20 Oct 2001 Speaking of US Freight being one of the owners of Trailer Train, here is a list of owners and when they joined TT, along with other TT milestones through 1959. (Info from Railway Age and other sources.) 11/55 Trailer Train formed by PRR, N&W and Rail-Trailer to supply standardized TOFC equipment to member/owner railroads 3/56 TT begins operations using 500 existing PRR class F39 75ft flats and orders 330 more; tests ACF's 2-axel Adapto flat and orders 1,000 cars (order later canceled); B&M, CB&Q, MKT, MP, SLSF, and WAB join; CB&Q and WAB sell their 75-foot cars to TT 1957 TT begins fitting 200 existing 75ft flats with ACF hitches; begins converting 286 PRR 50ft flats with ACF hitches to carry single 40-foot trailers (class F30G); issues design specifications for 85-foot flats capable of handling two 40-footers or one 40 and one 45-footer; C&NW joins 1958 TT orders 800 85-foot flats from ACF and Pullman-Standard; B&O, RI and U.S. Freight (a freight consolidator and forwarder) join 1959 TT takes delivery of its first 85-foot class F85 TOFC flats from ACF and Pullman; ACL, GM&O, IC, L&N, NKP, SAL and SSW join -- Jim Eager60'S AND '70'S TRAILERS
Jun 15, 1999 Sorry it took so long to respond to your thoughtful postings of a week or so ago; it's been rather hectic at work and home. I totally agree that there is a real information gap when it comes to photos, drawings and general information about trailers from the '60's and '70's. And I understand that even with the material in hand, not all model manufacturers are going to welcome someone with open arms, not to mention license problems with the 1:1 scale manufactures, a.k.a. Timpte. As near as I can tell, here's what we currently have to work with: Athearn's 40' Trailer - An okay copy of Pacific Fruit Express RTM-40-1 class reefers built by Fruehauf in 1961; see page 234 of Signature Press' PFE book for a picture of these trailers. Unfortunately these are meat reefers, and not representative of the hundreds of produce reefers that PFE had in service. And there aren't decent decals for this model anyway. Athearn's 45' "Fruehauf" Trailer- As Brian and others have mentioned, this is a sloppy rendition of Fruehauf's van, something that needs redoing badly. Yes, you can use the A-Line 40' kit with the 5' extension, but making that look like an original-built 45-footer and not a "stretched" 45 is a difficult task(ok, it is for me). A-Line 40' Fruehauf "Z-Van", beaded-side and "smooth" sheet-and-post versions - Great kits, haven't heard any complaints about them at all, but where do you find prototype lettering and paint information for them? Yes, there's a reference sheet of available decals in the kit, but nothing is said about number series or paint matches to help out the modeler who wants to be prototypically correct. Page 121 of the new "Southern Pacific Color Guide" by Tony Thompson has a shot of one of these in PMT paint; how about some decals, Microscale? A-Line 40' Fruehauf with 5' extension - Again, a great kit of a sheet- and-post "stretched" van, but again prototype pictures and lettering diagrams are needed. Luckily there are still Z-Vans running around out there to photograph, but they're becoming scarce. Lone Star 40' Trailmobile flatbed - Another great model, one that according to Dan Goins can be "backdated" into the '60's or '70's. Dan, did Trailmobile have any photos of these trailers dating back to original production? If so, any that made it into one of the model magazines would be a great blessing! As far as I know, that's it for kits of early trailers. We still need someone to do '60's and '70's Stricks, Utilitys, Trailmobile vans-I guess we can forget about Timptes(too bad). And I agree with Dave B. that we need "pups" of ANY make and model from this period. Until a model manufacturer gets the urge-and resources-to fill the gaps in the list of available '60's and '70's trailers, we'll just have to soldier on with what's on the market. But we have wish lists. Shawn BeckertTOFC DIMENSIONS
Jun 7, 1999 2 beginner questions At 2:02 PM 6/2/99, John Kordash wrote: > >I have two beginner questions. Both relate to building the Accurail >89' flats w/ trailers. > >Question 1: > On the 45' Trailers, how far back from the front wall does > the landing gear sit? > >Question 2: > Where do I place the hitches on the deck (specifically)? > I am working on TTWX, RTTX, STTX, and KTTX flats. > > The RTTX I want to run triple 28s. > > The orientation of the hitches is explained in the assembly > documentation, but not their location in any precise sense. On "Twin-45" flats, like the TTWX, STTX, WTTX, etc, the "front" hitch is at the B-end, and should be set back so that the kingpin centerline is about 28" from the deck edge. The middle hitch's kingpin cetnerline should be set about 44'4" from the A-end. These measurements can vary a inch or so. On Twin-45s with back-to-back loading, i.e. the KTTX and RTTX flats, both hitches will be set back about 28" from the ends. The middle hitch on an RTTX is about 33'6" in from the A-end. D. Scott Chatfield
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