Model Railroading > HO Scale 20-2 Auto Racks

Saw an announcement that "Class One Models" has got 20-2 Auto racks for pre-order. Check it out. No, No, No. I AM NOT working for Class One Models. Just passing along the info. 

I don't know the differences between the various autoracks (other than open vs enclosed and triple vs double).  The ClassOneModelWorks page is a little light on the era details compared to some others, so I'm curious what timeframes this car would be appropriate for.  From what I've been able to figure out, these cars are 20' 2" tall, compared to the Wlathers and Intermountain autoracks which appear to be 19' tall, but the external features look pretty similar.  Isn't 20' 2" height the top of a double-stack domestic container setup?  Makes me think these cars would be newer (say late 90's, early 2000's) as they would need the higher tunnel clearances that came about from the work done to allow double-stack domestic containers.

Nathan

I saw that announcement. What I wish for would be semi- enclosed or enclosed auto racks for late 70s to early 80s.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/04/25 05:38 by SPDRGWfan.

ROKA made those!!

According to the book, The TTX Story, volumn 2, 
page 31-33; in 1992 there were 407 TTQX 20' 2" auto racks in service.  There were 992 by 1997, and 945 in 2003.  By January 2009 their numbers were down to 68 cars, and by 2010, they were all gone. 

Shawn

skokieswift Wrote:
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> ROKA made those!!

They made the Safe-Paks, which are much earlier than these, and a much lower height also.

They say these were converted at the behest of Chrysler, to make it easier to transport minivans. They were common on UP in the mid-90s coming in and out of Oregon from the Midwest on auto trains and mixed freights. 

If you would like to know more, David Casdorph who IS the freight car guru, has several books out on auto racks. Google is your friend. These cars would be the same height as the Auto-Max cars brought out by Athearn. They're just not articulated. The 20-2 rack is able to transport mini-vans on the bottom and regular cars on the two upper tiers. I believe this is how they were set up. If you're a 90s and early 2000s modeler, these will fit right in. 

osp1729 Wrote:
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> According to the book, The TTX Story, volumn 2, 
> page 31-33; in 1992 there were 407 TTQX 20' 2"
> auto racks in service.  There were 992 by 1997,
> and 945 in 2003.  By January 2009 their numbers
> were down to 68 cars, and by 2010, they were all
> gone. 
>
> Shawn

Good info, thanks. I wonder why the quick demise? Seems with all the
 SUV's being produced, there would still be a need for these cars.

The 20-2 racks were converted to meet the sudden demand, and acted as a stopgap until numbers of articulated tall racks like Multi-Max could be built.

Interestingly though, new 89' 20-2 racks have been built recently.  I've seen some over the past year or so lettered for Utah Central (UCRY).

ChrisCampi Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> osp1729 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > According to the book, The TTX Story, volumn
> 2, 
> > page 31-33; in 1992 there were 407 TTQX 20' 2"
> > auto racks in service.  There were 992 by
> 1997,
> > and 945 in 2003.  By January 2009 their
> numbers
> > were down to 68 cars, and by 2010, they were
> all
> > gone. 
> >
> > Shawn
>
> Good info, thanks. I wonder why the quick demise?
> Seems with all the
>  SUV's being produced, there would still be a
> need for these cars.

https://classonemodelworks.com/collections/autoracks