TRAILERS ON FLAT CARS

[peterjenkinson1956]

i recently managed to get hold of 15 x 53 foot trailers      i had some 89 foot flats and put some of the trailers onto these  however i remember that some 53 foot trailers can fit into container cars   they had hitches at each end for the trailers   any idea if these cars are available  in Ho   also are impact cars  ( spine cars )  available in  Ho    i have around 30 x 89 foot flats with trailers and dont want to have too many more   ............peter

[jasperofzeal]

The container cars with the hitches on both ends are still available from Walthers.  They are called "all-purpose husky-stack cars".  Here is a link to one of them: http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/932-4304.  As luck would have it for you, they are on sale.  I think concor also has these available, http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/223-198601.  I can't say much about the running quality of either of these cars since I don't own any, but I'm sure someone here can shed some light on that part.

As for the Impacks, they're no longer made, so your best bet is to hunt on ebay.  The only thing about the impacks is that they can only carry trailers up to 45' long, maybe 48' depending on curve radius (don't quote me on that).  You can also look for Walthers AP spine car, similar to the Impack but it can carry containers, trailers, or a mix of both at the same time.  The same trailer limitations apply to the AP spine but these can carry a 48' trailer without a prob.

[peterjenkinson1956]

thanks tony.....  that link will save me quite a lot of money   i have approx a dozen of those 48 foot cars    all i have to do is put some hitches onto them   i thought the hitches would have been on the inside   thats why i was confused about the cars    peter

[jasperofzeal]

Peter,

Good to hear that the links I privided were of some use to you.  Just so you know, if you plan on modifying the 48' container car to carry trailers, you'll also need to modify the car floor since the AP stack car has a different floor than a regular stack car.  In the following links, you can see the differences of the AP stack car floor and the regular stack car floor.  Also note that the walkways are different on the AP stack car: AP_Stack_Car vs Regular_Stack_Car.  BTW, those nice looking walkways are from Plano Model Products (http://www.planomodelproducts.com/).