Canadian Railroads > FCF - Trailer Train Front Runner TOFC Cars and Details

Rummaging through the Logan file produced these interesting intermodal cars. Built for carrying a single trailer (and no other option), they were a minimalist, lightweight approach. Apparently several manufacturers constructed these for Trailer Train; these examples are all TTOX. You can find out a bit about these cars at https://www.spookshow.net/freight/atlasfront.html. The photos of the Atlas model version reveal a certain lack of finesse, shall we say.
1. TTOX 140186 was shot in CP's South Edmonton yard in Old Strathcona on July 23, 1992. The lettering indicates it was new in 11-84, and has a Lt. Wt. of 25,800 lbs. The road grime has knocked the yellow down quite a bit.
2. TTOX 145191 is beside the CP main, to the west of its intermodal facility, north of 34th Ave., on July 6, 1999. The resolution doesn't allow me to be dogmatic about it, but the build date also appears to be 11-84. The colours are a little more clean.
3. I took a close-up showing the lead truck and trailer hitch, which you notice is fixed, not fold-down. So this car could not accommodate containers. The truck is a single-axle design, with a bearing housing that reduces unsprung weight. This is the same approach GE used on most [?] of its diesel trucks.
Apparently these were a bit unstable, being too light (prototype and model). If trailers are now 53', then the cars would be too short as well, being 50'6" over end sills.
Fred

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Great pictures Fred! And not just for the prototypes, but for the surroundings included as well! Those Front Runners were definitely odd ducks, they didn’t have long service lives. I was wondering if they were used in Canada often or not.

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