This morning I saw a slew of these trundle by on the BNSF mainline that runs along Seattle's waterfront. They were single tractor-trailer spine cars with only 2 axles (1 at each end) and appeared to be owned by Trailer Train (although the grime made it hard to tell.) Can someone please tell me what this type of intermodal car this is? Thanks Gordon
Sorry I don't know what they are called but can't image them being used because you can't even tie hand brakes on them. Rules dicate you Chain them to the rail if you can't hook them to a NON two axle car.mg:
Were they loaded? I would bet they are being shipped elsewhere or scrapped. I think their use in intermodal service is frowned upon. Maybe somebody found a way to make them work better though. Wouldn't that be a kicker. BTW, they were called Front Runners.
Without a picture, the best guess I'd have would be Front Runners. If these things are being taken out of service, why so soon? Were they too flimsy for the job (probably a dumb question, since they looked kinda flimsy to me)?
yes ... this is what it was ... and there were 4 of them running w/o trailers on them (i.e. empty) hauled by a GP38 type locomotive (w/a caboose on the end) so what's the story on these? were they an idea that didn't work?
I found a post on the ModelIntermodal Yahoo group that probably sums up the issues with these cars. (posted by "Jim"/ecp1): There were also comments about them bouncing a foot straight up off the tracks when traveling empty.
Those things generated a lot of handling restrictions if you had them in your train because they were so light. Empty ones anywhere but on the rear was asking for trouble. One of those good ideas that didn't quite work out I'd say.
That's the only situation I've ever seen one in. Eight years ago, I saw one empty on the rear of a mixed freight. It was one of the highlights of my early railfanning days... unfortunately, I didn't have a camera with me.
And we model railroaders thought we had problems with too-light cars..... Oh well, nice try I guess.......too bad it didn't work out.
Maybe they needed solid glass trailers on there so they looked empty but had plenty of weight? :teeth:
Either that or fall on an old modeler's trick- stuff weights in the hollow spaces. Hmm.....wonder how many containers of BBs would fill up the center sill of a Front Runner?
