tofc
Auto Racks....
Finished automobiles and trucks are some of the most
easily recognizable loads on the rails. Originally shipped in
boxcars, long flat cars quickly became the method of choice for
shipping finished vehicles. These long flat cars came with
"racks" on top to have two or three layers of vehicles on each
car. Normally, bi-level were for trucks and tri-level for
cars. The first racks were open to the elements, as seen below,
and were susceptible to damage from vandals and the weather.
Eventually cars became more and more enclosed until the fully enclosed
rack was introduced in the early 1980's. All sorts were seen on
the Chessie System.
Ownership of these cars is a little unusual. The Chessie System
did not own any autorack cars, but
they did own the racks. A jointly owned (by major railroads)
corporation called Trailer Train owned the flat cars.
As part of a pooling arrangement with the other major railroads, the
Chessie System purchased a number of racks to support the fleet of
autoracks nationwide. Trailer Train always
maintained ownership of the flat car, so there were no Chessie auto
racks with B&O, C&O or WM reporting marks. DTTX or ETTX
type reporting marks were used on these cars. TT denoting Trailer
Train and X denoting private (non-railroad) ownership. The racks
got decorated for the railroad that owned them. Predecessor (WM,
B&O and C&O) marked racks lasted well into the Chessie Era.
Original Trailer Train flats were painted boxcar red (as seen on DTTX
901793). TT adopted yellow as the color of choice in the late
60's or 70's, as seen on ETTX 950510.
Normal trains of autoracks had about 10-20% Chessie road racks, the
rest were primarily Eastern roads such as PC, N&W, MILW, etc.
There were the occassional BN and UP rack as well.
As a side note, I have seen photos of WM owned flat
cars and racks (WM 1001-1014), but have not seen evidence that these
few cars made it to the Chessie System era.
Open Bi-level Auto Rack
DTTX 901793 (C&O rack) (Purchased as a decorated kit,
weathered by me)
Enclosed Trii-level Auto Rack
ETTX 950510 (Chessie C&O rack) (Purchased as a ready-to-roll
model, weathered by me)
