Model Railroading > Proper hitch use on Dual 45 pig flats?

I bought a bunch of Atlas P&W and ERES 89' pig flats to use as starting points for modern-era (i.e. 2004-2006) patched HS Dual 45 cars. I've read elsewhere that ACF and PS hitches were not mixed on TTAX flats until they were converted to twin 45s, since there wasn't enough room for an ACF hitch in the front position to collapse forward, so PS hitches would be used in front. Am I safe to assume that ACF-built *HS* Dual 45's of P&W and ERES heritage should also have a PS hitch in the forward position and an ACF hitch in the middle? Am I also correct in understanding that PS hitches should be orange, but ACF hitches should be black?

Thanks in advance for any guidance you can offer,

Joe Atkinson

Looking at some photos on RailcarPhotos.com, it kinda looks like anything goes on these. I found shots with two Pullmans, one Pullman and one ACF, and two ACF's. It should be noted that there's an ACF hitch running around, usually on ex-SP cars, that can apparently be mounted in the front position on a Twin-45 car. If anyone has any modeling ideas, I'd love to hear them. The strict Pullman upfront, ACF in the middle thing seems to be a TTX thing. That makes sense to me intuitively as TTX had a large fleet to swap hitches around on. Some of the smaller owners may have owned a disproportate number of one type of hitch or another and had to find other ways to accomplish the same goal. Even on the TTX fleet, there are exceptions, especially later into the 90's and 00's.

I think the Pullman = Orange, ACF = Black is again more of a TTX thing. I found some shots where the hitches are definitely neither orange nor black.

Nathan Beauheim

The color of the hitches has nothing to do with the manufacturer. I believe it has something to do with the way the trailer connects to the hitch. In any case, it's something mechanical about the hitch that needs to be easily recognizable by the folks loading/unloading the trailers -- hence, the different color.

It was explained on the modelintermodal Yahoo! Group recently. This is where I read it, but I don't remember exactly what I read.