1960's-70's piggyback trailers & decals

[cfritschle]

The trailer is 96" measured at the bottom but is 3-4" narrower at the top.

Jason

Well, at least it is narrower than the Con-Cor/Herpa trailer.   

Another option for the waffle-side trailer might be to start with the trailers that Boyd and Con-Cor offered in the late 1960s through mid 1970s. 


At least the sides on these were parallel from top to bottom.   

But, they are only 0.01 inch narrower than the Con-Cor/Herpa trailer, so you would still be over 96 scale inches wide. 

Carter

[randgust]

While you're having a lot of fun debating which trailer is warped the least for that waffle-side trailer, take another look at the photo.

http://www.kansasmemory.org/item/227095

What's handy here is that it's up against another trailer, which 'looks like' the Wheel Works one in terms of dimensions; i.e. a 40' trailer, and considerably higher than the waffle-side one.    If you look at the waffle-side one, you can also see that yeah, that's a relatively narrow trailer compared at least to the tire width footprint.

So, what do we really know here for dimensions?   40' should be it, right?  And we're saying what, OUTSIDE width can't exceed 96" for that era?

But what still fascinates me is that it's conclusively a lower trailer.   Every photo I've seen, you can almost pick it out of a train because it's the 'low one', and while I'll grant you the points on width what also really counts is the height here.  Assuming there's no articles/plans/drawings or somebodys storage locker that used to be one of these trailers, what are the guesses as to the height?  I'm thinking 12', but that's my guess, as I think it's about 6" lower than the typical 'high trailer' of the era.

Remember you're talking to the guy that took the entire center of a Bachmann greyhound bus out and put it back together to get the width right, so cutting things to shreds doesn't bother me one bit.

One of the best parts of modeling this era is the circus-style ramp logic, Flagstaff had one right across from the depot for years and I have photos of it being loaded circus-style with a Mack Model B.  It was switched by the local, it was immediately adjacent to a wye, so it was easier than most to deal with operationally and it was busy.   The 70's were just full of mixed-freights with piggybacks in the consist, instead of the all-intermodal trains you see today.  During that era it was very typical to mix the cars in priority freights - the exception, not the rule, were the dedicated all-piggyback trains like the Super C and the CX99/NY100 on the EL.   But for modeling, you work the piggyback ramp with the locals just like any other industry.

[cfritschle]

Randy,

The Surface Transportation Act of 1982 mandated that the states create a network of designated roadways to accommodate 102 inch wide trailers.  So, for these trailers to be able to travel anywhere in the country in the 1970s, they would have been limited to 96 inches wide. 

Perhaps the Con-Cor/Herpa trailer would be fine if you cut the trailer side panels out and replaced them with the fabricated waffle-sides.   

Carter

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Randy, this does appear to be a 96" wide, 40' length 12' height trailer as would have been the standard size when built on the early 60's. I would have to check the Atlas FRP trailers and see which one would have the proper height. Lucky for you, the Xtra takes used both rear door designs on these waffles.

Right now, I am thinking 24' front and rear parts on a 40' frame with scratch built sides and roof.

[nkalanaga]

Scratchbuilding the frame probably wouldn't be any harder than using an existing one.  Unlike a freight car, the parts don't have to work, and you'd know that it fit.

[randgust]

I notice that the shots I've seen of them have no 'height or warning' labels on the front, so it wasn't considered tall.   Meanwhile, there are "12'6" white warning labels on some of the adjacent trailers, which would lead me to believe that "12' 6"" was an excess-height at the time deserving driver warning.   I'm not sure if that's a valid conclusion or not, but it seems to be proven in the shots.

I scaled out one of the 'splice job' trailers I did years ago on the shorty Atlas trailers, it's too low.  The Con-Cor Herpa seems like the right height but it is up in the air over the wheels making it 13' off the pavement, and it's also 8'6" wide.  If you lowered it down on the frame like it should be you could easily get it to 12'6", the other 6" will have to come off the top.

I'll probably take a shot at it, may not be perfect, but I'm counting on the fact that it will be moving past the viewer at 90 scale mph!

[prbharris]

The XTRA waffle vans would be a great project for N Scale Kits to do.

OK - I will take the bait. But looking at the few pictures I have found, and as Randy says, not much detail has come out yet - what is your best bet about the end doors? Also are those low profile ribs I can see on the nose?

Peter

Peter Harris
N Scale Kits
www.nscalekits.com

[chessie system fan]

Found a few old Xtra trailer pics.

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1889077
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/rsPicture.aspx?id=923896
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/rsPicture.aspx?id=923898
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3934823

Probably the closest is this B&O trailer in this album:
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/archiveThumbs.aspx?id=103759

There's a good photo of a B&O one in the color guide.  It lists it as series 200550-200647, a Trailmobile trailer of 2452 cu. ft. capacity.

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Pete, the last link on the post above looks to be a later version of the trailer. Xtra leased these trailers or to railroads, so even though it says B&O, it's actually Xtra owned. Early Highway brand  had one latch. Early Dorsey trailers had two latches. Later Dorsey trailers appear to have 4.

All trailers appear to lack ribs on the front bulkhead.

[nkalanaga]

Randgust:  Lowering the CC/Herpa trailers is easy with a round needle file.  Just file the tops of the axle holes so the frame sits lower on the axles.  It doesn't matter for TOFC service, but that also allows the trailer to keep all four wheels on uneven ground, for those with gravel parking lots.

[prbharris]

Early Highway brand  had one latch. Early Dorsey trailers had two latches. Later Dorsey trailers appear to have 4. All trailers appear to lack ribs on the front bulkhead.

Thanks Daniel.

I have found a part color picture in my files of intermodal flat cars research pile. The trailer is disappearing under the bridge, so not much is available but perhaps this provokes other searches!

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Peter

Peter Harris
N Scale Kits
www.nscalekits.com

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Peter I would look into the Morning Sun book mentioned earlier in the post. It had several photos and it's still on stock.

[Spikre]

 
   Randy,
   came across this pic of a new XTRA waffle van on a new F85 TTX flat that
   also had 2 20' containers.
   this must have been displayed at a RR Supply show,maybe Atlantic City or Chicago ?
   XTRA 270949,40' Waffle trailer,Red,and New,built by Highway,about 3/60,or close
   to that,everything is Spotless.
   Rail Model Journal,5/01,page 27.
    this is a good size pic,not a micro pic !
      Spikre
       

[sirenwerks]

Foound a nice shot of an old XTRA trailer -

[randgust]

Just as a reminder, I've got enough of these made now to sell them.  See the randgust.com page.

The molds came out really, really well on this one.

I had a chance to look at some of my old classic Emory Gulash videos (Santa Fe Odyssey, etc) and nearly all of the period "Super C"'s seemed to have one or two of these trailers in them, but never more than that.  When you start scanning photos looking for those dark, three-horizontal-rib trailers, you can almost always spot one.  There must have been some kind of regular move that wasn't mail, and wasn't in an ATSF trailer, that was on the trains.   By the end (75-76) you don't see those trailers anymore, presumably because 40' was getting pretty obsolete.