Nostalgia & History > L1011 Wing Cars

SP 5300 with L1011 Wing Cars at West Colton Dec. 27, 1979.

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Great picture! I always thought the TriStar was a cool plane; I had a chance to ride the last Delta flight to the desert boneyard and foolishly passed it by, darn it!

Anybody know what the cars actually carried?
Wing pieces to be assembled in Palmdale?
Or just outer wings?

Did they traverse the Palmdale cutoff due to clearance restrictions?
...Lorenzo

Anyone actually have pics of the cars? Great shot and thanks for sharing.
Andy

There was a writeup on these two cars in the March 2002 Mainline Modeler. It shows the cars with the tops off during their construction at SI&EC (Southern Iron and Equipment Company)

More photos on Railcarphotos.com

AVCX 2002 http://www.railcarphotos.com/PhotoDetails.php?PhotoID=10869 middle car

AVCX 2001 http://www.railcarphotos.com/PhotoDetails.php?PhotoID=10867 end car

AVCX 2001 http://www.railcarphotos.com/PhotoDetails.php?PhotoID=10868

These are the only photos that I have ever seen of these AVCX cars.

I would like to see more if anyone has some!

Tom Daspit
Morgan Hill, CA
Tom's Trains

SCL1517 Wrote:
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> Great picture! I always thought the TriStar was a
> cool plane; I had a chance to ride the last Delta
> flight to the desert boneyard and foolishly passed
> it by, darn it!

My only flight in a L1011 was ATL to PDX on DELTA in 1st class. Without a doubt, the best long distance flight of my life.

Larry Dodgion
Wilsonville, OR

Flew on an L1011 from St. Louis to Seattle one time. It was 1977, and we were supposed to fly from Burlington, VT to CHI, then SEA. A blizzard arrived the night before we were supposed to leave. We got to the airport in the early morning, and our United flight out of Burlington actually started in Portland, ME. It came to Burlington, but at 30,000 feet. The ticket counter let us know when it passed overhead.

So then they started scrambling, trying to find us flights. We flew to Boston, but I don't remember with what airline. In Boston, we had about 10 minutes to catch our next flight. Fortunately, it was leaving at the next gate. But then we sat on the ground for about an hour, waiting for our turn with the deicing truck. Then it was off to St. Louis, then an Eastern L1011 to Seattle. As I recall, the flight was packed. Big planes, though.

Barry Stone
Edmonds, WA

L-1011's were lovely aircraft indeed. The "Lost" aircraft set was largely comprised of an ex-Delta L-1011, digitally altered in some scenes to look 767-ish. But the Delta stripes are there in the "Oceanic" paint livery.

Let's see... "Lost" filmed those scenes out by Dillingham Airfield near Mokuleia. The sugar railroad ran there once upon a time. Okay, trains! Phew.

~ BZ

Interesting photos from Railpictures, nice view of the unusual frames, very mid-evil looking, looks like something from the Russian Moon Mission.

timz2, the cars carried complete left and right wings for the L-1011. The wing box was built into the fuselage during construction, and the wings were mated to the box in (guess where) the wing mate station. I saw those cars many times while working at Flight Test on the L-1011 at Lockheed's Plant 10 in Palmdale. By some quirk of fate I ended up with 1011 test flights on the best commercial aircraft ever built.

A complete wing would have a root chord
of... 35-40 feet? So how does it fit
in the car?

nycman Wrote:
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By some quirk of fate I
> ended up with 1011 test flights on the best
> commercial aircraft ever built.


Another quirk:

When we would deliver Jet-A, several tank cars a week, to Plant 42 at Palmdale... the lock on the tank car tracks had the combination of "1011". Only rode in one on a r/t to Maui, and I agree, a great plane... Lockheed knew how to build them!

And, we were almost ran over by a new "Nippon Airways" L-1011 on the taxi way to the tank farm, a story I told here on TO a few years back.

Take Care, Stay Safe, Have Fun!

Larry

Not 35-40 feet between the main spars. I misled you by saying "complete" wing, as leading and trailing edge devices were not attached to the wings transported by those cars.

Thanks for sharing. Never got to fly on one, but from a design standpoint, a far better jetliner than the DC-10.

Having rode in both may times, Pan Am and TWA L1011s and United DC-10s, both were good planes, however, the L-1011 was quieter and rode better in the bumps. Actually I miss both as the 767-300 comes close in ride but lacks in speed and the 777 is too noisy.

I always liked the L1011. It was a great ride, especially up front.

Jerry Grinstein helped me put my bag up on a flight from Seattle to Atlanta once. I mentioned who he was to the crew, as they didn't recognize him.