Early container well car?

[Lyon_Wonder]

This photo of an intermodal freight from 1981 shows what looks like an early container car.  It was called the LOPAC 2000. Judging by the recessed well, they look like they were designed for containers, like later doublestacks.  The well cars in this pic were carrying UP trailers TOFC.  Not sure these early LOPAC well cars were/are capable of carrying containers stacked?

 

[CShaveRR]

That car, BUDX 2000, was built by the Budd Company.  I believe Thrall acquired the patents after Budd shut down, and this was the basis for their first articulated five-packs for APL in 1983 or thereabouts.

I know that the well cars of this BUDX car were intended to carry containers as well as trailers, but I'm not sure that double-stacking was on the radar when it was built (it may not have had the capacity for it).  This is not to say that double-stacking hadn't been tried; SP had some flat cars modified with bulkheads for carrying stacked cars, but I don't think they were well cars.

[Falcon48]

There are modern well cars designed to handle either double-stack containers or a highway trailer in the well.  You can indentify them because they are equipped with trailer hitches.  They may also be identified in the Ofiicial Railroad Equipment Register, but I don't have ready access to it. .

I'm not familiar with the LOPAC cars. However, I do know that, although double-stacking didn't really take off until the mid-1980's, the concept had been around since at least the late '70's, so it's entirely possible that some double-stack capable equipment was built around that time.  In looking at the photo, I suspect that the LOPAC cars were designed to handle double stacked steamship containers.  The reason is that there is otherwise no apparent purpose for the depressed well.  But I'd be real interested in any hard information anyone has about this equipment.     

[Paul_D_North_Jr]

According to David J. DeBoer's PIGGYBACK and CONTAINERS (Golden West Books, 1992), the original BUDX-2000 design was for trailers only "and fit within a Plate B, i.e., a very tight clearance profile" (pp. 136 - 138).  Later on, it morphed into a double-stack specification (pp. 152 - 154).

 - Paul North.

[beaulieu]

Paul_D_North_Jr

According to David J. DeBoer's PIGGYBACK and CONTAINERS (Golden West Books, 1992), the original BUDX-2000 design was for trailers only "and fit within a Plate B, i.e., a very tight clearance profile" (pp. 136 - 138).  Later on, it morphed into a double-stack specification (pp. 152 - 154).

 - Paul North.

 

The LOPAC cars were built for trailers only, and the only buyer was CN. They were bought to enable the carriage of piggyback through the tight confines of the original St. Clair River Tunnel. The design was pitched to other Eastern Roads but CN was the only buyer. These cars were used on a special CN service using the name "Laser".

[samfp1943]

Beaulieu and Paul are right on it.

    The first times these cars appeared, they were touted as THE solution for getting Piggy-backed trailers into the Northeastern US.    By uttilizing the low-dropped deck as a device to by-pass historically low clearances on bridges, and tunnels that were frequent and severe on Northeastern railk routes.

[Paul_D_North_Jr]

beaulieu

The LOPAC cars were built for trailers only, and the only buyer was CN. They were bought to enable the carriage of piggyback through the tight confines of the original St. Clair River Tunnel. The design was pitched to other Eastern Roads but CN was the only buyer. These cars were used on a special CN service using the name "Laser".

Interesting !  Thanks for adding that, as DeBoer doesn't mention it at all (that I could find - nothing in the Index, either).  He goes through a saga of Thyssen/ Budd/ Thrall (and others) with Trailer Train (and others) on the referenced pages, but I found it hard to follow exactly what was done with Budd's designs after 1981.  It seems there was a lot of "cross-pollination" and hybridization happening at the time, so precisely unraveling that historical and technological thread may be too difficult today to be worthwhile.

- Paul North.

[Paul_D_North_Jr]

Here's a link to a photo of a "CN Intermodal Laser" 48 ft. container, captioned as "CNRU 280594 Retired Laser Container CN MacMillan Yard July 31st 2005":

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=164292 

Also, on Google Books is an excerpt from Don L. Hofsommer's book, Grand Trunk Corporation: Canadian National Railways in the United States, 1971-1992, (MSU Press 1995, ISBN 087013406X, 9780870134067), which references the mid-1980's "astonishing growth on CN's Toronto-Chicago Laser intermodal trains" (pg. 149, lower right column): 

http://books.google.com/books?id=28PLpNLQ3x4C&pg=PA149&lpg=PA149&dq=laser+%22canadian+national%22+-vision+-weapon+-bomb&source=bl&ots=qvJNQfhBb6&sig=ysy-jI-7A-rlAACRdd6mN-tuPrU#PPA151,M1

The Laser is apparently also mentioned on page 124, but that page is restricted form viewing there:

http://books.google.com/books?id=28PLpNLQ3x4C

Finally, I found that MicroScale Decals has a set for the 48 ft. container - but I won't resort to that as a reference or authoritative source (yet !).

- Paul North.

[SD60MAC9500]

 

beaulieu

 

 

Paul_D_North_Jr

According to David J. DeBoer's PIGGYBACK and CONTAINERS (Golden West Books, 1992), the original BUDX-2000 design was for trailers only "and fit within a Plate B, i.e., a very tight clearance profile" (pp. 136 - 138).  Later on, it morphed into a double-stack specification (pp. 152 - 154).

 - Paul North.

 

 

 

 

 

The LOPAC cars were built for trailers only, and the only buyer was CN. They were bought to enable the carriage of piggyback through the tight confines of the original St. Clair River Tunnel. The design was pitched to other Eastern Roads but CN was the only buyer. These cars were used on a special CN service using the name "Laser".

 

Correct. I witnessed the final runs of the Laser Train as we called it on these parts. The final service lanes were; Chicago-Toronto-Montreal, Detroit-Toronto-Montreal. COFC was also employed as in sinlge stack on a all purpose spine car.

 

[SD70Dude]

The CN cars could handle both containers and trailers.  

http://tracksidetreasure.blogspot.com/2019/09/cn-lasers-five-paks-and-double-stacks.html

We still have a number of drawbar-connected well car sets with fifth wheel trailer hitches in service, though I've never seen them carrying anything except containers (we don't have TOFC service in Canada anymore).  I imagine the hitches are pretty rusted and seized by now.