Chevy Vegas on their nose

[propmeup1]

Not sure if this has been covered before. I seen it years ago but I thought I'd throw it out here.  I had a 74 Vega wagon. It had a cracked block at 15k. Managed to keep it running to 45k and unloaded it just before i went in the navy 1979.
   Not sure if other autos were delivered like this or just the vega.

[biker_ray_pa]

Great picture! A buddy of mine in high school had a Vega, it was a rolling dungheap. It makes sense that they were delivered like this, already in a nosedive.

[babbo_enzo]

It is a picture of the "new type" of car developed for auto tranportation from factory to the market.
Southern Pacific use it a lot.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autorack

[C855B]

Gawd... Vert-A-Pacs. Only SP (a former employer) would hatch such a cockamamie scheme. After all, HQ was in San Fran, and we all know what they were smoking. 

It was just the Vega. It was specifically designed to be nose-loaded like that, with things like special baffles in the oil pan and IIRC a custom battery. Do that to a normal car and the fluids necessary to make the car run - even just to load and unload - all go in places they shouldn't.

The Vega was a royal-class POS for many reasons including the on-nose transport, disastrous fuel system failures, aluminum block without iron sleeves, and partial rustproofing. It firmly defined GM's rep at the time of car-design-by-accountant. By the time they straightened everything out (after making hundreds of thousands of customers inadvertent beta testers for their "innovations"), the final product that was actually something, the Cosworth Vega, tanked because of the model's rep. The Cosworth was transported normally, as the Vert-A-Pac program only lasted a couple of model cycles.

[davefoxx]

Here's a nice article on the Vert-a-Pac with not-so-nice things said about the Chevy Vega but, generally, good things to say about the railcar.  What I didn't realize is that this increased the capacity of Vegas (or Pontiac Astres) that could be shipped on a railcar from 18 vehicles in a standard auto rack to 30 in the Vert-a-Pac.  When charged by the railcar, this saved GM a lot of shipping costs.

https://www.automobilemag.com/news/chevrolet-vega-vert-a-pac/

DFF

[Mark5]

Not sure if this has been covered before.

Yeah, it's been covered here multiple times.  Exact rail did an N scale model before they went 100% direct sales.

[nkalanaga]

The Vert-A-Pac concept might make a comeback, if electric cars catch on.  No fluids, even the batteries are sealed units, so they could be shipped in any position desired.

[propmeup1]

You jogged my memory. I had two fuel pumps go bad and I found out back then they were inside the gas tank. Nice place to be.  The fenders rotted on the tops next to the hood but not around the edges where you think they would rot.   When shutting it off it would keep I guess they call it dieseling.  Yeah it wouldn't stop running then but when you wanted it to run it wouldn't. I'm calling mom right now to see why she ever bought that turd. :0

[Ed Kapuscinski]

The Vert-A-Pac concept might make a comeback, if electric cars catch on.  No fluids, even the batteries are sealed units, so they could be shipped in any position desired.

Interesting thought.

Does Tesla ship by rail?

[Mark5]

Does Tesla ship by rail?

Very doubtful for such a low volume niche automaker.

[wazzou]

Very doubtful for such a low volume niche automaker.

They did produce nearly 500,000 vehicles in 2020.

[Missaberoad]

Interesting thought.

Does Tesla ship by rail?

Looks like they do...

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EP5ctt-UwAA0rfC?format=jpg&name=large

[Mark5]

They did produce nearly 500,000 vehicles in 2020.

Significant but still peanuts in the big picture. They are also a niche (luxury) car maker - I don't think many lux cars get shipped by rail (I could be wrong!).

Edit: Looks like I am wrong  : https://teslaownersonline.com/threads/how-are-teslas-shipped-to-the-east-coast.5617/

[nkalanaga]

Even for a low-volume luxury car rail makes sense.  They're less likely to be damaged than on an open truck.  Even if they only ship one car at a time to a given terminal, and don't get bulk rates, the customers would probably never notice the difference.