Loading of TOFC (intermodal) and COFC (stack/containers) onto rail cars. in Tales of the Jointed Track

Nov. 9, 2015, 8:46 p.m.
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Public

I have written about BIG LIFT and the TOFC and COFC intermodal trains we operated out of there. BN, now BNSF out of Denver has an Intermodal facility that utilized piggy packers. I believe the Union Pacific had a facility as well.

I powered up Intermodal and Stack trains out of Chicago, Kansas City, Alliance,TX, Houston/Galveston, LA/Long Beach, Fresno, Stockton and Richmond, CA. I did this with the Santa Fe and the BNSF.

TOFC (Trailer on Flat Car) is an inexpensive way of moving great volumes of truck trailers from one destination to another en-mass. UPS, Schneider, ABF, Yellow Freight, England, ROADWAY, and JB Hunt, are major trucking companies that utilize the railroads to move their freight.

COFC (Containers on Flat cars) are really a “Land Bridge”, between the East and West coasts and the Gulf. It is cheaper to move these via rail, and reload, than going either through the Panama Canal or around the horn of South America. The major EAST-WEST players are UP, BNSF, CSX and Norfolk Southern. The North South connections are also handled by the aforementioned, but KCS, Illinois Central and the Florida East Coast (FEC) play a part as well.

I have some videos and photos to illustrate, what I am talking about.

Note !! The videos and photos are for illustration and I take no credit. Nor is any compensation received by me in any form

A Piggy Packer loading a trailer. Notice as it is lifted the nose is tilted. The reason is to get the kingpin of the truck trailer into the permanently fixed fifth wheel stantion. There is another version that clamps the top and bottom of the trainer in the center. Shown below.

This is a version of the “Big Lift” style of loader. It straddles the tracks and load and off loads TOFC and COFC. The Piggy packet is more versatile, due to it can move easily and work both sides of the tracks. The other must straddle the track

TOFC TRAILERS and Flats and Articulated “Spine” cars:

XTRA dedicated intermodal lease trailers on a 90 foot flat