TOFC Car

Could any of you CP Rail guys tell me a little bit about this car? I see a bunch of them on BNSF trains here in Texas (mostly LA/Richmond to Alliance-Ft. Worth intermodals) and am considering trying to buy and/or model one. (N-scale) Are these similar to the TOFC 57' Converts (ala the Micro-Trains TOFC cars and/or the ATSF conversions.) other than it looks like they may be 60-footers? The unique thing I notice about these cars is the "rail" that runs along the sides. Is this for holding containers (I've only seen them with trailers) or was there some other original purpose? Thanks for your help.

 

Good news! I found a little bit of information about these cars on my own. I stumbled across the July 1997 issue of Mainline Modeler at a LHS and discovered drawings of this car by Patrick Lawson on pages 41-43. There is no article, but the title page says they are from Canadian Pacific Railway series 505725-505930 63' TOFC Flat Cars built by Marine Industries Limited. Assuming the numbering is continuous, that would suggest there were 206 built. The cars were built with dual hitches to handle two 28-footers, although I'm not sure if they are still configured as such. The drawings indicate a "New 9 73" for #505725 but I'm not sure if that is accurate or not.

So whadaya say Alan? I've got the drawings and I'd be good for a half dozen or so in N-scale. I'll even go get some detailed photos if I can find one sitting still long enough.

BTW, this backissue appears to be still available at http://www.mainlinemodeler.com if anyone is interested.

 

With my newfound knowledge, I was able to search further online and found the following sites with additional information:

This is a site about Canadian freight cars that I've visited before. It doesn't have the exact car, but several photos of similar cars.
http://jbrail.railfan.net/home.html

This site is a roster of CP Rail cars, and shows information supporting the road numbers, build dates, etc.
http://members.rogers.com/iancranstone2001/cp4.html

 

Doug, the outer rub rails were a common thing on earlier piggyback cars that were end loaded (backing the trailer onto the car from an end ramp rather than using a piggypacker.) The rub rails stopped the trailer from falling off the side of the flat if the driver got it wrong!

I guess the double hitches would have been useful to let a long trailer be loaded from either end, saving them from having to turn the car to load it.

EDIT:
I think I have a pic of something similar if it will help, and I have another suggestion for a possible model. The NS has a big batch of 50'-ish TOFC flats converted from boxcars, these seemed to be pretty common when I visited last?

[ 06. June 2003, 10:25: Message edited by: Martyn Read ]

 

Actually, the double hitches were arranged with one on the end and one in the middle, which allowed for loading two pup trailers facing the same direction or a single long trailer when the middle hitch was collapsed.

Micro-Trains has actually released a "version" of the NS 50' car...I'm not sure about prototype fidelity, as I think that they just took their ATSF car and painted it NS. But I don't think they were radically different cars so it's probably pretty close.

I might actually try to put together the research materials and present this to Micro-Trains, as this seems like something they would release. Although I would rather somebody like Alan do it so we could get etched brass decking which is not something M-T does as far as I know.

EDIT: I think you are right about the rails. When built in the 70's the end loading was still the norm. The drawings do indeed show the ramps on each end to get to the next car for circus loading.

[ 06. June 2003, 15:06: Message edited by: Doug A. ]