title says it all... i am wanting to assemble stack trains that SP would have carried by this i mean a majority of the train would be a specific company's containers... as of now all i know is APL which we alternated with UP but since in my world SP takes UP we get the whole thing... so were there any others we hauled?
thank you unfortunatley i only have 1 k line container and none of the other well guess its time to get buyen!
Yeah, I try to horde them as much as I can When I was an HO scaler (and the SP was still around) I tried to follow up on that information, that's how I came up with those "sea names." I'm sure there's more though. What scale do you model? I'm in N scale and Walthers makes K-Line and Evergreen 40' containers, and blows them out for $3.98 each in their monthly catalog sales. If you have a LHS that honors the Walther's monthly catalog prices, I would make it a point to get a lot of containers that way. I have just about 10 K-Line 40' containers now, enough to fill a 5-unit stack car Little steps...
I model HO im doing the same for APl i am watching some APL 40' container 3-packs from intermountain and might add them to my fleet so ill have more i only have 2 APL right now with 2 more on the way
I don’t know about any contracts, but I know i used to see complete trains of nothing but Evergreen clear back here in Kansas City. According to N scale manufacturers, the longest container Evergreen had was 40’. Sure seemed they had longer ones than that, but I’m probably totally wrong. PS: also saw huge numbers of “Southern Pacific” containers. Rick
I'm with Rick, not sure about any contracts but I've seen tons of photos of SP trains with solid trains of SPDU (Southern Pacific) containers. I also remember seeing a lot of Sea/Land consists. Honestly, I think you could get away with just about anything when it comes to intermodal consists. IIRC, SP only had the 48' smooth-side containers. BTW, what a beautiful layout, Rick!
well they only had 48's but apperently not ALL were smooth side this ones isnt... http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=342797 and SouPac when you say you see huge numbers are you talking about size or reporting marks?
As for th OPs original question, a lot of it depends on what region(s) he's trying to model, since what containers you saw could vary depending upon the orgin/destination point and the line they're traveling on. Growing up in SoCal, I saw a lot of international traffic coming out of the ports of LA and Long Beach, with a lot of it coming from ICTF. Saw a lot of trains made up almost entirely of (or large blocks of) containers for NYK Lines, Evergreen (and subsidiary Uniglory), and Mitsui OSK Lines. Some trains I saw were "dogs breakfast" type trains, with mixes of all kinds of cans, especially from leasing companies (Genstar, Triton, Transamerica, etc.). As far as domestic traffic went, the "Spuds", as the Southern Pacific SPDU 48' containers were nicknamed, could usually be seen coming and going from SP's City of Industry yard, sometimes in large blocks mixed with other traffic.
Here are a couple youtube vids showing typical SP stack trains that you would have seen in Socal. No dates mentioned, but from the locomotives and other equipment, they were probably shot in the 1989-1991 timeframe. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rijY2Y0wVu0&NR=1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXl5kNzPwpw The date on this one is given as 1990: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6u0edcpFptA&feature=related
Those videos are priceless modeling resources! I've seen them before, but it's so fun to watch them again. And yes, I HAVE put a caboose on an N scale stacktrain once or twice, having seen a the prototype do it! Note the old silver NYK containers in one of those videos.
geez now i feel stupid! i never even thought about watching videos!!! haha i have dvds that show stack trains galore never even thought to pull them out thanks!
Like Railblazer said, I mean lots of SP (SPDU) containers, sometimes complete trains of nothing else.
What ever happened to those? Did they get repainted? Scrapped? SP rolling stock is still on the rails but all the SP containers have vanished from the Earth!
well ive heard they are getting rid of 48' containers as china no longer wants them... so its only a matter of time... i do remember seeing one many years ago in a pic with a CSXU patch
The demise of 48's doesn't really have anything to do with China not wanting them; 48' and larger containers are used domestically only, and aren't carried on container ships (with a few exceptions; APL recently introduced "Ocean 53'" containers). 20', 40, and 45's are the normal sizes carried on container ships. If anything, the disappearance of 48's has to do with the trend of using larger containers and trailers for domestic shipments, with 53' being the preferred size these days. That, and trailers and containers typically have very short lifespans. While rolling stock can last for 40-50 years, trailers and containers have an expected lifespan of about 10 years or so. They are generally lightweight in construction, and intermodal service is typically pretty rough on them. Another factor in the quick demise of the SP containers in particular is the fact that UP generally doesn't like to own this type of equipment outright, preferring to offer containers through pools (like EMP), or have the customer provide their own.
Not too many shipping customers are going to have exactly so much stuff to ship that they need only a 48' container and not a 53 footer. Especially with 45 foot containers around too. I think that once 53' was widely accepted enough, there was not much benefit in having lots of 48s around as well.
