Hello all Sorry for my ignorance, but................. I bought a set of Deluxe Innovation Gunderson Twin stack for $60 (I thought it was a good price) but I have no experience with this type of car, and I'm not sure what type of containers i should buy. It says 48' or 40' Does that mean each car can accommodate a 40'container at the bottom, and up to 48' at the top (2nd level)? Would it not look better to use the same size (40') if I were to stack 2 containers per car? Where should I look to buy containers by the way? Thanks
They look like they will take either a 40' or two 20' container(s) on the bottom, and either two 20's, one 40' or one 48' container(s) on top. IIRC, the 20's are only used on the bottom, or on top of two 20's. The longer containers do not have middle anchor points for the inner corners of two 20's on top of them. Jacksonville Terminal Company makes a huge variety of containers of varying sizes and types. They are sold direct from JTC, and through many online train shops, if not your local train shop. I have some of theirs, and also the containers that came with my 3-unit container car sets from Kato (they now make 5-unit container cars). Most multi-unit container cars can be easily 'cut' (disassembled) down to fewer units to fit on smaller layouts with smaller intermodal and/or regular yards.
Deluxe Innovations is no longer in business, but you can still find used or new old stock of their 40' and 20' containers. They were great containers for their time ('90s-'00s decades) but unfortunately they don't have stacking mechanism (pins or magnets). DI recommended using "container glue" which is a putty product they sold to temporarily stick containers atop each other. You can also just get regular putty from any office supply store, it's the same thing. I second @BigJake 's recommendation of Jacksonville Terminal Company's containers. They make BY FAR the best containers in N scale (or any scale, actually - many HO scalers have gotten envious of their frequent and very prototypical releases to the point where JTC has recently expanded their line to HO). JTC makes A LOT of 40' and 20' containers, and they come with BOTH pins (also stackable with Walthers, Atlas and Athearn containers) and magnets. What era are you modeling? These Gunderson TwinStack cars came out in the mid-'80s and are still in use today. If you're modeling the modern era, do note that 48' containers, made for domestic use, are obsolete, and are replaced by 53' containers. But since the prototype TwinStack well cars were made before 53' containers were introduced, you cannot stack a 53' on top of these. But 45' containers are still used today - no longer for domestic use, but for ocean travel just like the 40' containers (though they're not nearly as common). As an intermodal junkie I've tried just about every commercially-available container that's been released. Ironically, though prototype containers were made to standard dimensions, their model versions are not. Some are slightly longer, wider or taller than others. The TwinStack wells are a relatively tight fit, even for the DI containers. JTCs fit, though very snugly. Other manufacturers' containers actually do not fit inside the Deluxe TwinStack well, or you risk damage to the cars trying to fit them in. I do know for sure that DI, JTC and Walthers containers do fit in the TwinStack wells.
Thank you both for your explanations......I will have to check at my model train store. I saw containers, but can't remember exactly the price I will also keep an eye for used ones in the Trainboard swap meet section
The Twinstack was the first mass produced container car. SP had their 'pumkin' orange cars prior to the first twinstacks, which could carry 20' 35' (sealand and Matson had them) and 40' containers only. When the Twinstacks first came out, Gunderson made them with a "C" shaped A and B (end cars) which captures a 40 footer. What followed was what I chose when we first released the twinstack, which is the latest version which acommodated 2 x 20 or 1 x 40 on the bottom layer and 1 x 40, 45, or 48 on the top layer depending which combination of the flipper was used. On the model you have, it is all plastic as the interior detail of the weight circle cut outs is visible from 'railfan' position and was important to me. There is a weight pin inside the box section at each car end, just like the prototype. Also like the prototype, it is recommended that when you run the csr empty, you place it at the end of the train to prevent string-lining. In the releases we did, we included container weights, pot chromed copper, to put inside the containers. 3 was plenty for good track, 5 recommended for Ntrak layouts with loose joiner tracks. Containers that fit in the lower wells are true 96" wide containers- the dimension that is correct for all ocean going containers- in scale 20 or 40 feet. This leaves out some of the early euro containers and ALL of the con cor 40 footers. Atlas, JTC, deLuxe, and Walthers all fit. In the upper postition you can use up to a 48 footer, but again, some manufacturers oversize their containers (no, I don't know why. ) So I'd stick to JTC, deLuxe, and Atlas 40' 45' 48 footers. I haven't tried any others. BTW- there is no need to weight the top containers. In fact, it is recommended not to. The molds for deLuxe products were sold to Dave Ferrari (for reasons) and then to Fox Valley. Part of them are going to Scaletrains as I understand it, and the rest are staying with Matt.
This may sound like a sideways question/suggestion, but how many containers will you need for your trains and layout? If you are looking at dozens, as many folks with a facility will need, you might be money ahead investing in a 3D printer and printing your own containers.
What I've done with my containers is to put weights inside a certain number of them and mark the bottom with paint (I've used a tiny dot of Liquid Paper) right in the center) so you'll know visually which ones are weighted. And I would only put those kinds of containers in the well. For the DI TwinStack cars, I would have weighted containers in the first, middle and last units. Those cylindrical weights that come with the DI well cars come in handy - If you have JTC containers, just open up the container (the black plastic bottom of the JTC container comes off with the aid of a flathead jeweler's screwdriver) drop it on the center magnet and it'll stick to it magnetically - no need for glue. And if you want to remove the weight, just pull it off!
A minor note is that the end (A / B platforms) are the ones that permit a pair of 20' containers. Intermediates (C/D/E platforms) are 40' only on the bottom. Up to 48' on the top... note that containers fit quite tightly in these cars, so I do recommend care. In mine I am running JTC and Deluxe containers... haven't tried Fox Valley but they should be the same as DI.
Containers are the new box cars of model railroading (and 1:1 railroading, in many respects.) But you can display containers on the layout in far less space, with out having to lay more track. Boxcars once had advertising to make them unique (and collectible,) as well as another source of revenue, but it was ruled illegal in most cases. Yet period modeling kept the advertising alive on our layouts. There is a large variety of boxcar models available, some designed for semi-specialized cargos (e.g. auto parts, etc.) Boxcars, at least in larger scales, were (still are?) often sold as kits to be assembled and decorated by the user. Now we can purchase or 3d-print container models for our own custom uses. With containers, we have different road and rail chassis, sizes, types, signage/graphics (though not advertising for revenue,) handling equipment and processing to model. Not only that, how many non-transport uses for containers are there in the real world that we could model? Out-buildings, storage space, office/housing, disaster relief, military use, etc. come to mind, but there are countless other uses too. Some leased equipment (pumps, generators, etc.) are integrated into containers to create self-contained, portable assets for many uses. There are even monuments built entirely of stacked containers (one off I-70 in UT comes to mind.) Lots of modeling opportunities!
You know what, that is a great idea. If I can ever find card stock ones you print out and glue together yourself I'll make a Container Park instead of a Trailer Park As you said containers are used for all kinds of reason's! I've even seen them used on those Tiny House show's I really like the disaster relief idea, that would be really cool to model with a container?
