I was wondering when year New York Central applied yellow logos on semi-trailers?
Amtrak America, 1971-Present.
While I don't have an exact date right in front of me, 1957 comes to mind as the pioneering days of the Flexi-Van service on the New York Central.
I haven't seen the yellow herald ever used on any other equipment besides the Flexi-Van trailers.
NYC invested big into the system but with the removable bogies it became a big hassle. It survived into the 1970's under Penn-Central for a few years but by the mid 1970s TOFC and what we now know as the overseas shipping container made the Flexi-Van concept obsolete.
Somewhere in my collection I have an employee magazine, the NYC Headlight, that has a big PR splash on the roll-out of Flexi-Van. I'll post more info when I find it.
Hope that helps, Ed
Did the flexi-vans carried anything else than mail?
Flexi-Vans picked up what was left of the Pacemaker L-C-L service. I would estimate only about 25% of the F-V traffic was U.S. Mail. Anything that could be shipped by truck and the shipper was willing to pay express rates would be carried by Flexi-Van. Here's a link to the Headlight I mentioned in the previous post.
Thanks to Terry Link for scanning his copy.
http://www.canadasouthern.com/caso/headlight/images/headlight-1164.pdf
More here:
https://books.google.com/books?id=wDdLYp_PoWAC&pg=PA66&lpg=PA66&dq=flexi-van+u.s.+mail+new+york+central&source=bl&ots=2QQZV3YpNT&sig=vT21UwRgRbJmUedhxgid0EloxXw&hl=en&sa=X&ei=qbgrVc-oBuzgsATir4LIAg&ved=0CD8Q6AEwBA
Here is a link to photos showing a demonstration of the "Commando" tractor.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jnos363/5082152589/
Ed
That was much help gmpullman, thanks
angelob6660 That was much help gmpullman, thanks
Glad it helped you out...
Do you know if anyone makes an HO scale model of the "Commando" 6th wheel tractor they used to load and unload the Flexi-Vans?
None that I'm aware of. It would make for a fun scratchbuilding project, though!
Maybe some Roco military trucks would make a good starting place?
Member "zstripe" has a pretty extensive knowledge of rubber-tired equipment. Maybe you can check with him?
Have fun, Ed
BMMECNYC Do you know if anyone makes an HO scale model of the "Commando" 6th wheel tractor they used to load and unload the Flexi-Vans?
THIS would make a good starting point for a kit-bash project:
http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/Athearn-HO-Yard-Tractor-p/ath-29123.htm
Good Luck, Ed
Thats pretty close. Im suprised no one makes these things. They make the freight cars, seems like a logical step to make the thing that unloads the freight cars.