Western Railroad Discussion > Odd 20' containers on BNSF through Flagstaff

I'm doing container research right now on what 20' and 40' container schemes and owners would currently be appropriate to have models of for well cars. I was looking through stack trains past the Flagstaff webcam, and an eastbound at 18:38 had some odd 20' containers (closer to the 18:40 mark.) They almost seem fake, because it's like their referencing my modeling research, with this lettering on the side: "This is a 9'6 high container, not 8'6." Weird. There were 6 of them like this, no color, just that text. Any idea why?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/13/19 19:50 by inCHI.

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Avoids the excuse of "I thought they were 8'6"

Bill Deaver
Tehachapi, CA

Containers contain sticker decals that state dimensions. Some individuals need to be reminded in bigger, bolder writing. Clearance issues is my guess, where two 8'6" may fit vs two 9'6" or a combo of both heights.

The vast majority of the 20 foot boxes are the shorter 8'6". I've only ever seen a handful of high cube 20's, and none of them owned by a steamship line. 

I've never even heard of the idea of a high-cube 20. It stands to reason that any that do exist should have the fact that they're HQs plastered all over.

I really have to wonder what type of cargo these were designed for, and who owns or operates them in numbers sufficient enough for the railroads to deal with them. I have been told too many times that one of my (or my company's) 20s was left behind because it was allegedly an "odd 20" lacking pair. (They of course ignored that we had 6 twenties to load that day, two of which were left behind, both for the alleged reason of being "odd 20s").

But when you're running HQ 20s, you really, really do need to run them in pairs, because nobody else in the business has them.

The military sometimes throws in odd sized railroad equipment, perhaps this is one of those times.      They do utilize 20' containers.

 

25G1 - General Purpose
Reporting marks for those particular boxes I found were FXLU and FAMU.
Flex Box Columbia SAS Bogota, Columbia.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/14/19 09:34 by Hookdragkick.

Fizzboy7 Wrote:
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> The military sometimes throws in odd sized
> railroad equipment, perhaps this is one of those
> times.      They do utilize 20' containers.
>
>  

These are not US military. They use standard container sizes so that their stuff will fit just about any container handling equipment.

Thanks for all the additional information and discussion on this. Looking into containers I find way wider variety than I expect... a CN intermodal I saw this weekend, Q148, had CSAV reefer containers, a Chilean shipping company I had never heard of.

inCHI Wrote:
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> Thanks for all the additional information and
> discussion on this. Looking into containers I find
> way wider variety than I expect... a CN intermodal
> I saw this weekend, Q148, had CSAV reefer
> containers, a Chilean shipping company I had never
> heard of.

A lot of produce comes up from Chile and Peru this time of year.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/14/19 17:17 by PHall.

I saw one last week, the black and yellow high cube tape isn't enough, apparently.

Could these be storage containers?  WalMart has 20ft storage containers on the ground at some stores around Florida. They are new clean 20ft containers, not old international containers.

gmojim

Check out the website for Flex-box, especially the page for their specialty containers. Pretty wild stuff with wide side doors on both 20s and 40s. I would imaging that if either ocean carriers or railroads were to agree to haul those, they'd require inspection of the load to make sure the cargo was properly secured to avoid anything blowing out the sides in transit.

http://flex-box.com/

http://flex-box.com/index.php/special-shipping-containers

inCHI Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thanks for all the additional information and
> discussion on this. Looking into containers I find
> way wider variety than I expect... a CN intermodal
> I saw this weekend, Q148, had CSAV reefer
> containers, a Chilean shipping company I had never
> heard of.

CSAV, founded in 1872, is Compania Sud Americana de Vapores (South American Steamship Co).  Merged with Hapag Lloyd in 2014.

The Military uses odd small sized containers some as small as 5ft wide x 8 ft 6

Didn't know Flagstaff had a webcam, how do I get to it?

Go to Youtube and search "Flagstaff Virtual Railfan."

John


Amtrak784 Wrote:
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> Didn't know Flagstaff had a webcam, how do I get
> to it?