Autorack - American style (8-wide)

[Feuer Zug]

American railroads use a fully enclosed autorack for transporting cars. I've built a pair in that style. They are 8-wide due to the nature of the construction. The entire chassis is custom built for these. Since my layout is based on R40 curves, they do traverse them easily. The bogies are roller bearing equipped.

These autoracks are functional as well. The interior supports for the vehicles also assists in keeping the structure together.

 

[Ts__]

First impression: hmm, closed wagon, what is there especially....

Then the picture with the cars: aaaahhhhhh! But too bad that you see nothing of the secret for now. But that is due to the prototype.

Nice idea and well built.

 

Thomas

 

[Feuer Zug]

On 5/13/2023 at 3:51 AM, Ts__ said:

First impression: hmm, closed wagon, what is there especially....

Then the picture with the cars: aaaahhhhhh! But too bad that you see nothing of the secret for now. But that is due to the prototype.

Nice idea and well built.

 

Thomas

 

Thank you. Where possible, I prefer to have my rolling stock functional. In this instance, the end doors open and the separate levels in the autorack provide structural support. These match up well with the loading ramp I built for my Deutsche Bahn DDm 915 Autotransportwagens. I do agree that American autoracks are rather boring after a while, excepting the graffiti.

[Darkkostas25]

Great autorack wagon! Reminds me of some auto trains from the USA(before were bought by Amtrack if I am right) (passenger train with matching autoracks for people travelling from the north to coast/Florida with their`s cars)
Great model! Hope to see more! 

[Feuer Zug]

On 5/22/2023 at 3:51 AM, Darkkostas25 said:

Great autorack wagon! Reminds me of some auto trains from the USA(before were bought by Amtrack if I am right) (passenger train with matching autoracks for people travelling from the north to coast/Florida with their`s cars)
Great model! Hope to see more! 

Thanks. I had to look up the American auto trains. It seems AMTRAK still runs it, and they use autoracks similar to the ones I built. They probably bought them from the same place the car shippers do.

[RenLUG - Central Florida]

Amtrak's autotrain is definitely still running. Members of our group take the Sanford, FL to Virginia trip each year for Brickfair.

[zephyr1934]

You've got some clever tricks in those cars, well played!

[FGMatt]

Reminded me of this, which might be a fun one to build in Lego:

Ma

May have to settle for a single-sided version to get it to actually work in an acceptably-wide wagon though.

[Feuer Zug]

On 8/29/2024 at 11:40 AM, RenLUG - Central Florida said:

Amtrak's autotrain is definitely still running. Members of our group take the Sanford, FL to Virginia trip each year for Brickfair.

Interesting note about the Auto Train. I've seen the autoracks of this style moving across American rails, but wasn't familiar with the Auto Train until now. Same equipment it seems.

On 8/30/2024 at 12:00 AM, zephyr1934 said:

You've got some clever tricks in those cars, well played!

Thanks. Not the easiest to make functional at the size.

On 8/30/2024 at 10:35 AM, FGMatt said:

Reminded me of this, which might be a fun one to build in Lego:

May have to settle for a single-sided version to get it to actually work in an acceptably-wide wagon though.

What unholiness is this? I don't even want to think of the engine fluids, nevermind how to build such an abomination.

[Stereo]

1 hour ago, Feuer Zug said:

What unholiness is this? I don't even want to think of the engine fluids, nevermind how to build such an abomination.

Specially designed to transport Chevy Vegas, they had it set up so fluids would only drain from the top rear corners so it could be loaded nose-down.

https://www.motortrend.com/features/chevrolet-vega-vert-a-pac/

Edited September 1, 2024 by Stereo
fixed link to be clickable

[Feuer Zug]

1 hour ago, Stereo said:

Specially designed to transport Chevy Vegas, they had it set up so fluids would only drain from the top rear corners so it could be loaded nose-down.

https://www.motortrend.com/features/chevrolet-vega-vert-a-pac/

Quite interesting. I think I'll leave that design to somebody more daring. I have no interest in trying to build a bunch of obscure cars to fill a rare auto rack.

[Phil B]

On 9/1/2024 at 11:25 AM, Stereo said:

Specially designed to transport Chevy Vegas, they had it set up so fluids would only drain from the top rear corners so it could be loaded nose-down.

https://www.motortrend.com/features/chevrolet-vega-vert-a-pac/

What I am more intrigued by is that the original picture seems to show a modular autotrain concept - in the distance you can see car-length modules containing multiple layers of cars. I wonder when that was introduced and why that concept didn't last ....

[Murdoch17]

7 minutes ago, Phil B said:

What I am more intrigued by is that the original picture seems to show a modular autotrain concept - in the distance you can see car-length modules containing multiple layers of cars. I wonder when that was introduced and why that concept didn't last ....

See here on Wikipedia for more on Autoracks, and scroll down to the Vert-a-Pac / Stac-Pac section for more on them. Vert-A-Pac were in service 1970-1977, while Stac-Pac (for use with Buick, Oldsmobile, and Cadillac cars only) were used from 1971 to '76. Stac-Pac is the one you saw in the picture above with cars mounted normally.

[Phil B]

26 minutes ago, Murdoch17 said:

See here on Wikipedia for more on Autoracks, and scroll down to the Vert-a-Pac / Stac-Pac section for more on them. Vert-A-Pac were in service 1970-1977, while Stac-Pac (for use with Buick, Oldsmobile, and Cadillac cars only) were used from 1971 to '76. Stac-Pac is the one you saw in the picture above with cars mounted normally.

Thanks! Very helpful reference. Much to learn ...

[Ropefish]

Oh those southern pacific “pacs”  are wild! Apparently the vertical ones were terrible and didn’t work well /at all/ leading to at least two or so cars to get dented!

 

lovely solution for the auto car’s tho!! Looked lovely in a long line I bet 

[ivanlan9]

I remember when those stac/vert pacs were introduced.

My brother had a Vega.  I won't say they are worse than Yugos, but it was without doubt the worst car he ever owned.  I had to do the maintenance on it.  I won't say it had worse accessibility than a Saab--but it was the second worst car I ever worked on!

[Feuer Zug]

Interesting ideas they tried back in the 1970s. The Stac-Pac is almost like an intermodal for cars.