Western Railroad Discussion > Why did ICG have 86' ft. box cars?

On the Kansas City camera I saw an NS train with an incredible string of 86' foot boxes (say, 40-50) which I'm calling "incredible" because it seems like that might be the only train these days that would have that many. In the mix there were a few ICG 86' boxes, which I've seen on CN around Chicago as well. That made me wonder - why did ICG have them? With other roadnames, I can think of auto plant traffic, but with ICG, I'm not aware of any plants that were served. Were there some? Or were these just cars to add to a pool?

The photo is one I saw in Griffith, IN a few years ago.

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Probably as their share of auto parts pool mileage.  Their Chicago-St. Louis line was an important link between between cars originating on the C&O and GTW in Michigan destined for southwestern assembly plants on the MP and SP.    

As noted earlier IC carried most of the auto parts from Chicago connections for the  GM plants at Wentzville near St. Louis and Kansas City, KS and was the primary connection for the Cotton Belt and SP APW auto train for Los Angeles.  Circa 1970 the IC ran up to four sections of #63 and also #65 out of Markham for East St. Louis that were loaded with auto parts and some autos.  The LA area plants eventually closed and deregulation and mergers kicked the ICG out of the remaining business to these plants.  The ICG line to St. Louis was severed with the remaining business for St. Louis handled via Duquoin.
Dick Eisfeller



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/07/19 18:22 by Dick.

Dick Wrote:
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> As noted earlier IC carried most of the auto parts
> from Chicago connections for the  GM plants at
> Wentzville near St. Louis and Kansas City,
> KS and was the primary connection for the Cotton
> Belt and SP APW auto train for Los Angeles. 
> Circa 1970 the IC ran up to four sections of #63
> and also #65 out of Markham for East St. Louis
> that were loaded with auto parts and some autos. 
> The LA area plants eventually closed and
> deregulation and mergers kicked the ICG out of
> the remaining business to these plants.  The ICG
> line to St. Louis was severed with the remaining
> business for St. Louis handled via Duquoin.
> Dick Eisfeller

Didn't GM have an assembly plant at Shreveport, LA at one time? I wonder if ICG hauled parts to it.

Thanks Dick, that is really fascinating. I never would have imagined there were several trains a day worth of that traffic.

I might have seen that same train this weekend on the Kansas City/Santa Fe Jct. camera.  I, too, was surpised to see a long string of auto-parts cars.

Since atomobiles are still being manufactured and these jumbo boxcars are getting old, does anyone think we might see a new generation of 86' cars?

John



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/08/19 04:29 by Korigaoka1811.

Ha! I thought the same thing about this train watching it on VR. Here's the pics I took with my phone to send my buddy because I too thought it was out of the ordinary. It started with the NS loco on the lead then as it came around the wye it had the tall stack of carbody frames followed by like everyone else stated a never ending consist of 86's high cubes. I told me buddy it looked like a throwback auto train from 20 some years ago. Thanks for sharing!

Andy/Metamora,IL

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The NS train you saw was probably 181 out of Detroit.  

ts1457 Wrote:

> Didn't GM have an assembly plant at Shreveport, LA
> at one time? I wonder if ICG hauled parts to it.

GM had a plant there from 1978 to 2012 on the southwest side of town, adjacent to a UP yard.  Typically the serving road (SP/UP) would get all of the inbound and outbound traffic.

IC/ICG auto parts cars showed up in Omaha on various RR's. Even a few (maybe the same one several visits) in grey.

CO5232 Wrote:
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> Probably as their share of auto parts pool
> mileage.  Their Chicago-St. Louis line was an
> important link between between cars originating on
> the C&O and GTW in Michigan destined for
> southwestern assembly plants on the MP and SP. 
>   

The General Motors auo parts train to Sou Cal was made up in IC's Markham Yard and interchanged to Cotton Belt at East St. Louis. All the parts and setups originating in Michigan and Ohio made their way to Markham to get on this train. At East St. Louis, more carloads of parts were added, principally from Fisher Body plants in downstate Ohio.

All parts cars assigned to GM were in a general pool and so could be seen on the auto parts trains to any of GM's destinations. For example, one might see the IC cars passing through Omaha on the GM parts train en route to the Bay Area.

Best regards,

Rob L.

rob_l Wrote:
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> All parts cars assigned to GM were in a general
> pool and so could be seen on the auto parts trains
> to any of GM's destinations. For example, one
> might see the IC cars passing through Omaha on the
> GM parts train en route to the Bay Area.

In the early days of hi-cube's, I think GM preferred the 8-door cars. I wonder at what point in time GM gave up about that?

GM Also had a plant at Leeds, MO south of Kansas City, MO which closed in 1988,