TOFC – Trailer On Flat Car represents both response to challenge and the rapid velocity of change within the railroad industry. Like most advances known to the populace, TOFC was prompted by challenge – evidence of new competition and the erosion of market share.

That competition was discernable initially to carriers that were less prosperous – namely electric traction companies – that felt the negative-side of the explosive popularity of motor vehicles and trucks earlier and more severely than the larger and more profitable “steam roads”. In 1906 the Atlantic City & Shore Railroad (a Pennsylvania Railroad subsidiary) began loading motor vehicles on flat cars which were then pulled by interurbans over the Egg Harbor Bay between Somers Point and Ocean City NJ. That brief experiment ended when the highway bridge was finally built alongside the electric line but later in the 1920s, Ohio’s Lake Shore Electric experimented with trailers that rode the rails – that forecast the Chesapeake & Ohio RoadRailer of the 1950s – and power-king Samuel Insull’s Chicago, North Shore & Milwaukee experimented with special trailers that were loaded onto specially-modified flat cars.

In the mid-1930s, Samuel M. Golden of the struggling Chicago Great Western, is credited with introducing the first trailer on flatcar service in 1935 dubbed Piggyback. Golden was special assistant to CGW President Patrick Joyce (founder of Standard Steel Car Works – sold to Pullman in 1927 to create Pullman-Standard) who’s hostile takeover of the CGW in 1929 and financial misdeeds related to that sordid effort did much to necessitated prompt action to increase revenues.  After a pause due to World War II , Piggyback morphed into TOFC service and the Southern Pacific is recognized as the first major carrier to prioritize that development in 1953.  But an eastern carrier – with dire needs – stole the march from their respected, western rival.

Beyond the struggles of carriers in the east, the PRR was in first place – fighting wars on multiple fronts including the shifting of demographics, changes in manufacturing processes and intense highway competition. PRR Operations VP James P. Newell was an early proponent of Piggyback service. Newell first had to spar internally with Traffic VP Fred Carpi who rightfully feared that TOFC would decimate LCL freight – the business that filled his fleet of 40-foot boxcars. Next, in those intensely regulated times, formal application to the Interstate Commerce Commission was required – to establish “fair tariffs”.   To accomplish that – and to ensure industry acceptance – PRR, B&O, Erie, Nickel Plate and the Lackawanna filed the application jointly.

After all the roadblocks were removed, PRR TOFC service commenced on March 3, 1955. During the inception of TOFC that service was first called Pennsy Railblazer (a name inspired by their all-coach train the Trail Blazer), then Pennsy Rail-Trailer and Pennsy Piggy Back. The name-hunt was resolved by way of a contest within the PRR when Philadelphia Terminal clerk Robert A. Young suggested the name Truc Train and Young was rewarded with a check for $500 for his visionary entry. Initially, logistics of PRR-owned Truc Train were managed by a separate company, Rail-Trailer, but later Truc Train and Rail-Trailer merged to form the Truc Train Corporation; PRR remained a shareholder along with several other companies. That independence gave Truc Train the freedom to grow and keep pace with changes within the industry devoid of the heavy-hand of the PRR.

It also provided a career path for James P. Newell who was later sidetracked by PRR infighting and politics – a war that denied that talented executive the Presidency – he later left the PRR conflict and joined the company he promoted so extensively.  Today TOFC is the lifeblood of our railroad network and an economic gamechanger on multiple fronts. Despite that success, the debate continues among railroad traffic analysts as to whether Carpi’s feared decimation of carload freight in the 1950s accelerated the plight of the railroads weakening traffic in that era and currently, the debate has shifted to the accurate profitability of TOFC.

We currently offer many options of TOFC equipment including rail; cars of covering several eras, containers, trailers, vans and prototype handling equipment of all descriptions and support structures – not to mention a superior line of motive power to bring action to your lengthy consists of the signature railroad traffic of today. Please take time to check our listing and frequent features. We sincerely thank you for your patronage.

Frank Wrabel

Modeltrainstuff.com