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I'm the shipping coordintor for a automotive prototype company. I once shipped two trailers by rail that are specially built as portable enviomental squeak and rattle testing units for a major automobile manufacturer in Dearborn Michigan. They were needed in Oakville Ontario in Canada for pre-production testing on vehicles. My company was contracted to haul them over the road from Yucca Arizonia. Well, they were too heavy to travel over the road due to the frost law in Michigan and Ontario. The only alternative was to send them by rail. I also learned that they were too heavy for the piggy back flats or spline cars. Their hitches are rated to 65,000 lbs but the trailers weighed 100,000 lbs and 78,000 lbs. Nor did the trailers have provisions for lifting. I figured they would have be loaded up with the tractors like circus wagons, so I called Canadian National. CN had BNSF spot two flat cars in AZ and contracted Kelly's Reload Service load them and tie the rigs down. Kelly sent me a video of the loading process. Very cool! One minor problem was unloading the rigs. There were no ramps with the flat cars so the unloading crew had to improvise. The biggist problem was with management. I had everything in place, ready to go. However for some stupid reason, the manager at my company was waiting for the ok (for the second time I found out) from the customer before he would send the tractors to Yucca. The customer didn't call back for three weeks! When he did he was hot under the collar, wanting to know why the units we not delivered yet. After being loaded on the flat cars, the railroads did an excellent job of expediting them in a little over two days. I wish I could have seen them riding the rails. I doubt I will ever have the oportunity to ship by rail again. The trailers were replaced with new lighter units.
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