Western Railroad Discussion > TOFC cars to haul all these trailers.

For many years it looked like intermodal trailers were going the way of the Dodo bird. Outside of the LCL carriers, the truckload carriers and even UPS took advantage of the better rates on doublestack containers. Meanwhile the TOFC cars were stored, scrapped or repurposed. But new regulations, a turnaround in the economy, and young people rejecting careers as a over-the-road truck driver has driven a surge in TOFC traffic over the past few years. I wonder if we are getting close to the point that TOFC traffic demand overtakes the avaiblity of TOFC equipment. Seems it's been some time since I've seen a 89' flat in intermodal service, and many have been repurposed for other rail service or into road bridges. Does anyone know of TOFC equipment still in storage? And would railroads invest in new TOFC equipment?

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/17/19 02:39 by funnelfan.

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The 89' flat car is almost extinct like the dodo bird. Railroads today perfer the 3 and 5-pack spine cars. They are lighter in easier on the curves. If there are TOFC spine cars in storage it's probably just temporary being positioned for the next load.

Posted from Android

Make what you want of it, but I've noticed plenty of new, clean 53' well cars over the past several years with build dates as late as 10/18, for multiple roads, BNSF, DTTX, UCRY, etc... But the newest built spine cars i see in the yard are several years old with build dates back in 2012 and maybe a few in 2015. Seems to me the corporate push for double-stacking is still stronger than TOFC...

~ Mr. MRL

The-late-EMD Wrote:
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> The 89' flat car is almost extinct like the dodo
> bird. Railroads today perfer the 3 and 5-pack
> spine cars. They are lighter in easier on the
> curves. If there are TOFC spine cars in storage
> it's probably just temporary being positioned for
> the next load.
>
All true.  We might add that the 89' cars were notorious kickers, i.e. cars that produced undesired emergency brake applications(UDE's).
That's another reason railroads have either repurposed or scrapped them.

Nick Tharalson,
Marion, IA

MrMRL Wrote:
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> Make what you want of it, but I've noticed plenty
> of new, clean 53' well cars over the past several
> years with build dates as late as 10/18, for
> multiple roads, BNSF, DTTX, UCRY, etc... But the
> newest built spine cars i see in the yard are
> several years old with build dates back in 2012
> and maybe a few in 2015. Seems to me the corporate
> push for double-stacking is still stronger than
> TOFC...
>
> ~ Mr. MRL

While it is true that the railroads much prefer domestic containers for double stacking, the few remaining railroads left that actually try to meet the needs of the customer, as opposed to the new "PSR" method of the customer has to cater to the service provider (ie the railroad), there will still be a need for standard TOFC equipment.  In addition, the fleet of "spine" cars will continue to go down due to wreckage and retirement, creating still a need for new equipment.  For the most part, the BNSF is the only railroad that actually purchases it's own intermodal cars, the rest of the railroads pretty much totally depend on the vast fleets from TTX (a company who is owned by all the Class One railroads).

My bets are that sooner or later, TTX will purchase new spine cars.  For decades, the "in know" has been saying that the boxcar will also go into oblivion like TOFC, but here we see brand new boxcars out on the rails quite frequently.  Most of these new boxcars are also being provided by TTX, so I think TTX will also provide more new TOFC spine cars as well.

One other possibility one can see is the single well cars that also have trailer hitches so standard TOFC can be loaded in them.  I don't think you'll see this as the standard TOFC car replacement as the intermodal facilities hate loading these cars and it take longer to load and strip them.  However, that could be wrong as since when does management listen to those that use the equipment...

Nic pic Ted.

BB

UP is putting quite a few 53' containers (mostly EMP and UMAX, some CSX, CR England and Tiger Express) on spine cars. With the uptick in OTR truckers shifting to intermodal, their trailer counts have gone up quite a bit too.  We'll see if that lasts now that PSR is resulting in reduced lanes and slower service. 

Bruce

The only 89' flats I'm seeing as of late are FEC "long runners". Solid drawbar flats are the Last of the Mohicans.

Doesn't CSX discoruage customers from using TOFC now a days?

Dont all the Class 1's discourage ppl from using rail?    I dont get it.

pdt Wrote:
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> Dont all the Class 1's discourage ppl from using
> rail?    I dont get it.

Even though domestic containers are charged a little lower rate, BNSF is still much more friendly towards standard TOFC.  

Very important item to remember, UP and NS are owners of the EMP container pool and UP and CSX are owners of the UMAX container pool. CSX also owns CSXU container pool.
BNSF has no container pool or trailer pool. Bring your own container or trailer and BNSF will haul it for you.

So UP, NS and CSX want customers to use their container pools.  BNSF will haul what you got, just bring them a container or trailer. And BNSF intermodal is the best in the business. That is why you see all those trailers riding BNSF today.

​gmojim

Yes, Burlington Northern Santa Fe runs solid "piggyback" trains. The summer of 2018, when in Amarillo,Texas, I witnessed several of them. A couple of them even had 89' flatcars in consist but they are indeed getting rare. I really like solid pig trains. Glad BNSF runs them!

SantaFeRuss

Posted from Android

SantaFeRuss Wrote:
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> Yes, Burlington Northern Santa Fe runs solid
> "piggyback" trains. The summer of 2018, when in
> Amarillo,Texas, I witnessed several of them. A
> couple of them even had 89' flatcars in consist
> but they are indeed getting rare. I really like
> solid pig trains. Glad BNSF runs them!
>
> SantaFeRuss
>
> Posted from Android
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Yes, those BNSF trailer Z piggy's are special. Just like the good old days when intermodal started. All trailers have Z reporting marks,

gmojim