Western Railroad Discussion > How do they load/unload TOFC?

How do they load and unload the trailers on TOFC? I can think of lots of ways it *might* be done, varying from the incredibly slow and cumbersome to the moderately so, to having special equipment to make it drive-on fast and easy. But I haven't a clue how it is really done.

And how does TOFC compare to intermodal boxes? I'd assume that comparatively it is a loss from the word go, except that it can probably do short/medium haul and LTL type stuff better. (But maybe TOFC is cheaper than cross-loading into a boxcar and back to a truck at the far end?)

Straddle buggy with arms that drop down to grab underneith the trailer. That is why if you watch you will see a lot of trailers used in TOFC will have stickers on the side saying "Lift Point"

That is the simple explination.

Here's a link to the site of one of the crane manufacturers. You can see in the picture how it's done. Truck pulls up, drops the trailer, crane loads it. Note the crane pictured can fold up the arms and load containers as well. Links below the picture to various loading machines.

http://www.mi-jack.com/Intermodal_&_Port_Crane_Models_Page.htm

jst3751 Wrote:
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> Straddle buggy with arms that drop down to grab
> underneith the trailer. That is why if you watch
> you will see a lot of trailers used in TOFC will
> have stickers on the side saying "Lift Point"
>
> That is the simple explination.


I don't know if many here know what a "straddle buggy" is. (Actually, I've never heard the term before myself, but I can guess.)

Trailers are lifted on and off flatcars using overhead gantries or giant side-clamp rigs known as piggy packers. The overhead gantries, most popularly known as MiJack cranes in reference to a major builder of them, travel on rubber tires and lift trailers up from underneath as described above to load or unload them.

In the early days, trailers were driven on and off the flatcars "circus style" but that hasn't been common for decades. Along with eliminating driving/shoving accidents, not having to provide a full deck for driving allows the use of skeletal "spine" cars that have lower tare weight than flatcars do.

Below, an example of a Straddle-buggy about to lift up a broken trailer. I nearly went to a hook on this cut of cars before I looked down the track and saw the fouling container...

Mr. MRL - Safety First.

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The Santa Fe (at least at Hobart Yard that I know of) called them "straddle buggies". On the UP across the street (East Yard, both yards are in Commerce Ca.)we used to call them "Drotts" after the Drott cranes that they originally used. Now the UP uses Mi-Jack cranes as you can see from the link in the thread above. Us "old folks" at UP still call them Drott tracks and the newer guys call them by their track numbers (801 thru 808).
When I hired out in 1978 there were only 4 "Drott" track in L.A. along with the "circus ramp" where they would still have to "drive on" certain trailers. The drivers would back the trailers on the flat cars which got pretty tricky when they had several 89 foot flats they had to back up over. Back then the ramp was run by Union Pacific Motor Freight, which the UP actually got rid of in 1990 and replaced it with ITS (IIRC it's Intermodal Terminal Services)-BMT

Huh. Kinda have to wonder how the thing got broken. Doesn't look like it would roll down the road very well. Didn't the trucker or lift operator notice when they were dragging it in or loading it?

If you're ever in Portland, go to the Holgate Blvd. overpass over Brooklyn Yard.

The roundhouse (where SP 4449, SP&S 700, etc. live) is on the north side of the overpass.

The intermodal ramp is on the south side, and you can get a pretty good view of the cranes at work. There's a nice large sidewalk to stand and watch the work happening; I was there last Saturday taking pictures and they had a crane working, plus two more cranes just parked real close to Holgate.

There is a lot of good pieces of information here, but there is a little more.

As stated TOFC was the most common well into the '80s, then came double-stack. TOFC Ramps were all over the place. they could be built very cheaply and loading only required a short wheelbased tractor (hostler). MoPac had one on the St. Louis riverfront near Poplar Street that was a cut off end of a flat car, truck and all, blocked on timbers. An earth filled ramplead up to it and had ties for side walls. The TOFC cars all had knock down or screw-jack fifth wheel stantions that could lay flat on the deck so the trailers could be backed over them as they were loaded on a string of cars. Bridge plates spanned the gap for loading. The facility was called a ramp because that is how the trailers were elevated to deck level. The loading process was called Circus Ramp because it is so similar to loading a Circus train.

Trailers used in this service had to be reinforced to stand the shock of slack running in and out. The trailers also had sections of the lower corner of the box reinforced so that they could be lifted at the few mechanized ramps of that day. Those reinforcement can be seen on todays TOFC trailers. They are located at about the 1/4 points along the length of the trailer. Some trailers actually were marked with an arrow at the reinforced point and a note that said "Pick Here".

The crane in the picture above shows the lift unit with foldup arms. To pick a trailer, the arms rotate down until they hang vertically. The arms spread slightly to clear the body of the trailer. When the "ahoes" at the end of the arms are below the box of the trailer the arms are forced in until the shoes are under the body of the trailer. The entire assembly is then lifted on to or off of the rail car. That lifting unit can be mounted under a straddle crane as shown or on the front of one of those very large fork trucks (Packers). Many of the long haul trucking companies that use an intermodal assist, load a lot of trailers even today.

Loading a container with its chassis is a little different. There is no reinforcing for the lifting shoes so the container is lifted from the top corner castings, and the chassis stays attached and comes along for the ride. There is very little need to do this as most destinations would have a chassis to suit the container.

