Vert-a-Pak Auto Rack Flat Cars

[Anonymous]

Hello from Colorado, My name is Tom Johnson, a mechanical engineer working in the RR industry and I would like to hear back from any former mechanical inspectors or logisitics department employees that were familiar with the Vert-a-Pak special freight cars. The rail shipments of the Chevrolet Vega subcompact car models originated at the GM assembly plant located in Lordstown, OH.

Any assistance wouild be greatly appreciated.

[Andrew Falconer]

 Were all Vert-a-Pak Auto Carriers painted for the Southern Pacific?

Andrew

[Anonymous]

They had a nasty habit of dumping the batteries out and thus generally totaling the chevys (not worth fixing ) before they ever left the yard.  You would have thought someone at GM would have figured out that tipping the car on its nose would dump out all the fluids that could get out.

<>Needless to say they didn't last long. 

[train18393]

I believe that many years back either "Model Railroader" or "Model Railroad Crafstman" had a short article, or perhaps is was just pictures of someone who scratch built one. I seem to recall the explination of how they were loaded and unloaded, but any other details other than that escape me. It was probably a 70s article, but searching on the MR or MRC website may prove fruitful. Perhaps it was a "Model of the Month" in one of those magazines.

 

Paul

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

They had a nasty habit of dumping the batteries out and thus generally totaling the chevys (not worth fixing ) before they ever left the yard.  You would have thought someone at GM would have figured out that tipping the car on its nose would dump out all the fluids that could get out.

<>Needless to say they didn't last long. 

I remember from my brother's Vega that the battery that came with the car was a sealed battery and had side-mounted posts to accomodate being shipped in Vert-A-Paks.  The aluminum engine block was the real problem on those cars.

[dknelson]

This weekend some of us were watching a train video showing a freight when a Vert-A-Pak went by.  I mentioned that they were built to haul Chevy Vegas.   None of my railfan group had ever heard of the Vega.  My best friend in college had one that rusted out near the battery and now I wonder if maybe battery acid had spilled in the interior when it was being shipped in a Vert-A-Pak.

 My question is, did they haul anything other than Vegas?  And when the Vega went out of production were the Vert a Pak cars scrapped, or modified, or stripped down to the flatcar frame, or what?

Dave Nelson

[drafterdude]

The Vert-A-Pack cars were developed in a joint effort by SP and General Motors. They were designed to handle thirty Vegas which had special sealed batteries and seals or plugs to prevent the spillage of gas, oil, and coolant in a nose down position. Besides Southern Pacific: Burlington Northern, Cotton Belt, Florida East Coast, Frisco, Milwaukee Road, Missouri Pacific, Rock Island, Seaboard Coast Line, Southern, and L&N (#801935) operated these cars according to the L&N Color Guide to Freight and Passenger Equipment Vol. 2.