the MRH Forum

1972 trailer loading Prototype railroading
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Frequent poster 568 posts redP Frequent poster 568 posts
redP

Can someone help me understand this. This photo is a 1972 arial that shows a trailer loading facility. The track is double ended so a ramp is out of the question. I do not see anything that would lift a trailer, so how would the trailers be loaded?

terminal.png 

-Scott

 Modeling Penn Central and early Amtrak in the summer of 1972

 
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redP Frequent poster 568 posts
redP

another veiw

terminal.png 

 Modeling Penn Central and early Amtrak in the summer of 1972

 
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blindog10 Prolific poster 3,329 posts
blindog10

Flexivan

The cars appear to be Flexivan flats.  The boxes are slid on and off the "turntables" that are the fat part of the flatcars.  There appears to be a tractor backed up to one.

Flexivan was a New York Central idea that several other roads also tried.

Scott Chatfield 
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LensCapOn Regular poster 469 posts
LensCapOn

Might be Flex Van's

They might be Flex Van's but I would have to blow up the image to be certain,

 

The New York Central developed a number of interesting new cars in the 50's and the Flex Van was one of them. It was a side loading container car with a swivel mounting.  It seems the bearing was a long term maintenance issue and was passed over for simple flats and then well cars. No ramp or lift was needed if these are the cars in the image.

 

ex%20Van.jpg 

 

 And a model of it loading.

 

0Loading.jpg 
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MEC Fan Regular poster 199 posts
MEC Fan

1972?

Cant find a specific date, but I do recall that 1972 marked the end of Flexi-Van service on PC?
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redP Frequent poster 568 posts
redP

Thanks

Thanks for the info guys. The bad thing about the image is that it gets blurry when you blow it up..

-Scott

 

 Modeling Penn Central and early Amtrak in the summer of 1972

 
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