I found a TTX version of this at the Spokane train show today and for $35 could not pass it up. I knew DI made these but have never seen one before. Was it a limited run type of thing or have I always just missed them? And just for the heck of it I also found a old Kadee/MT BN 60ft bulkhead and some old Lionel for my son. KEvin
I have been playing around with this car and love it. The yellow paint is a little bright but that can always be weathered down. The middle car of the 5 pack does leans to one side though. Has anyone put one these togeter or taken one apart? It looks the units are held together with screws but there is no parts diagram so I do not want to mess with it to much until I can see how it is put together. It is to bad that DI has never done more of these because it looks great. Kevin
KEVIN; IF THE THRALL CARS ARE WHAT I THINK THEY ARE, THE NAME OF THE COMPANY USE TO BE KNOWN AS INTRRAIL IN WHICH THEY PRODUCED THE 5 UNIT 40FT THRALL CARS UNASSEMBLED AND ASSEMBLED. IF I REMBER CORRECTLY, CAME IN 2 ROAD NAMES TTX AND APL THEY ALSO PRODUCED A 40FT TRAILER THEY HAD TO BE ASSEMBLED I HAVE TWO SETS THAT I USE IN MY INTERMODAL YARD BECAUSE I FACE THE SAME PROBLEM ABOUT THE WEIGHT OF THE CARS SOME HOW DEUX INNOV. STILL CARRIED OVER THE THRALL CARS:mbiggrin:
I bought one of those Lo-Pak cars years ago from the hobby shop I used to work for. It had been returned with one of the tabs that couple the units together broken off. Got it very cheap and was able to repair it. Not a bad running car. I had it all apart back then but do not remember much about it other than I always handle it very carefully to prevent the repaired tab from breaking. So far- so good. Those things retailed for like $65 if I remember correctly.
Kevin, somewhere I have the instruction sheet for the Interrail kit version which may be of help. I had two sets - one APL red with the refrigeration units and one APL blue. I recall enlarging it from A4 to A3 due to the very small text in the original document. I can scan it and send if you like (once I find it!).
These are nice kits if you like a challenge,I have two of them,one APL red (unbuilt with the power unit) & one APL blue + another blue 3 car set (accident damage).Must be run with weighted containers for best results.Or,as I found,the old Alan Curtis,white metal bulk head flat container frames looked good & ran well.
I had four of the DI version of this car; they were good runners but pretty much out of my time, so I sold them off. If I were modeling with an earlier time cutoff I wouldn't have sold them, they were excellent cars. Apparently the cars I had were made from the previous company's parts stock. I recall one of the connectors broke right after I got them - easily fixed though, and the cars ran flawlessly. This was one of the projects DI was always working on and simply didn't bring to completion.
Gary, a copy of the instructions would be great. Several of you have said you cars are light, but mine is made of a metel and has good weight. Deluxe must have upgraded them to metel castings at some point. KEvin
The originals are metal as well but they are quite spindly and light. I'll hunt up those instructions for you Kevin.
Kevin, I have one of the same sets, it also had problems with the tabs coming off and the cars not sitting level on the track. I took it down to DI and they popped off all the tabs and re glued them. As far as the well not sitting correctly, they said that some of the tabs were flipped over when they were installed. That might be a reason why the well is leaning on you. Hope it helps..........
Jim, I'm curious...what exactly is the timeframe for these cars? I'm assuming they were chopped/stretched/rebuilt is why you're saying they aren't still around? I've read more than once (and had a BNSF guy at one of their intermodal hubs pretty well confirm) that virtually no articulated/doublestack equipment has been retired from service with the exception of the very early SP stuff or (obviously) wreck-destroyed cars. So I'm curious how these wouldn't fit in.
OK, thanks Kevin, that's what I thought. I took a photo of an old-school Sea Land 5-unit articulated bulkhead car this past weekend on a BNSF train northwest of Fort Worth. It had the huge bulkheads with the "Lamborgini Fins" on it.
Doug, you WILL see one from time to time but they are becoming rare. They can handle only 40 foot boxes in the lower well - one of the reasons the Maxi IV has sold so well, since it can take 53 footers. Now granted, if your road's main stackers handle only ocean going traffic, no sweat. But if the road needs to handle domestic containers, you will need 48 foot and 53 foot ability... In the late 70s – early 80s, the SP designed ACF Twinstack car was the only double stack car around. [FONT="]In 1984, APL and Thrall built the first of the modern container cars which stacked containers using the interbox connector as on shipboard rather than the fins as on the SP/ACF cars – allowing a significant weight reduction. They called it the Lo-Pac 2000.[/FONT]
Actually, these days it is the 48's that are becoming rare. (I know because I still try to catch pics of 48's since I model the fringe when 53's were just coming onto the scene but 48's were still king.) Now, many of them are being chopped down to 40's. That's why I was curious about the Lo Pac's since now you either see 53ft (domestic) or 40ft (international) wells and the fleets of 40's have remained largely untouched since they are needed for the 20ft and 40ft international containers. A lot of baretables have been stored over the past year or two so maybe the older cars get the first nod there. It does seem (at least around here in North Texas) that the traffic has picked up again so I'm sure we'll be seeing a resurgence of older cars again. (which would explain my Sea Land car)
The 40ft's and 53ft wells are the most popular these days. BNSF trys to use only 40ft wells on stack trains because of the wasted space that comes with using 48 or 53 ft wells for 40ft box's. The Q and Z trains use mostly 53ft wells. The 48ft containers themself are quite rare now. KEvin
Still available from N Scale Kits As they are metal they will weight the cars down - and easy to put togther too. Peter Peter Harris N Scale Kits N Scale Kits
