Trainworx' recent 40' TOFC trailer offerings pose challenges for modelers striving for chronological fidelity -- it's tough to find reliable information. DeBoer's Piggybacks and Containers is a wonderful book, but it's long on war stories and short on certain specifics. Were those cool-looking MP trailers likely to appear in a D&RGW consist in the mid-1960s? Here's a stab at a timeline of TOFC service, focusing on the 1950s and 1960s.* I put this together by using the Wayback Machine to find a copy of the Tioga Group's wonderful Intermodal Timeline (http://web.archive.org/web/20050914221548/http://www.tiogagroup.com/page22.html), supplemented by a few academic articles that aren't readily available to those who aren't connected with universities. Please note that I've focused on TOFC involving conventional trailers (leaving aside Roadrailers, double stacks, containers, etc.). There are doubtless sins of omission and commission below, so please correct any you find. Altogether missing is a timeline of specific trailers... about which I know zilch. Please supplement! I. PIONEERS (1920s to mid-1950s) The economics of early TOFC service favored short-haul (250-600) routes on a single carrier -- and, thanks to adverse Federal regulations in 1931, within a single state. A few lines developed point-to-point TOFC services but there was little interchange with other roads. 1920s-1950s Early TOFC innovators include the North Shore (1926!), Chicago Great Western, Denver & Rio Grande; the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific; the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy; and the New York, New Haven & Hartford [2]. 1953 SP's LA-SF service is introduced, using proprietary equipment and operated independently of trucking firms (except SP's Pacific Motor Trucking); a half-dozen railroads offer similar services on segments of their lines, including PRR and NH [1] II. TOWARD INDUSTRY-WIDE ADOPTION (mid-1950s to 1963) Legality of interstate TOFC service clarified, Trailer Train formed, but regulations were not established for interchange of TOFC loads; interchange occurred only among contracting roads (e.g., WP, GN, and ATSF in 1954). With certain exceptions (e.g., PRR, NYC), TOFC flats appeared infrequently in freight consists, with few trains containing more than one or two such cars. 1954 Key ICC decision clarifying legality of interstate TOFC traffic and interline service. Quickly joining the ranks of the pioneers were Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe; Baltimore & Ohio; Chicago & North Western; Delaware, Lackawanna & Western; Erie; Great Northern; Kansas City Southern; Lehigh Valley; Missouri-Kansas-Texas; New York Central; New York, Chicago & St. Louis (Nickel Plate Road); Pennsylvania; and Wabash [1, p. 69] 1954 WP, GN, and ATSF begin TOFC service between Seattle and LA via the Inside Gateway (northern Calif.). [ 1955 Illinois Central begins piggyback service 1955 N&W, PRR, and Rail-Trailer form Trailer Train [7] 1956 Trailer Train starts operations with 500 ex-PRR 75-foot flatcars; B&M, CB&Q, MKT, MP, SLSF, Wabash join Trailer Train [7] 1957 Nickel Plate establishes interline TOFC service [3]; 1957 Interstate Highway Act increases trailer length from 35 feet to 40 feet, rendering Trailer Train's fleet of 75' cars obsolete; C&NW joins Trailer Train [7] 1958 Trailer Train introduces the trailer hitch on its new 85' cars, increasing efficiency of TOFC loading/unloading; the cars are designed to carry two of the new 40' trailers [7]. Faced with low clearances, NYC initiates its doomed Flexi-Van service (these vans had detachable wheels, enabling them to be loaded as containers) [7] First 85' TOFC flats built by Pullman-Standard; they were equipped with bridge plates and full decks for circus-style loading [10]. These cars were painted mineral red with off-white lettering and a serif reporting mark [10]. 1959 WP initiates TOFC service between SLC and Oakland; 1959 General American introduces 85-foot flatcar with retractable hitches; C&O enters TOFC market [7]; ACL, GM&O, IC, L&N, NYC&StL, SSW, & WP join Trailer Train [7]. ACF builds first 85' TOFC flats [10] 1960 ATSF, C&O, CMStP&P, DT&I, GN, KCS, NP, RF&P, SP, SR, T&P, TP&W, and UP join Trailer Train [7]. Bethlehem builds first TOFC flats [10] 1961 CofG, CGW, RDG join Trailer Train 1963 D&RGW, E-L, WM join Trailer Train III. PROGRESS AMID CRISIS (1964-1980) TOFC service expands to most carriers during this period, but innovation is held back by the railroads' worsening financial situation and resistance to innovation by Trailer Train, which sought to preserve its enormous sunk investment in conventional flatcars [1]. 1964 ICC clarifies interchange regulations for intermodal service. TOFC service reaches 5x the 1955 levels. 