JWB Posted August 30, 2011 Share Posted August 30, 2011 I'm not sure if comments in the earlier post on trucks were intended to give the impression that semi trailers, as opposed to containers on chassis, were no longer common. They are in fact still very common, especially for refrigerated vans. Here are some photos from this year -- I'm still learning the best digital camera settings to use with moving trains, so some photos are slightly blurred. Some of these re available from A-Line and Trucks n Stuff, but not a whole lot is available for 53 foot trailers. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glorious NSE Posted August 30, 2011 Share Posted August 30, 2011 Hi John, no that wasn't the intention and sorry if anyone got that idea - still lots of piggybacks around, *but* that's gradually shifting as trucking co's gradually buy containers. As an example UPS has probably been the biggest single customer 'driving' piggyback use over doublestack over the last few years, but they have just succumbed and hundreds of rather nondescript plain UPSU 53' boxes have been turning up and hitting the rails over the past couple of months. This shot was linked to from the Model Intermodal group just today - the caption cites the shiny new loco's but probably more significant in the long term is all those shiny new grey containers: http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=373164&nseq=48 The So-Cal reefer trade seems to be a piggyback stronghold as well though, so it will be an interesting one to watch whether some of those guys end up buying boxes or holding out with trailers. If the drift away from trailers became a flood it would be interesting to see what happens to some of the rolling stock as well... And as I was trying to say in the other thread, there's no point at all in companies buying boxes over trailers if they are not using them in intermodal service, so 53' trailers aren't likely to die out any time soon... Ref models, Athearn has run RTR versions of some of the A-Line tooling, Werner and CR England that you pictured are definately amongst them, I think Marten was as well - the reefer trailers are especially nicely decorated with lots of well modelled stainless 'brightwork' - they seemed to sell out very fast though despite a fairly high price, maybe that's a pointer to demand! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glorious NSE Posted August 30, 2011 Share Posted August 30, 2011 Athearn 53's: http://athearn.com/Search/Default.aspx?SearchTerm=53+Trailer+RTR&CatID=THV Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Ray Posted August 30, 2011 Share Posted August 30, 2011 North American Intermodal Loadings by type, 2010 (source: Intermodal Association of North America) Trailers: 1,664,064 (up 3.7%) Domestic containers: 4,488,311 (up 13.3 %) International containers: 7,237,729 (up 18.5%) Intermodal containers actually exceeded both Domestic containers and Trailers Loadings combined Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrian Wintle Posted August 31, 2011 Share Posted August 31, 2011 Interestingly, I almost never see trailers in the Toronto area - almost all the intermodal traffic seems to be containers (domestic and international). Adrian Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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