The typical UP intermodal

[Junctionfan]

Hello everybody,

I would like to model a UP intermodal (Z trains) and was wonder, what kind of domestic containers and trailers on usually or unusually found on the UP trains? Has anybody seen any rare stuff on it with 10 years?

Thankyou for any help you can give.

[jeffhergert]

The last few days I've paid more attention to the Z's as they went by. On the east/west ex-CNW I see a lot of Schneider National (orange) trailers. Sometimes it seems half the train are Schneiders. Also see UPS trailers, both short 28 foot "pups" and full length trailers. Roadway trailers are also common. Many trailers are just plain white with no markings other than identity numbers.
One Z had a UP bulktainer on it. While, you may see exotic trailers/containers, the usual train mostly is unremarkable in it's make up. Just depends who wants to pay for the higher service.
Jeff
PS don't forget the power, most have enough to do 70 anywhere, anytime on most track segments.

[Anonymous]

If you want to go back a few years to the fastest freight that UP ever ran, the "Super Van", you would need the power to be two DD40X diesels spliced in the middle with a "Fast Forty" SD-40. Super Van was operated mostly as a UPS priority train but often carried a mixed bag of trailers. The power was geared for 90 mph running, but never got near that point, but 75 mph was common on long stretches of the route. This was UP's attempt to match SF's shorter Chgo to LA route with a train fast enough to make up the difference in the longer miles by pure speed.

Today's Zips carry the above mentioned company trailers, bulk containers, and a larger percentage of refrigerated trailers than in years past.

[Junctionfan]

Thankyou very much for answering my question. What kind of exotic trailers are on thease trains. Yesterday I saw a True Value trailer on a BNSF train, what about UP?

[Anonymous]

For UP domestic intermodal, here's my suggestion:

Trailers - as noted above, Schneider National is the biggest as far as 53' trailers. Wabash models did some nice HO units a few years back.
UPS rides the UP a lot - in spite of what you hear about service, UPS still runs a lot on UP. They have distinctive 28' trailers (silver with sort of a pot-belly bottom.)
The LTL guys ride UP a lot (Roadway, Yellow). They usually run 28's
Every Tom, *** and Harry mid size trucker is trying to get into the intermodal game. U.S. Express is doing some w/ UP.
You will also see some rail-trailers (ie. REAZ, XTRZ, or TIPZ reporting marks). These are pool trailers. The LTL guys tap this pool for extra capacity as do some intermodal providers.

For containers - the biggie on UP is the EMP program, which is a UP Joint Venture with NS Ry. EMP= Equip. Mgt Provider. They have over 25,000 containers 48' and 53' (reporting marks EMPU = 48, EMRU=53 retrofitted standard, EMHU= 53' high cube.
UP and NS own the EMP boxes and the intermodal shipping community loads and pays for them.
Schneider National has taken a fleet of EMP boxes on long term assignment. They have about 3,000 which have EMP and Schneider "OptiModal" decals. Reporting marks are OPSU.
Athearn makes models of all of the EMP variants including OPSU.
Pacer Stacktrain runs their new 53' PATU boxes on UP. These are corrugated steel boxes. They look like steamship boxes (built like 40' boxes) but they are 53 domestic units.
UP also partners w/ CSX RR on two container programs. One is called "STAX" and the other the CSXU container program. There are pics of these boxes on the website below. Scroll all the way to the bottom for 53' equip. I pleased that there's even a couple pics that I took posted on the site.
Here's a link to a site with pics of lots of domestic intermodal equip. Hope this helps
http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/Lab/5410/domestic_containers.htm
- - Stack