A railroad trade journal recently proclaimed that the first journey your new car will have is by rail. Despite the battle railroads wage with the publicly-funded highways and airports, not to mention the long-standing battle to get truckers to pay their fair share for use of the highways, railroads are highly dependent on revenue from a spectrum of auto-related goods – beyond finished automobiles. But railroads are clearly the prime movers of autos and trucks going to market. That market dominance had a long and sometimes painful journey.
Shortly after 1900, the need to transport completed automobiles to dealers across the land surfaced in a somewhat casual manner, since vehicles were considered a novelty for the wealthy – long before they became a household necessity. As such, the typical railroad flat car was first used but since damage from dirt and debris in transit became a problem, box cars were soon employed. Luxury autos grew in size and that trend necessitated modifications to the doors of the box car that in turn led to the double-door box car.
Luck, timing and location meant everything to the Pere Marquette Railroad and New York Central’s Michigan Central. In the infancy of the auto industry, the manufacturers of the most popular brands were cloistered in the urban expanse of Detroit and those two railroads profited handsomely from their advantageous location. The tight relationship in the auto city between auto makers and the railroads also proved the adage about familiarity breeds contempt true. Auto makers demanded more efficient means to load and unload boxcars and constantly complained about rough handling.
Many railroad equipment engineers envisioned a multi-level carrier for autos but it was the Grand Trunk Western that first experimented with that concept in 1923 when they modified a fleet of 61-foot flatcars with collapsable frames that could convert to two-level auto carriers. The experiment was a flop and little more was done with the concept. The Great Depression and World War II only slightly tempered the market for autos and trucks so the double-door box car grew in size but remained unchanged in concept.
The postwar boom for autos and trucks ignited efforts to revolutionize auto transport. Initially railroads elected to load vehicles on to flat cars, the same way circus wagons were once loaded. That was a cost-effective solution but hardly one that offered much greater capacity. Early proposals of auto-rack cars were developed by Volkswagen in Germany and those designs were first tried in the US by Evans Products when in 1954, they proposed a bi-level auto carrier. The next stage of development occurred when Canadian National modified a fleet of 72-foot boxcars into bi-level auto-rack cars in 1956.
In 1959 the Frisco Lines developed a prototype bi-level car and Pullman-Standard used that design to build a fleet of 42-foot cars. Santa Fe and Southern Pacific were also active in 1960 and perfected the tri-level cars for auto transport. Starting in this early period, most auto-racks were mounted on flat cars leased from a leasing company, such as Trailer Train, North American Car (NIFX marks), Merchants Dispatch (MDAX marks), American Refrigerator Transit (MPFX marks), or Pullman’s Transport Leasing Division (TLCX marks), but many roads also operated cars mounted on their own flat cars. Later, racks were fully enclosed to address growing vandalism.
The modifications and variations keep coming along and the model manufacturers keep pace with replicating all the popular designs in all scales. We are constantly adding new products to our website that reflect all variations and eras of auto-rack cars, motive power to pull the trains and autos to fill the cars, so please check out inventory often for these items and other added services and features we frequently introduce.
Frank Wrabel
Modeltrainstuff.com