Best Of Detailing the Micro-Trains BNSF Fuselage Set

[pmpexpress]

heyrob and/or peteski,

Were the TTMX flatcars with the component boxes repainted, relettered, and renumbered for BNSF?

If so, any idea about when this might have occurred?

[atsf3751]

I mentioned those, and posted a photo back  on the 2nd page of this thread. 

https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=42472.msg535966#msg535966

I just got new glasses. That is my excuse and I am sticking with it.

[ryan_wilkerson]

I've been enjoying this thread and have a question. What's the earliest year these fuselage trains ran? Was it in the Burlington Northern era?

[heyrob]

heyrob and/or peteski,

Were the TTMX flatcars with the component boxes repainted, relettered, and renumbered for BNSF?

If so, any idea about when this might have occurred?

Sorry, while somewhat up on most of the Boeing side of all of this, I'm unfamiliar with most of the rolling stock details other than those components that Boeing has a hand in.

In regard to the numbers on the fuselages, those are referred to as "Hull Numbers" and though I haven't had it officially confirmed, I believe they are assigned to a particular customers aircraft at the time of order, which is why you almost never see them as sequential in the sets on a particular train. Not all orders are filled at the same time, but typically spread out over a delivery period set when the order is placed.

While I could likely try to confirm the answers to some questions, if I don't already know it, but that ability is about to end. I'll be retiring from Boeing next month after 40 years with the company. Maybe I'll have more modeling time soon.

[peteski]

While I could likely try to confirm the answers to some questions, if I don't already know it, but that ability is about to end. I'll be retiring from Boeing next month after 40 years with the company. Maybe I'll have more modeling time soon.

Rob, in the eight posts you have made so far in this forum since joining it you have posted a good chunk of very useful reference info on this fairly obscured and specialized type of rail shipment. The info you shared with us is useful to the current readers of this thread, and will be useful to people who will be seeking this info in the future.

I wish you happy well-deserved retirement, and lots of free time for your hobbies!

[heyrob]

Thanks Peteski, I appreciate the well wishes. My only regret about my knowledge of the 737 rail shipments is that I wasn't active in modeling during my time at the Renton plant, where they planes were brought right past the lab where I worked, and unloaded about 500 feet down the building. It wasn't until I got back into the hobby a few years back that building a set of these cars became a goal, and I began researching the subject in depth. Before that, my interest was purely just that of a railfan watching the cars roll past our lab almost everyday. It was fortunate for me, that once I did become more than just passively interested, it turned out that a young co-workers father actually worked in the train well and helped with the unloading process, he was a wealth of information on the cars etc.

[heyrob]

I've been enjoying this thread and have a question. What's the earliest year these fuselage trains ran? Was it in the Burlington Northern era?

Hi Ryan, I don't know if you recognize the handle, but this is Rob Petersen, of the PNW Freemo group up here in Washington.

To answer your question, the first seven 737's were built in whole at Boeing's Plant II (home of the famous B-17's) in Seattle, beginning with plane #8, the fuselages began to be built in Wichita and were shipped in 3 pieces (forward, center & rear sections) to Seattle with the first rear fuselage section being shipped by rail in June 1966. Eventually the ship sets were shipped in two pieces and this continued with the original "Classic -100 through -600 models. While I don't know when the production was moved from Plant II to Renton, but I believe it was with the of the introduction of the -400 model in the late 1970's or early 1980's.

The fuselages began being shipped as a one piece unit with the "Next Generation" series (-700 through -900 models) in the early 1990's.

[peteski]

To answer your question, the first seven 737's were built in whole at Boeing's Plant II (home of the famous B-17's) in Seattle, beginning with plane #8, the fuselages began to be built in Wichita and were shipped in 3 pieces (forward, center & rear sections) to Seattle with the first rear fuselage section being shipped by rail in June 1966. Eventually the ship sets were shipped in two pieces and this continued with the original "Classic -100 through -600 models. While I don't know when the production was moved from Plant II to Renton, but I believe it was with the of the introduction of the -400 model in the late 1970's or early 1980's.

Interesting.  I wonder if there are any photos of those early fuselage transports?  When I do Google searches for Boeing trains all I get are the new single-piece versions of the 737.  If there are reference photos of the older operation, someone could model that unique train in N scale, even if they layout was depicting late '60s.

[wcfn100]

Both are listed as the first shipment from Wichita to Washington.

Jason

[wcfn100]

Some more.







Jason

[pmpexpress]

To answer your question, the first seven 737's were built in whole at Boeing's Plant II (home of the famous B-17's) in Seattle, beginning with plane #8, the fuselages began to be built in Wichita and were shipped in 3 pieces (forward, center & rear sections) to Seattle with the first rear fuselage section being shipped by rail in June 1966. Eventually the ship sets were shipped in two pieces and this continued with the original "Classic -100 through -600 models. While I don't know when the production was moved from Plant II to Renton, but I believe it was with the of the introduction of the -400 model in the late 1970's or early 1980's.

The fuselages began being shipped as a one piece unit with the "Next Generation" series (-700 through -900 models) in the early 1990's.

Rob,

Thanks for posting another excellent piece of historical information.

Though it is not of one of the early transporters, found online, the following fuselage section transport image was labeled as having been taken in Helena, Montana, on 08-97.

A portion of a large, well-car style skybox is visible to the left of the image.

[pmpexpress]

Both are listed as the first shipment from Wichita to Washington.

Jason

Are these vintage Santa Fe publicity photos for some sort of a press release?

[wcfn100]

Are these vintage Santa Fe publicity photos for some sort of a press release?

The site doesn't really detail what the picture were taken for.

http://www.kansasmemory.org/

A lot of good ATSF and other railroad stuff there if you search.

http://www.kansasmemory.org/locate.php?query=santa+fe

Jason

[peteski]

Thanks Jason. I'm curious as how you found those photos. What did you use for search string?

I went to the source of the images and found more related photos:
http://www.kansasmemory.org/locate.php?categories=282-291&query=boeing&restrict=all

[pmpexpress]

Thanks for the info Jason and Pete.

Followed the link that peteski so kindly provided and found that the back side of a number of the photographs indicated that they were taken by Boeing in 1967, when the first aircraft components were moved by Santa Fe from the Boeing's Wichita plant.

Among the images seen on the page was one of an FT-M series 90410 - 90411 flatcar that was built for Boeing by the Santa Fe in 1964.