Thanks for the post. That is

Thanks for the post. That is unusual. Living along the MRL/BNSF main line in the Bozeman, MT area, seeing the "plane trains" is rather common. What I imagine happened is that there may have been a problem with the car that the plane is on and after being repaired, it was probably being moved to a location that was safer and where it could join up with another plane train on the way to Washington.

size

So I guess the size of boeing jets are governed by tunnel clearances on the railroad.

Size

That could be a factor, at least for narrow body aircraft.

The SRBs on the Space Shuttles had its dimensions at least somwhat influenced by the loading gauge on the rail lines from Thiokol factory in Utah to Cape Canaveral...

Regards,

I remember seeing photos

of a Plane Train a year or two ago. Was a train derailment and the fuselages went down a hill. I am sure somebody got the bill for that wreck. 

A Boeing Box?

Last week there was a guy railfanning near Laurel, MT. He posted some pics and a video to the BNSF Facebook page. The first car behind the locomotives was a large weird shaped box. I asked what it was and someone said it was a Boeing boxcar.

Boeing cars

Boeing ships whole 737 bodies on modified flatcars, but it also has large boxcar-like cars for 747, 767 and 777 parts like the one below.

it is actually a special container placed on a flatcar. Others are special cars or are containers placed on well cars as below:

TBCX reporting marks for The Boeing Company and the first 3 digits denotes the parts carried. The well car is a 777 parts car.

Almost all of them are oversize loads.

Regards,

Boeing Parts

Having worked the two Boeing jobs for BNSF, I can tell you they are multi million dollar loads. BNSF has two locals dedicated to working Boeing. The first job works the Everett plant. They make the 747, 767, 777, 787 lines. Some parts come in via rail from Kansas, but other big parts come off the ship. The parts are all containerized, think 2 53' containers stacked and welded together. The other big containers are 20' wide. The 'fun' part of this job is that the spur is at the top of a 5.7% grade! Everything has to be tied down, and chocked before you cut away. 

The other Boeing job works the Renton plant with the 737. That's the bodies you see in the above pictures. Boeing has a limit of 6 loads per train. If a special train is required BNSF will run one. 

An online search will get a lot of pictures of the two plants and the wide loads as the local railfans have all the locations well staked out.

Craig

...

Could the single car train and thus the 6 load limit be at least somewhat influenced by that wreck where they lost a number of fuselage?

@Benny

Yes, when MRL dumped the 6 fuselage's into the Clark Fork River, Boeing told BNSF no more than 6 loads at one time. Every once in a while, BNSF sneaks in 7 or 8 fuselage's to meet Boeings demand in Renton. These 737 bodies are on time delivery. I worked a few extra switch jobs that got called to spot Boeing in Renton for 'hot' plane movements. Boeing had to have the plane spotted by 7 am when morning shift started. Often times we would finish right around 6-6:30 am... Normally the Boeing cars are spotted by the day local.

Here's the Boeing job at Everett (well Mukilteo)

A caboose?????

I thought they has all been retired.

Cabooses

Dear Jay,

Cabooses are certainly not as common as they once were,
but don't let anyone tell you they are "dead and gone"...

...they've just retreated to some of the more-interesting switching missions where additional crew,
"extra eyes on the load", and/or location-specific operational requirements demand them...
(Hint, long-shove moves, esp over multiple grade-crossings)

...and of course, where "traditional caboose-looking cars" may have once been,
all manner of "brakeman platforms", "switching floats", and other kitbash-worthy units,
from mild to Wild, now prowl...

Happy Modelling,
Aim to Improve,
Prof Klyzlr