So do you have a picture of hundreds of undec trailers sitting in a big parking area? OTOH, are the trailers all sold before they are constructed? Does your company paint them or do the individual companies do their own painting? Thanks. Interesting comment, too.
Flash, All are sold before being built. As for being painted, the material is already the color of the trailer before we start the assembly. Most of what you see on the side is all decals , as far as company logos and striping, that is. Most of what we build at our plant begins as solid white. The sheets are cut out of a coil of alum. then if corrigation is required, that is the next step. As for pix of units sitting on the lot, their are several hundred sitting out by our plant awaiting delivery as the ready lot is by our plant, but we are prohibited from having cameras at work and could lead to my termination by doing so. I could explain further the assembly process from start to finish, but I can't do to a NDA. This link might help you a little with info about our Company http://www.wabashnational.com/index.htm Hope this helped at least a little bit, if you have anymore ????'s ask, and I will try to answer them as much as I leagally can
I did a Google Earth search for 1000 Sagamore Parkway S., Lafayette, IN, 47905. There are certainly a lot of trailers there. I didn't see any rail service. I did Google a couple of distributors and there are a lot of trailers at those locations, too. It is just neat to see so many trailers at one location. Thanks for the info. I certainly don't want you to take any illegal pictures. This is just a hobby.
If you want to see a bunch do a search for County Rd Rd 350 S, this is where our plant and the ready lot's are. Unsure of the exact address(can check tomorrow morn.)but is located btween US. 52 and Concord Rd. there you will about 100 times more trailers and our rail access spur this is where the Triple Crown RoadRailers are also delivered and the rail bogies are built and rebuilt. The Sagamore location is our main plant , where all of the dry freight trailers are built, including the RoadRailers. there is rail service at the main plant , but is only used to bring plastic pellets to manufacture our DuraPlate material
This semi truck detailing gets tedious when you have 50 or so to detail/correct. I have paint all over my hands from painting wheels, so this is my solution for that. At least it works when you have a solid axle. I'm still working on separate wheels and how to mass paint them. It's just blue Styrofoam cut to an edge and the axles slipped into small cuts made along the edge.
I searched and went just a little to the west of that Google location. Wow! I can see the road railer sheds and everything. Some of the trailer roofs are white, but the most by far are silver colored. It is a very large facility and very interesting. Thanks for the info.
Our ready lots are to both east and west of our location which BTW is actually 3550 E. 350 S Lafayette In. 47905. The trailers with the white roofs are more than likely reefers. I have no clue how big our lots are but I would guess they are at least 100 acres total. We are projected to produce about 46,000 trailers this year company wide, and also you must remember this is a bad year for the industry in general. Glad I can help you out Flash and everyone else watching,Any more ????'s fire away BTW, the rail line directly behind our plant is NS, thus greatly aiding the delivery of the Triple Crown units produced at the Main Plant (1000 Sagamore Location) all units build in Lafayette are shipped from the ready lots at my location.
Great thread Flash! The SP trailer is a big improvment. I like to add the air lines to trailers by the wheels. And like others have said, a little weathering on a trailer goes a long way...especially around the top front where the cabs exhaust blows back on them.
TrainBoard.com This is the trailer I haul, and haul very similar block too. A Moffet Trailer(the Moffet is the forklift stuck in the back) is one of my winter projects. Thanks for the pic, Flash
I'm very interested in reasonably accurate trailers for 1970's and 1980's piggy back trains. It is my understanding that for Golden Pig service, the Accurail 45' Brae trailer is correct for a vast majority of the SP trailers in the 80's and 90's. Some of them were also Fruehauf which the Athearn 45' trailer is a decent stand-in for. When Athearn gets the A-line Fruehauf trailers produced in the stretched version, those will be nice! Mostly I have a bunch of Accurail and some of the Atlas Pines and a few Athearns. It seams nearly all of them need roof paint and upper/lower side sill paint too.
I finally got around to upgrading some of my trailers. I didn't go as far as many here on TB, but I did add mudflaps, trailer numbers, some lights, decals, and relocated the rear wheels. I got a lot of the information from this thread. I also have about 50 more trailers to go! Most of these trailers are Concor.
Great looking job with those trailers Flash. Here's a look at the tounge and air line connections on the front of a RoadRailer trailer.
Mud flaps on both sides of the wheel? Also, reefer trailer; the reefer fuel must be behind the dolly wheels?
Because that is a yard tractor or Ottawa unit the double mud flap is to keep mud, snow, rain, etc. coming up and piling up on the fuel tank step and cat walk for when the driver walks out the back door to hook up the air and light lines. As for the reefer fuel tank it is behind the landing gear for protection of course.
Standard location for the reefer fuel tank is about 2-3 foot behind the landing gear on our trailers. Just a side note, the baserail( alum. extrusion along bottom of trailer) alone on that ReeferRailer weighs aprox. 412 lbs by itself and is aprox 2 1/2" to 3" thick. We have not built any of these units for anyone in about 4-5 years.
Her is a tractor I just detailed a little with bits of styrene and paint. My exhaust stacks are too short; I will make the next one better. Fun project took about one hour. BTW, I don't know the manufacturer of this model. I think it is a Volvo? Before: After:
