Specialized Containers for Intermodal Loads

I've already written notes about how the ubiquitous boxcar started getting replaced by specialized cars in the 1960s. For example, grain used to be hauled in boxcars. Southern Railway invented the covered hopper car to carry grain much more efficiently. And autoracks made shipping cars in boxcars obsolete. I'm now starting to see that not all containerized loads fit in a box.

Shawn Floyd posted
Dennis DeBruler It looks like the "container" is just 40' long. Maybe the metal is being exported.
[The comments debate what metal is being shipped. Some say that it looks like too many slabs to be steel and stay within the 88,000 lbs capacity limit. These are called flatbed containers. The advantages are: heavy loads can be loaded through the top using regular cranes, the floor is stronger, and there are more and stronger tie-down lugs. They can also add bulkheads.]

A couple of grab shots on I-80 while heading west through Joliet. The truck is probably headed to the UP or BNSF intermodal yard that is south of Joliet. These turned out pretty well considering I was shooting them "blind." That is, I kept my eye on the road, not the camera.

20170608,15 9186, cropped

I posted these photos on Facebook.
Dennis DeBruler 1295 is Trichlorosilane, whatever that is. The blue placard means it is dangerous when wet.
Alan Roeben Gives off hydrochloric acid when it gets in contact with water. 

Used in silicon conductors when ultrapure.

Dennis DeBruler posted two photos with the comment: "In a westbound intermodal train on BNSF in Downers Grove, IL, on 5-29-17, I saw my first container compatible tanks.They were in the piggyback part of the train instead of the double-stack deep well part. The second tank had a placard: 1993: 131 Compound, cleaning liquid (flammable)."

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The Arrowedge is also a specialized container. In fact, it is very specialized because it doesn't hold a load at all and should be placed only as the top container on the first platform.

Update:

safe_image for What Is Intermodal Equipment?

And before today's standard container and deep-well platforms were developed and adopted, there were some interesting experiments.

Marty Bernard posted three photos with the comment: "AT&SF Containers at San Bernardino, CA, Duane Hall photo, August 1986."

David Williams: I was at Corwith when Santa Fe debuted the A Stack to the shipping traffic managers. They were really supposed to be for a hybrid grain/intermodal use. The top and side bottoms were able to be opened and closed for grain loading and emptying, even designed to empty the top container thru the bottom container like dumping grain cars. If memory serves me, the thought was to put these in the fields during harvest time, collect them when filled, stack on fuel foilers and run them ad/hoc in intermodal or merch service to supplement unit grain train service. When not in harvest service they could be used in intermodal service, notice how heavily reinforced the rear doors are, hence part of it’s downfall. These were so heavy engineered to be able to hold bulk grain and they were HEAVY. They also needed a chassis (wheels) to be moved on the road. Unfortunately the prototype chassis was a cut up Fuel Foiler section with tires, as it needed the support from the full length of the spine/beam of the railcar, this too was HEAVY. Interesting idea that was destined to fail, too HEAVY. They ended up as storage containers at various locations.

Just some more worthless trivia stuck in my head. When the mechanical engineers came to John Reed (CEO) with this articulated intermodal flat car idea, they figured it would be best in a 6 trailer configuration. John Reed who was a tea totaler wouldn’t have any thing on his railway known as a six pack, I can’t make this stuff up! Fast forward to today - spine cars (articulated cars) are in 5, 3 and 1 configuration and all ten packs/ Fuel Foilers are a historic memory.

Jerry Mike Harris: A stack never caught on, but the ten packs made Santa Fe a big profit.... they ran the wheels off these cars... I did a study when I was on staff and the ten pack put on almost 10 times more milage than a conventional trailer flat car in a years time...

Steve Rippeteau: David Williams OK your dissertation helps explain the issue ATSF had to reckon with the lack of braking power. Ever since that era ATSF came up with the “tons per operative brake” or TOB formula so we could determine what the maximum speed of our train could be set at. Those A trailers were so damn heavy, (even empty) especially on a 10 pack with only 3 brake valves and 20 A containers, we couldn’t have slowed down fast enough for normal track speed! WOW! I never did work a train with those A stacks in the 40 years I was on the ATSF. Thanks for your info!

Ted Gregory shared

Brian N Amy Regal: That neat. Was there a purpose to being designed like that I’ve square corners.

Dennis DeBruler: Brian N Amy Regal I had assumed the curve at the top was like the curve on autoracks --- it avoided having to cut "ears" into tunnels.

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Marty Bernard posted three photos with the comment: "Three More of Those AT&SF Containers. Duane Hall took these in August 1986 in San Bernardino, CA."

John Perkowski: What I see is lost space and difficulty to load and unload. If I were offered these as a shipper, I’d be running to UP, SP, or MoPac.

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Jonathan Forrest Stroup: This looks oddly like an aviation setup.
Steve Rippeteau: Jonathan Forrest Stroup yes, my foggy memory remembers an article in the ATSF company magazine saying they were designed to slide into the cargo hull of aircraft similar to the ARMY & AIR FORCE shipments. So they took intermodal one more step.

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[The logo explains why they called them "A Stack" containers.]