225 carriers participate in interline services. [1, p. 72]. SP develops prototype Piggypacker to overcome problems of "circus-style" TOFC loading/unloading [5]. FEC, NYC, CRI&P join Trailer Train; NYC abandons Flexi-Van container service [7]. TTX begins to use a sans-serif font for its reporting marks [10]. 1966 First production use of Piggypacker (MiLW's Bensenville Yard) [7]; ICC research reveals top 25 goods shipped by TOFC (click to download the appended graphic from [8]); first 89' flats for piggyback service [9] View attachment Goods shipped via TOFC in 1966.pdf 1968 PC-90 Piggypacker in service (this is the prototype for Wheels of Time's model; see [5]). 1969 Pullman-Standard 89-foot flatcar introduced [7]. According to [1] UPS began using intermodal services this year. 1970 Trailer-Train introduces its yellow paint scheme [9] 1980s All regulation of intermodal transport ends; TOFC service expands by nearly 40 percent from 1980-1985 [1]. ... So, to answer my question... Would MP TOFC vans have appeared in a D&RGW consist in the mid-1960s? Maybe, but during the period of my interest (mid-1960s), I think a given D&RGW consist would most likely contain, at most, a couple of flats with D&RGW vans. Bryan Pfaffenberger Charlottesville, VA REFS*My periodization is based on [1], with modifications. [1] John C. Spychalski and Evelyn Thomchick, "Drivers of Intermodal Rail Freight Growth in North America," European Journal of Transport and Infrastructure Research 9:1 (March, 2009), 63-82. [2] http://cta.ornl.gov/transnet/terminal_doc/index.htm [3] http://peoriastation.blogpeoria.com...-st-louis-rr-the-nickel-plate-road/#more-8124 [4] http://utahrails.net/up/up-in-ut-1900-1996.php [5] http://www.wheelsotime.com/blog/tag/tofc [6] http://utahrails.net/wp/wp-in-ut.php [7] http://web.archive.org/web/20050914221548/http://www.tiogagroup.com/page22.html [8] Morash, Edward A., Stanley J. Hille, and Edward R. Bruning. 1977. "Marketing Rail Piggyback Services." Transportation Journal (American Society Of Transportation & Logistics Inc) 17, no. 2: 40-50. [9] TTX timeline http://www.ttx.com/aboutttx/history.aspx/ [10] http://www.model160.com/n-scale-news-blog/intermodal-flat-cars-the-85-pioneers/
Great start! I've always used pictures of trains to decide what to buy and run, but those are much easier to come by for my period, which is 1970s to the not-quite-present. I hope this will become a long and informative thread.
We've been down this road before and there is (still) not a whole lot on TOFC. Bryan's post already makes this an informative thread/reference. Still, even if there were no direct agreements with MoPac, Rio Grande could have been used as bridge between MoPac and somebody else. MP, D&RGW and WP always were cooperative with each other against the giants. As for the likelihood of seeing MoPac trailers, I think we need to establish a figure for MoPac flats converted to TOFC. As a guess, I think we would probably expect their trailers to be on their flats, unless we find a confirmed exchange agreement between MoPac and Rio Grande. If someone wants to run through the Trains Magazine DVD-ROM for the mid-1960s, please do! Yup, far and few between. RP CYC 20 (out of print) has a baker's dozen worth of photos of loaded flats. For modeling though, the problem has also been getting the right flavor of trailer for the right road, if you're doing RR-specific trailers.
Thanks for the kind words! That was my impression -- namely, that there isn't sufficient info on TOFC. I hope others will contribute. Right. I believe the three lines indeed cooperated to run fast St. Louis-San Francisco TOFC service in the seventies, but I doubt that such efforts dated back to 1965, the cutoff year for my layout. It's SO frustrating to do this... back in the day, rail fans took pictures of locos, not consists. Over on the DRGW list, Jim Eager and others compiled data from partial consist views visible in 1960s-era photos and movies, breaking down the observed by road name and AAR mechanical designation. Here's my graphical rendition of the data they compiled: View attachment DRGW Freight Consists - 1960s.pdf As you'll see, they found that TTX accounted for more than four percent of total traffic, placing it among the more frequently-observed marks... but the frequency data isn't broken down by flat car type. Observed were TTX TOFC flats (FC) and TTX autoracks (FA), but we don't know how many TOFC flats were observed. I suspect most of them were autoracks. This problem is compounded by the fact that, like most model railroaders (I suspect), trucks and trailers aren't terribly interesting to me... after all, they helped to eliminate a significant portion of US railway trackage. I'll be darned if I can find a good, readable, authoritative history of trailer designs anywhere (online or in print) ... anyone know of one? --Bryan
