4 axle 'rebuilt' Frontrunners?

[learmoia]

In my 20 years of Railfanning I 'thought' I had never seen (saw?) a 2 axle front runner in active service... but I thought I saw a few 'rebuilt' 4 axle front runners.. (with the 2 axle bogie removed and replaced with a normal freight car truck.)

.. While going through my old Railfan videos... Low and behold there were two 2 axle front runners with trailers riding on them.. on the Iowa Interstate in the somewhere in the late 1998-2002 time frame.. (just before they were pulled from service and scrapped.)  At the time apparently I didn't realize what they were, as I was focused on the 2 rebuilt CP TOFC flats next to them..

But now I can't find any evidence of a rebuilt frontrunner with normal trucks (or a single unit spine car.)

Did such a thing exist, or is my memory playing tricks on me?

EDIT:  Yes it did.. See below..

[learmoia]

 

Similar to the Law of Scratch building.....

As soon as you ask the question.. Your next Google search finds the answer..

[jagged ben]

My recollection is that those were rebuilt boxcar frames.  As opposed to the Frontrunners that were factroy built as intermodal spine cars.  That's an ATSF car you're showing, and the Frontrunners were all Trailer Train/TTX.  Can't remember my source for that right now.   CNW had some rebuilt boxcars too, though, and so did Southern and/or NS, although they were a bit more full platform than spine cars.

I daresay one could probably put together a full length intermodal train if one had one of each of all the unique intermodal cars that the Santa Fe had.

[learmoia]

I realize it's not TTX car, but it is an example of what I recall seeing

As I recall the NS/SOU boxcar rebuilds resembled flat cars, there this example looks like a spine car.

[James Costello]

It's a spine car sure and it's rebuilt from something - but none of the TTOX/TTUX 2 axle Front Runners where ever rebuilt into 4 axle "normal" truck spine car .... (as originally asked).

They were all retired by TTX as their financing expired (or stored until it expired) and then scrapped.

[sirenwerks]

In my 20 years of Railfanning I 'thought' I had never seen (saw?) a 2 axle front runner in active service... but I thought I saw a few 'rebuilt' 4 axle front runners.. (with the 2 axle bogie removed and replaced with a normal freight car truck.)

.. Did such a thing exist, or is my memory playing tricks on me?

I was eating an ice cream cone in the parking lot of the Harpers Ferry Amtrak station a few years back when a CSX train rolled through.  Not interested in modern stuff anymore, I didn't think to raise my phone and snap some pics, until I saw what I swear were decapitated PS 4427s in service for ore or coal or whatever was being hauled in that train.  I was never able to confirm those cars were rebuilt soon after I got home, and soon lost interest in knowing...  But now, like an earwig, I suddenly want to know again...

[Ike the BN Freak]

until I saw what I swear were decapitated PS 4427s in service for ore or coal or whatever was being hauled in that train.  I was never able to confirm those cars were rebuilt soon after I got home, and soon lost interest in knowing...  But now, like an earwig, I suddenly want to know again...

I've seen some on railcar photos for a tie yard in Omaha, https://www.railcarphotos.com/PhotoDetails.php?PhotoID=120217

Saw one on a UP freight in Vegas a year or so ago, was too far away to get a decent pic, especially with me doing  70 down the interstate

[cjm413]

Similar to the Law of Scratch building.....

As soon as you ask the question.. Your next Google search finds the answer..

Rebuilt by ATSF from retired boxcar - note the shape of the sill.

ATSF also rebuilt bulkhead flats for TOFC service, e.g. prototype for Micro-Trains model.