Abandoned 48ft SP container cars

S

schweitzerdude

Active member
Today I was driving south on Interstate 5 between Olympia and Centralia, Washington, USA. There is an apparently abandoned rail line parallel to the west side of the highway. Stored on it are what seemed to be several miles worth of Southern Pacific 48 ft double stacked container cars.

I believe I read somewhere on these forums that 48 ft container cars are being phased out in favor of either 40ft or 53 ft (for semi-trailers).

Anyone know how long these have parked there and what their ultimate fate will be?
 
Can I please just ask why smaller container cars are obsoleting bigger container cars?? It doesn't make any sense

Jamie
 
I'm wondering that too, but when i drove with my family from Dallas (we were visiting relatives there) to Colorado to ride trains, following the old FW&D/C&S main line, there was siding after siding filled with these. and on the Raton Pass line, there were at least 100 coal hoppers sitting in storage. Wierd, right?
 
40ft is the 'accepted' maximum standard container. Although there is a 48ft standard most use the 40ft as it's 'easier' for transport. As a lot of vehicles/ships etc are built to easily accept the international 20ft or 40ft containers (standard fittings allow 2x20ft on a single 40ft trailer).

53ft containers are the 'maximum' international standard, so although 48ft is also a standard length it would make sense to have 53ft as it's the max allowed. 40ft has been a world standard whereas 48ft was more of an US standard. Just blame globalization for it.

Please note - this is mostly from my own memory and experiences. I worked 9.5 years for a construction company and worked with a lot of departments. Although I am in the US I am originally from the UK. Our vehicles could handle 20ft and 40ft containers but on the odd occasion a 48ft container/portacabin would cause the haulage supervisor issues as it needed a lot of extra paperwork (he found it easier to organise a 100ft+ load with police escort from Scotland to Derby).

I guess their ultimate fate would be scrapping. Metal has high prices at the moment. Maybe they could retrofit them to accept 40ft containers but it's probably not economical.
 
The 48 & 53 Ft containers are mostly used for domestic transport. Many 20 & 40 foot containers that are used in inter. shipping are offloaded into the 53ft containers for transport/delivery. Also containers have, like railcars, have a set life expectancy and the containers you may be seeing may have reached their limit. Around the Ports of Los Angeles & Long Beach there are huge yards with containers for re-sale. Also there are industries that sell/lease reconfigured containers as storage units & office/job site buildings. And then again, because of the economy's downturn, you may be seeing excess capacity equipment that is stored.

John
 
They will most likely cut them into thirds, and add space. It's cheaper than building a new one.

Or store them.
 
I remember tripping across a series of photos that showed a shop somewhere lengthening well cars, possibly TTX well cars. If I find it again I will post it.

Could be that they get lengthened to 53 footers, or shortened to 40 footers.

One subject on the matter:

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,2262642

Looks like most marine containers are 20 or 40, whilst domestic is 53... essentially the 48 footer containers are becoming extinct, so the 48 foot cars are being converted by either shortening them or extending them.

EDIT: Found what I was looking for!

From the TTX website itself:

http://www.ttx.com/capabilities/design-build-test-modify/design-engineering.aspx/
 
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The railroads also store older, out of service, and extra freight cars on unused branch lines. This usually happens when there is a down-turn in business, or the cars are not needed if the service is seasonal.

I saw a lot of covered hoppers when I was storm chasing last year. There were some stored "out of service" on an old branch in Illinois just outside of Cairo, IL. These were grain hoppers used for the corn and wheat season, but being mid-April they were not being used, so they were stored out of service at the time. I also saw some on some old grainger branches in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Colorado.

While in Texas, I saw a string of empty container spine cars on a branch line. They were sitting there with weeds up to the brake cylinders, and a loco nowhere to be seen. The railroad (BNSF, I think), had even split them so they wouldn't block a road that crossed the tracks.

John
 
Thanks for the info re container cars

Thanks for the info. Thanks especially to n8phu re the link to the TTX website. I do recall a comment before of converting 48 footers to either 40s or 53s. I'm thinking the 48s I saw yesterday are being stored pending a decision based on future economic conditions to either scrap or convert to 40s or 53s.

Today I continued my trip, east of Portland, Oregon, USA, along I-84 which is parallel to Union Pacific's mainline. Rode along one double stacked container train eastbound, and 2 westbound, and virtually every car was a 53 with a few 40s.
 