I do not think the picture above is a container and chassis being loaded or unloaded. Based on my experience I would say that it is likely that the container has just been placed on the chassis and when the crane turned loose of the box the landing gear collapsed. Choice two is the crane was preparing to pick up the container and in the process bumpped the container a little forward and sideways causing the landing gear to collapse. Take your pick.

Ron Zimmer

Here's the cool new way - wide span cranes.

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Canadian Pacific used to have a video on their website that showed the loading and unloading of trailers in their Expressway service. Unfortunately, the link no longer appears to be active, but it had been [u]here[/u]. In short, a special tractor drives the trailers on and off the Expressway cars.

Here are some other Expressway links from CP's website--
* [u]Info[/u]
* [u]Photo[/u]

OK kids, I know this is showing my age but how many remember Clejan cars and trailers? Or how many know how they worked? I give it a while and then explain if no one has an answer.

Butch

I remember Piggypackers loading and unloading at Wood Street Yard, aka the Potato Yard, on C&NW in the 1970s. That yard is now Global 1 on UP.

These machines were like fork lifts on steroids. You had the base section, which contained the operator's cab and the motor. Instead of the familiar forks, the units carried a huge rectangular frame with posts coming down from all 4 corners. The driver could maneuver the frame over the top of a trailer, lift it off the flat car and set it on the ground, or do the same thing in reverse. Piggypackers could also handle containers.

XMOP Wrote:
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> I do not think the picture above is a container
> and chassis being loaded or unloaded. Based on my
> experience I would say that it is likely that the
> container has just been placed on the chassis and
> when the crane turned loose of the box the landing
> gear collapsed. Choice two is the crane was
> preparing to pick up the container and in the
> process bumpped the container a little forward and
> sideways causing the landing gear to collapse.
> Take your pick.
>
> Ron Zimmer

It looks like it was being unloaded. To the front is a box on a chassis. Behind it are boxes still on the cars.

Waybiller Wrote:
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> Here's the cool new way - wide span cranes.


This is an interesting evolution and I have been talking with the BNSF folks in Fort Worth about the factors that led them in this direction. This site is very tight for this type of operation so they decided to go heavily toward "Live Lift." That means a driver comes in and goes directly track side and the container is either lifted on to the waiting train or stacked on the ground. Since the loads will not be arriving in spot order for the train the crane will need to run up and down the length of the train often. The rail mounted electric cranes do this travel much faster than the rubber tired versions. Spanning three tracks and stacking containers are both driven by the need to conserve space to the maximum. I am assuming that the widened space between the second and third track is for carmen's access. Access to the first tracks is from between the two cranes.

The indication is that each crane is working a single train, broken into thirds. The train will be fully preped for departure at this location, including the initial terminal air brake test. Road power can then triple the tracks over, set and release and depart.

As for lifting the containers, this crane uses exactly the same lifting frame as other cranes. It will most likely not have the trailer lifting arms as I understand that the trailers will continue to be loaded at Tuckwilla.

Ron Zimmer

jst3751 Wrote:
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> XMOP Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
>
> > I do not think the picture above is a container
> > and chassis being loaded or unloaded. Based on
> my
> > experience I would say that it is likely that
> the
> > container has just been placed on the chassis
> and
> > when the crane turned loose of the box the
> landing
> > gear collapsed. Choice two is the crane was
> > preparing to pick up the container and in the
> > process bumpped the container a little forward
> and
> > sideways causing the landing gear to collapse.
> > Take your pick.
> >
> > Ron Zimmer
>
> It looks like it was being unloaded. To the front
> is a box on a chassis. Behind it are boxes still
> on the cars.


Don't let the position of the camera or the orientation of the chassis mislead you. This operation works equally well in both directions.

The operator is siting there between the two legs and facing the track. So to the operator forward is toward the train and up and down the track is left and right.


Ron Zimmer

I'm trying to figure out how those widespan cranes are laid out. It looks to me like there are two cranes on each rail/truck-road set. But there is also a truck road in the middle and the ends of the cranes seem to overlap this area. Which means that the cranes all interlock against each other, and you can't run an east crane without making sure you clear the west cranes too! That just seems like a recipe for both frequent disasters and huge bottlenecks with equipment never being able to get where it needs to go.

What am I missing here?

The cover a little less than half of the middle so there is no overlap,

There are a whole host of benefits for the wide span cranes over conventional lifts. First, they can stack the cans higher, so it minimizes total footprint, plus minimizes hostling. There's also the local benefit of elimination of diesel sources from the loaders and pups. Plus, as mentioned, they load faster, so there's a manpower reduction. Finally, they use a really cool and powerful load planning software that optimizes all parts of the terminal, from in gate, stacking, and loading.

I really think these are going to be the wave of the future, although they're obviously not cheap. UP just decided to not install one yet at Global 4. The one at the SIG shown in the picture is kind of a baby. It basically only can handle one train at a time. The one that will go online this summer in Memphis is a full size one, with (I think) 8 rails, each of about 8k feet, so it can handle 8 trains at a time.

In addition to the load planning software keeping the cranes separated, there's other hardware and system safeguards to keep them from crashing together.