Intermodal Insanity!!!

 Greetings All,

Intermodal Insanity!!!

While enjoying the running of the NS 4082 with the double stacks in June and July prior to setting the layout up for PCCM 112 I decided I wanted to add a few more containers to double up the containers on all of my current well cars. 

I've always liked the double stack well cars and at one time was an Intermodal Service Worker for CSX. I planned to keep my eye out for any container deals that were posted online with no urgency to find any.

89' TOFC Flatcars

Well you can guess what happened... Train World had a sale on Athearn 40' containers and Genesis 89' TOFC flatcars. 

I purchased two of the TOFC cars that can handle twin 45' trailers, three 28' trailers or three 20' containers on chassis in the configuration below which is what I liked.

The Genesis models feature trucks with roller bearings that roll one of which was missing. I emailed Athearn and they responded very quickly sending me a replacement set of bearing caps.

Three 20' containers on chassis riding as TOFC traffic on the 89' TOFC flatcars. 

The six containers and chassis are all Athearn Blue Box products and fit the cars nicely after drilling and slightly enlarging the pedestal hitch holes. Note the Japan Line and Triton chassis are using the raised landing gear to clear the raised humps and sit securely on the hitches 

Containers and Well Cars Prototype Information

A well car, also known as a double-stack car (or also intermodal car/container car), is a type of railroad car specially designed to carry intermodal containers (shipping containers) used in intermodal freight transport. The "well" is a depressed section that sits close to the rails between the wheel trucks of the car, allowing a container to be carried lower than on a traditional flatcar. This makes it possible to carry a stack of two containers per unit on railway lines (double-stack rail transport) wherever there is sufficient clearance.

"File:Double stack car BRAN4708.jpg" by Jaggedben is licensed under CC BY 3.0.

The top container is secured to the bottom container either by a bulkhead built into the car — possible when bottom and top containers are the same dimensions, or through the use of inter-box connectors (IBC). Four IBCs are needed per well car. In the terminal there are four steps: unlock and lift off the top containers of an inbound train, remove the bottom containers, insert outbound bottom containers, lock assembly after top containers emplaced. Generally this is done car-by-car unless multiple crane apparatus are employed.

"BNSF stacktrain westbound through Rosenberg Junction TX" by roy.luck is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Advantages of using well cars include increased stability due to the lower center of gravity of the loads, lower tare weight, and in the case of articulated units, reduced slack action.

Southern Pacific Railroad (SP), along with SeaLand, devised the first double-stack intermodal car in 1977. SP then designed the first car with ACF Industries that same year. At first it was slow to become an industry standard, then in 1984 American President Lines started working with the Thrall Company to develop a refined well car and with the Union Pacific to operate a train service using the new well cars. That same year, the first all "double stack" train left Los Angeles for South Kearny, New Jersey, under the name of "Stacktrain" rail service. Along the way the train transferred from the UP to CNW and then to Conrail.

"APL Mexico City (American President Lines Container Ship) at the Port of Los Angeles - Pictures from the Sprit Cruises 1-Hour Harbor Bay Cruise (San Pedro, California) - Saturday October 24, 2015" by cseeman is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

Each unit of a double-stack car contains a single well. They are often constructed with three to five cars connected by articulated connectors. The intermediate connectors are supported by the centerplate of single trucks, often 125 ton capacity

"MTX.08.01.26.EV-81" by contemplative imaging is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

Also, in a number of cases multiple single-well cars (usually 3 or 5) are connected by drawbars and share a single reporting mark. Alternatively the multiple single-well cars each share a single truck.

"CSX Double Stack train in Worcester" by 4300streetcar is licensed under CC BY 4.0.

On both types of multiple-unit cars, the units are typically distinguished by letters, with the unit on one end being the "A" unit, and the unit on the other end being the "B" unit. Middle units are labeled starting with "C", and going up to "E" for five-unit cars starting from the "B" unit and increasing towards the "A" unit.

"just one freight car" by contemplative imaging is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

Model Information

Athearn 40' container three packs purchased during the sale.

I picked two three packs of Capital containers, each with a different road number. If you can see them power to you!!!

Three Tex containers made for a total of nine containers added. Hmm, I might need another set of well cars.

New Well Cars

On an HO Scale train group that I belong to I came across Athearn BB kits of well cars and containers from Athearn and Walthers being offered for sale at an extremely good price. C'mon man!! My wallet didn't stand a chance.