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schweitzerdude said:
Today I was driving south on Interstate 5 between Olympia and Centralia, Washington, USA. There is an apparently abandoned rail line parallel to the west side of the highway. Stored on it are what seemed to be several miles worth of Southern Pacific 48 ft double stacked container cars.

I believe I read somewhere on these forums that 48 ft container cars are being phased out in favor of either 40ft or 53 ft (for semi-trailers).

Anyone know how long these have parked there and what their ultimate fate will be?
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i was down there earlier this year and there ex-atsf well cars as well. this goes on for at least 30+ miles
 
schweitzerdude said:
Thanks for the info. Thanks especially to n8phu re the link to the TTX website. I do recall a comment before of converting 48 footers to either 40s or 53s. I'm thinking the 48s I saw yesterday are being stored pending a decision based on future economic conditions to either scrap or convert to 40s or 53s.

Today I continued my trip, east of Portland, Oregon, USA, along I-84 which is parallel to Union Pacific's mainline. Rode along one double stacked container train eastbound, and 2 westbound, and virtually every car was a 53 with a few 40s.
Click to expand...


This sounds like an awesome trip. When I was out west last year, we were along the old SF and UP tracks in the Texas near NM and up in the Panhandle. It was super awesome to have mile long freight trains running at highway speed right next to us. When we got to the Strafford TX area, there was a local serving a ethanol plant. He was on a third track with two hotshot freights running at full speed right next him. One was a container train, and the other was all autoracks.

John
 
Re awesome trip (JCitron's comment above)

The Columbia River Gorge between Portland and The Dalles has to be one of the best trainspotter sites in the western USA, especially if you want great scenery in the background for your photos. Consider:

1. World class scenery (waterfalls, basalt obelisks, volcanos (Mt Hood, Mt Adams, Mt St Helens), cliffs, river, etc))
2. Union Pacific mainline parallel to Interstate Hwy 84 on the south side of the river.
3. BNSF parallel to State Hwy 14 on the northside, on which are not only freights but the Portland-Spokane branch of Amtrak's Empire Builder.

Highly recommended if you get the opportunity.
 
schweitzerdude said:
The Columbia River Gorge between Portland and The Dalles has to be one of the best trainspotter sites in the western USA, especially if you want great scenery in the background for your photos. Consider:

1. World class scenery (waterfalls, basalt obelisks, volcanos (Mt Hood, Mt Adams, Mt St Helens), cliffs, river, etc))
2. Union Pacific mainline parallel to Interstate Hwy 84 on the south side of the river.
3. BNSF parallel to State Hwy 14 on the northside, on which are not only freights but the Portland-Spokane branch of Amtrak's Empire Builder.

Highly recommended if you get the opportunity.
Click to expand...

Thanks.. Some day I'll get out there when not on storm chasing vacations. :)

Have you gotten any ideas for new Trainz routes while on the trip?
Even though I'm out storm chasing, I still come back with some great ideas for yard layouts, branch lines, and other various vignettes that can be included somewhere in a route I'm working on.

John
 
To JCitron re ideas

I am a fan of double-stacked container trains, and the current route I'm working on has a 4 berth container port. So it was fun to see numerous UP container trains on the drive through the Columbia Gorge. I am also into light rail transit, and I can't think of a better place to see a fully developed LRT/modern streetcar system than Portland, Oregon. Riding MAX in Portland has given me many ideas for the LRT portions of my routes. So a trip to the Columbia River Gorge and Portland would keep any Trainzer occupied for days. And the highlight of this suggested trip would be Portland's Steel Bridge:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steel_Bridge

Probably the most multi-modal bridge in the world and also the only two-level lift bridge (with each level operating independently) in the world.
 
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schweitzerdude said:
Today I was driving south on Interstate 5 between Olympia and Centralia, Washington, USA. There is an apparently abandoned rail line parallel to the west side of the highway. Stored on it are what seemed to be several miles worth of Southern Pacific 48 ft double stacked container cars.

I believe I read somewhere on these forums that 48 ft container cars are being phased out in favor of either 40ft or 53 ft (for semi-trailers).

Anyone know how long these have parked there and what their ultimate fate will be?
Click to expand...

I live about an hour from these cars and have noticed they have been there for a little over a year. I noticed there are trees laying on a couple of them from different wind storms.:eek:
 
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