What are the prototypical practices of stacking different size containers on a well car?
for example, a 48' and a 40' container in a 48' well car.. which one would prototypically go on bottom
Most of the time, the smaller container is on the bottom. So in your example, the 40' container would have the 48' container on top.
https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SesN4A7emnE/Uri9kq0IvzI/AAAAAAAGcJM/69T3t2GtCX8/s1600/FEC+72604+Double+Stack+Container+Flatbed+Rail+Car+FLORIDA+EAST+COAST+RAILWAY+NS+Freight+Train+CSX+Diamonds+Cordele+Georgia+FEC+Railroad+Railcar++++++.JPG
You can have two short containers on the bottom, but the top would be just one larger one...so two 20' containers might be on the bottom, with a 40' (or 48') container on top.
https://trovestardata.com/images/Collections/0/galleries/98/98014_1.jpg
There's an art and science to container stacks. The pockets for the locking pins have to line up. Some of the old 38 and 40 footers have been retired. So when you stack your model containers, make sure the pockets line up one a top of the other.
Pete.
40 foot containers don't have midpoint connection points or structure to support 20 foot containers on top, so the 40' container will always be on top when mixed with 20 footers.
General rules:
Shorter boxes on the bottom
20 ft boxes on the bottom
Tank containers on the bottom
Loaded containers on the bottom of empties
Hazmat placed in 2 dimensions (railcars is in one dimension linear, containers two dimensions linear and vertical, ships have 3 dimensional placement, they have to check 26 other containers around the hazmat one)
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
I found this video informative. All credit to the creator
Inspired by Addiction
See more on my YouTube Channel
The inter-box connectors are all standardized in the 40' position. You can stack 40/45/48/53 containers in any order (except for some domestic 53s that aren't designed structurally to be stacked upon, and are stencilled "TOP POSITION ONLY").
You often find longer containers on top, because you can put a 40' container in a 40' well and then stack a 53' on top, overhaning the ends of the car body.
Some people will tell you that you can't stack a shorter 40' container on top of a longer one, but those people would be whaat I like to call wrong:
http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=dttx655660&o=ttx
http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=dttx657464&o=ttx
http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=dttx681189&o=ttx
20' or anything else shorter than a 40' standard container will be on the bottom as there's no middle attachment points for stacking 20' on top of 40'+ containers.
Chris van der Heide
My Algoma Central Railway Modeling Blog
When you see a 40 on top of a longer one, that's akin to seeing someone going the wrong way on a one way street. It isn't impossible to do, but don't do it. That's unsafe and a violation of ISO 668 that defines the rules for stacking containers.
I regularly see occasional examples of 40' containers on top of a longer one up here in Canada. Seeing the longer one on top is way more common. Part of that is that if it is a 40' well, the longer one must be on top.
Now you have piqued my curiosity I will have to watch and see if examples occur on the IM trains that handle cross-border traffic to and from the USA.
John