A five unit set of Gunderson Husky Stack III well car kits lettered for BN Twin Pack and Trailer Train. The five units are considered a single car since they are dependent on each other to make a single car consisting of five units sharing trucks with a coupler on the A and B cars.

Another BB kit of five BN 48' well cars.

And a three unit set of BN 48' well cars.

More Containers

With the very attractive prices and a bulk discount now was the perfect time to add some more containers from Athearn and Walthers.

New in the bag are Walthers BN 45' and United States Line 40'  containers.

Three 20' Walthers containers purchased for use on one of three Walthers 60' COFC flatcars currently in the fleet. 1:87 Sir Neal was summoned for a much needed intervention after the unboxing!!! 

The three newly purchased Walthers 20' containers ride on the Walthers 60' COFC flatcar. This car only accepted Walthers containers which I didn't have enough to fill the three cars in my fleet so they were bought for this purpose. The 60' cars can also take a 40' and 20' container by removing one of the middle pedestals.

Building the Husky Stack Kits

It had been awhile since I last built a kit of this type so I started with the three car set to hone my skills. Here is the top of the A unit

The four large holes and coupler box hole needed to be drilled out slightly so the parts would fit.

The weights were painted with rattle can red to match the car as they are visible when the car is empty.

The couplers and trucks with 33" metal wheels have been installed. Note the Kadee plastic 2-56 screws protruding from the top of the coupler boxes. These will be shaved down to complete the final assembly. The cars come with a drawbar option which I wanted to use however there was no easy way to separate them for storage so I went with the coupler option.

The three car set is complete. Here is BN 64036 A . I used CA gel to attach the platforms and brake wheel assemblies. The ladders are cemented from the bottom using Plastruct Plastic Weld.

BN 64036B is on the other end with BN 64036C in the middle. These cars have the ability to run independently. Note the red weights are visible over the trucks.

Two of the recently purchased double stacked 40' containers in the well of 64036A. 

Newly purchased 48' container stacked atop a 40' container ride in the 64036C. The rule for stacking different sized containers when I worked for CSX was for the shorter container to be on the bottom.

Two more newly purchased 40' containers ride in the 64036B

Gunderson Husky Stack Trailer Train DTTX 73096A thru E

Burlington Northern Twin pack

The next set of well cars on the workbench was this 48' five unit set of a Trailer Train /BN Twin Pack

The build was pretty straight forward with a few differences from the the three unit set built previously. This is the view from the A unit. The end trucks for the A & B units have 70 ton trucks and 33" wheels.

The view from B unit. The five unit sets were set up to run A-E-D-C-B. 

The intermediate units sharing a 100 ton truck with 36" wheels. I painted the wheel faces and trucks flat black.

New 40' TEX containers ride stacked on a pair of 20' smooth side containers in the A unit and on each other in the E unit. The TEX containers have nice door detail. Note the 20' containers are placed at the bottom of the stack with their doors to each other to prevent theft. 

New Capital 40' containers are stacked on each other in the B unit with another riding on top of a pair of 20' rib sided containers in the C unit. The rib side 20'ers are high cube and are taller than the smooth side 20' containers in the prior photo. The bottom containers received one and three quarters ounces of additional weight which was recommended in the instruction sheet.

The construction of the five unit red BN well cars was completed in similar fashion to the yellow well cars. Here are the well cars from the A end.

A view from the B end.

The well cars get a variety of 48' and 40' container loads.

A pair of 20'ers ride on the B unit under the P&O Nedlloyd 40' container.

Now it's time to test them. Since the new well cars have Burlington Northern lettering what better way to test them with a trio of BN locomotives.

The new well cars and containers get tested!

Back to the workbench!!

While the train made it thru the most daunting grades and curves the leaning of the containers needs to be addressed and minimized.

I addressed that by using shorter 2-56 screws and washers to attach the trucks to the bolsters for better control. After some adjustments  a second test run was conducted with the containers and cars leaning much less.

Final Thoughts and Comments

The newly purchased intermodal equipment greatly expanded my fleet of containers and well cars and will allow me to focus more on intermodal operations should I choose to do that at some point. I may look to add them into more modern op sessions if feasible. If that doesn't happen the intermodal trains will be run for my railfanning enjoyment in between my 1970ish model railroad operations.

Thanks for reading and watching!!!

See you soon!!!