones tend to fragment like crazy.

Oh, and so this doesn't turn into an All Santa Fe discussion, I have wonderful memories and shots of EL's own version of the Super C - the NY99/NY100, and it was every bit as much fun.   I got turned onto that train in the fall of 1974, when I was going to school in Jamestown, NY, and the 99/100 were the hottest thing on the railroad.   EL ran them in much the same manner as ATSF did the C - flat out to what the railroad could take, no stops, no delays, nothing but piggybacks moving at speed and way too much power on the front, and the best they had.   It was 'mostly' UPS trailers.

[BCR 570]

Thanks ! That saves decal making.....

Email me re your Caravan project.

Tim

[James Costello]

At that time, it would appear like you could just show up with any old truck trailer - not necessarily one with 'reporting marks' (SFTU, etc on it) and it could be piggyback hauled.   I'm saying that mostly because there's pretty much nothing on those two indicating conventional intermodal trailer markings like you'd see.   I'm not sure when the freight waybill systems changed so that the trailer was waybilled like the car number, but it must have been after 1968.

Equipment not in the Intermodal Register still appears on manifests as "NONZ" loads. Another example are trailer deliveries via TOFC for non-intermodal use as well - ie, brand new Knight Transportation trailers were shipped via BNSF intermodal trains from manufacturer Wabash National to SoCal before Knight used intermodal links. 

[Mark5]

Great stuff. 

I remember watching TOFC and COFC on the "through" trains on the Pokey (N&W) back in the late 60s and 70s.

There were plenty of "plain" trailers as well as the well known "billboard" trailers.

Looking for photos is a sort of "holy grail" sort of thing, but I am trying to pull together a representative mix as best I can.

Mark

[randgust]

I didn't get too focused in on the trailers and schemes until I 'finally' got all but one of my legacy Trix and Con-Cor cars replaced with far better cars, and got everything weathered as the signature impression of the train was 'filthy' at the cars, if not the power - that's what running pigs at 79mph will produce.

The availability of the Trainworx trailers has been a big difference too, as the Con-Cor/Rowa trailers were pretty much my standard along with a handful of MT's. 

I got a set of the Stone Creations resin Flexivan containers and they just don't look right to me and also take a lot of work to make presentable.  I keep wishing Trainworx would run the Flexivan trailers in the 'yellow panel' NYC scheme but that probably won't happen, although I've confirmed with them they have the artwork and are thinking about it.

This train has been on an evolutionary track with me since about 1973, continuously upgrading it as better product, materials and techniques come along.   My 'first' Super C model was a single F45 (cut down Lima shell on a Trix mech) and eight 50' Atlas and Trix flatcars with 25' trailers on them.  So it's come a long, long way. 

When I started to 'seriously' model this train with the larger layout in the early 80's, the only full-length intermodal flatcars that were available were the Trix container flats and the cast metal Rapido flats (which Con-Cor later picked up).    I had four of the Trix flats that I tore apart and redecked as piggybacks I was so desperate for a decent looking car.    Modelers have no idea how lucky they are now with MT, Atlas, BLMA, Trainworx and N Scale Kits all offering far more accurate cars!

I'm now running a full-length train of 89' flats behind FP45/F45/F45 power, but it still has to clear the 11" curves in the hidden staging yard.  The performance of 'most' of the newer flatcars is right on the edge to not stringline or derail from body-mount torque.   Say what you want about the MT's, but for operating, they are by far the most bulletproof ones out there.

 

[randgust]

Just to prove that something actually got done as a result of this thread!



I've got quite the collection of those 40' trailers, can't remember where they came from, but for years they were the only decent 40' out there.

Pulled this one out of retirement to get repainted.

The Santa Fe is an 'out of the box' Trainworx flexivan with the side door, airbrush weathered.   The 'Clipper' will get that treatment at some point.

[nkalanaga]

I have some of those as well, and also don't remember who first made them.  They were rereleased several years back, with Atlas wheels, but I can't remember which company did THAT, either.

[wazzou]

S&R Models.

[randgust]

No, these were kits - cast metal tires, like two or three to a box and injection molded.   Roadnames were Norfolk & Western, BRAE leasing, and undecorated.  Actually pretty nice.   Came in a white cardboard box.     I still must have a dozen of them or so.

I'd also spliced together some of the Atlas and Trix 25's to try to make a longer trailer.  Still have one of those hiding behind a building.  Yeesh.

[wazzou]

Well S&R models offered that same trailer as an injected molded kit.  If the one you're speaking of had metal tires, could it have been Lee Town?