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[quote user="TomDiehl"][quote user="futuremodal"][quote user="TomDiehl"]  So intermodal with different names isn't related. Trailer Train 86 foot TOFC flatcars aren't related to Thrall Industries 5 unit articulated cars. One is an earlier experiment with hauling truck trailers on the rails, the latter a refinement of the concept. All steps between the two weren't a success. The Front Runner cars come to mind. [/quote] It is interesting that you bring up the Front Runners.  Basically taking outdated TOFC cars (too short to host two 48+' trailers, too long to carry just one without wasting space) and combining them via drawbar to allow three long trailers to ride on the two platforms with no wasted space.  A good way to utilize otherwise obsolete equipment.  But in no way an innovative forward thinking plunge into technological superiority.  The Front Runners were still overly heavy on the tare compared to spine cars and the TTOX/Four Runners.  What was saved in using available equipment was lost in the extra fuel costs.  The TTOX/Four Runners were much better potential adaptation of using existing equipment and modifying it to conform to the evolution of the highway trailer, but alas such was an opportunity lost due to undocumented speculation regarding the single axle bogies and the subsequent spacing on the units themselves. [/quote] Wrong again. The Front Runner was a single unit spine car, the name owned by TTX. These were discussed back in February: <A href="/TRC/CS/forums/1/717192/ShowPost.aspx#717192">http://www.trains.com/TRC/CS/forums/1/717192/ShowPost.aspx#717192</A> Not to be confused with Utah Transit's new trains, using the name by permission from TTX. If you actually talk about the Front Runner, it was an inovation in intermodal, that led to the development of the articulated spine car. The drawbar connected 89 foot flats you're talking about were a utilization of obsolete and underused equipment to help gain income from these cars until the value of the car was depreciated. And the criticism of the two axle per platform Four Runners was well documented. They just didn't track well in longer trains like the railroads in this country run. And nothing about the obviously failed tests of the Iron Highway cars. [/quote] You're right.  The Front Runner was the single unit single axle TOFC car.  The Four Runners were four such TTOX Front Runners connected by drawbar to form one car with four platforms.  The Long Runners are the two 89' flats connected by drawbar.  My apologies to the forum. BTW - do you have any of those "well documented" documents regarding the performance of the Front Runners and Four Runners?  Some of the earlier versions did not have a later modification that helped the wheels "give" a little into a curve.  Could it be that the whole lot was tossed based on the performance of the earlier versions?  If the wheelbase of the Four Runners were deemed to long for curve negotiability with single axles, why not try and "hybridize" the concept with my aforementioned articulation with a standard two axle bogy at the "A-C" and "D-B" connections?  That in and of itself would have solved the curve negotiability issues, if such was the case. As for the Iron Highway carsets, Paul gives a good explanation for why the railroad industry would rather bail on an idea rather than making the necessary adjustments.  So the independent wheels caused problems when dampers were not replaced - doesn't this beg the question as to why the dampers were not replaced in the first place?  Wouldn't just about any piece of railroad equipment be subject to probable failure if a key piece of equipment is removed and not replaced?  What's gonna happen to a coal gon if a failed journal is not replaced? The second question that is begged is this - if the independent wheelsets were just too much of a problem, why not go with regular solid single axle bogies? Apparently, such simplified solutions were not even contemplated.
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