Those Strange Looking Boxcars?

M

Mountain Man

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Jan 19, 2007
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Probably not truly "boxcars" at all, but I've been meaning to ask about them anyway:

Occasionally on the rails nearby we will see what appear to be very large, very tall "boxcars" with roofs slanting in from the sides and meeting in the middle just like a small structure, only entirely metal. There are never more than two or three of these things in any one consist, and always hooked together.

What are these things and what do they transport? :confused:
 
Mountain Man said:
Probably not truly "boxcars" at all, but I've been meaning to ask about them anyway:

Occasionally on the rails nearby we will see what appear to be very large, very tall "boxcars" with roofs slanting in from the sides and meeting in the middle just like a small structure, only entirely metal. There are never more than two or three of these things in any one consist, and always hooked together.

What are these things and what do they transport? :confused:
Click to expand...

More than likely they are aircraft part transporters---wings and fuselages---from one assembly point to another.
 
shaygetz said:
More than likely they are aircraft part transporters---wings and fuselages---from one assembly point to another.
Click to expand...

They always look heavily weathered and often rusty, almost the way scrap iron cars often do. Would aircraft parts be transported that way?

Is there a site where I can browse different types of cars by image?
 
Mountain Man:

Are they like these?
train3.jpg


... or these?

They're carrying wing assemblies.
 
Squidbait said:
Mountain Man:

Are they like these?
train3.jpg


... or these?

They're carrying wing assemblies.
Click to expand...

That's the ones! Funny - I found a site to browse through all types of rolling stick, but I didn't see any of these. My "new" eyes work worse than my old ones. It also appears that I am "descriptively challenged,", as I got the top completely wrong. More like a Dutch roof. :rolleyes:

Thanks for the info! :thumb:
 
I don't have a picture, but I worked on a similar looking car that had a refrigeration unit on the end. I worked on the refrigeration unit. It hauled rocket fuel to Vandenburg Air Force Base out here in Cali.
 
Mountain Man said:
Funny - I found a site to browse through all types of rolling stick, but I didn't see any of these.
Click to expand...


Maybe because they are acutually owned by Boeing, and specific for their use, and not used for anything else but hauling major aircraft assemblies(wings and fuselage), like the SRB car that belongs to NASA. If you notice, there's no reporting marks, as I have read, that whole Boeing Trains run from Witchita Kansas, to the major assembly plant in Washington state.

Ironic though, isn't it?
The one thing that killed passenger travel by railroad, is traveling by railroad.
 

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I didn't know they still used open auto racks, or at least that they were still using them in 2004. I thought they went to the enclosed type due to vandalism resulting in damage to vehicles in transit.
 
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