? about auto parts boxcars

[emd_SD_60]

What kind of auto parts are carried in those big boxcars, the 86 foot ones. Is it like auto parts that go to a chain-operated auto parts store (Advance and auto Zone come to mind), or auto parts bound for an automotive plant, like glass, body panels, and the like. Thanks.

[oltmannd]

Parts for assembly plants. Most retail parts use trucks for distributuion.

[edblysard]

. Yes, and yes...
Although for the most part, the retail stores get most of their stock from a central distribution point via truck, as each store orders on a weekly basis.
It gets delivered on palettes, shrink wrapped.
The distribution center is often served by rail.

But for the most part, the big boxes are full of auto/truck frames, crated engines and transmissions, stuff like that.

Huge amounts of engines/drive trains come from Mexico.
Windshields and back glass/side windows come from both Canada and Mexico, and Canada makes a goodly amount of engines too.
Body panels and such are usually stamped on site.

Keep in mind the auto industry works on a just in time system, so that boxcar of Ford pickup truck engines has to get to the site about an hour or two before they are needed...
Trains had a nice article on the auto industry about four or five years ago...
Ed

[rockisland4309]

If you can find the May 2004 issue of Trains (I believe) there's an article written by Edward J. Brunner about Rock Island's hot auto parts train #57. The article talks about having a "big" train for the Rock. And does mention how important the train was for the Rock and it's interchange with U.P. in Council Bluffs, IA. I hope this helps.

[PBenham]

QUOTE: Originally posted by emd_SD_60

What kind of auto parts are carried in those big boxcars, the 86 foot ones. Is it like auto parts that go to a chain-operated auto parts store (Advance and auto Zone come to mind), or auto parts bound for an automotive plant, like glass, body panels, and the like. Thanks.

The large auto parts cars carry body panels, doors, hoods, trunk lids and the like, from stamping plants, to assembly facilities. Ford does this since they will stamp out common body parts at one facility (Woodlawn NY, for example) and then send them to other Ford assembly facilities that do not have this capability.( Kansas City MO). GM is likely to get away from this system of assembly, but for now, GM's Fisher body division is intact. GM is going to be restructured so how they do things may change as the re-structuring progresses. Daimler-Chrysler and the Japanese auto makers have their body stamping work done at the assembly facility. It is not better,or cheaper to do, just a different philosophy (or "manufacturing culture") that is involved here.

[Modelcar]

....And everytime we see auto parts large volume box cars coming in from south and then from the north....those are jobs that have been outsourced.

[CShaveRR]

The oldest of the 86-foot hi-cube box cars have reached the 40-year age by now. Except for one batch built a year or two ago and the experimental super-high car built for Norfolk Southern, all of these cars were built before 1980. Many are no longer in auto parts service (the Western Hay Company got a bunch of the ex-CPAA and ex-MILW cars, for example).

Time to start shooting these things before they disappear altogether!

[mackb4]

The old DT&I used to haul alot of auto parts.Up till last year I used to still see alot of old DT&I painted 80 footers.Anyone know if they have all been scrapped,or repainted?The 184 hauls Ford auto parts to Georgia via the Pocahontas on the NS.At one time Ford paid the NS $1 million dollars a day ,for guranteed service.

[ericsp]

QUOTE: Originally posted by CShaveRR

The oldest of the 86-foot hi-cube box cars have reached the 40-year age by now. Except for one batch built a year or two ago and the experimental super-high car built for Norfolk Southern, all of these cars were built before 1980. Many are no longer in auto parts service (the Western Hay Company got a bunch of the ex-CPAA and ex-MILW cars, for example).

Time to start shooting these things before they disappear altogether!

I suspect that Elk Corporation is shipping glass mat from its Ennis, TX plant to its Shafter, CA plant in 86' HLMX (ex-CR) former auto parts cars.

[CShaveRR]

QUOTE: Originally posted by mackb4

The old DT&I used to haul alot of auto parts.Up till last year I used to still see a lot of old DT&I painted 80 footers. Anyone know if they have all been scrapped, or repainted?The 184 hauls Ford auto parts to Georgia via the Pocahontas on the NS. At one time Ford paid the NS $1 million dollars a day, for guaranteed service.

The vast majority of DT&I's 86-foot box cars (26000 and 27000 series) were relettered and sequentially renumbered into the GTW 126000 and 127000 series. I can't vouch for the fact that much relettering has been done in the past couple of years, but there are fewer than 50 of the DTI cars left in their original numbers. Some of these, while still carrying DTI numbers, may have been repainted into CN's latest paint scheme.

[CShaveRR]

QUOTE: Originally posted by edblysard

. But for the most part, the big boxes are full of auto/truck frames, crated engines and transmissions, stuff like that.

Probably not those parts, Ed--frames are usually shipped on FTTX flat cars (I don't think any of the railroad-owned frame-car fleets exist any more). I've seen the loads from Mexico go through here en route to Janesville, Wisconsin (GM).

Engines and transmissions are too heavy to be shipped economically in big cars like that (often they have capacities of less than 50 tons, due to the weight of the cars themselves and their loading devices). Engines usually were transported in 60-foot box cars of 100-ton nominal capacity. I think PBenham is correct about body parts being shipped in these cars.

[TH&B]

I see some new big blue CSX 86 footers that look like rebuilds of the older 86' but taller! Pretty big, they are used by GM.

[CShaveRR]

Haven't heard of rebuilding 86-footers to increase height; they were excess height to begin with. That's not to say that it couldn't be done, though--they could get a couple more feet in height and still be only as tall as the TTQX auto racks or a doublestack load. The cars would have to be the 100-ton variety, though, or all they could handle would be upholstery stuffing! Can you cite specific number series for this?

[ShaunCN]

just saw a DT&I autoparts boxcar today, they are rare now. Also in the train was a GTE one with DTI reporting marks. as for those frames on flat cars they travel on the FTTX flats MOST of the time. a few times i saw a GTW flat and once a CN flat car with these frames on em.