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Trains Magazine 1968 July Steam world of Victor Hand
Trains Magazine 1968 July
July 1968Volume 28 Number 9
NEWS --3
PROFESSIONAL ICONOCLAST -5
RAILROAD NEWS PHOTOS -8
STEAM NEWS PHOTOS - - 12
SALESMAN'S PEREGRINATIONS 18
PA'S NOT PUT OUT TO PASTURE 20
FREIGHTLINERS ----25
STEAM WORLD OF VICTOR HAND 31
TRAIN THAT NEVER WAS- 38
Railway post office 48Second section 54
Of books and trains 53Running extra 55
Interchange 56
COVER: Chessie 500, R. K. Smith; D&H PA, J. Shaughnessy; NRHS (ex-S&A) 750, Victor Hand.
TOFC VS. COFC
ON the face of it, railroading could take a giant technological stride forward and boost its sales appeal if it could simply substitute a C for a T -COFC (container on flat car) for TOFC (trailer, on flat car).
Orthodox piggyback began naturally enough. Just 15 years ago TOFC was so experimental that the AAR didn't even keep tabs on TOFC carloadings; nobody could prophesy whether piggyback would boom or bust. So existing trailers were end-loaded aboard existing flats, circus style. If the business had proved a fad, the rails would have been out the cost of a few ramps and precious little else. But TOFC carloadings - 168,150 in 1955 - hit 1.2 million last year and are still climbing.
The average number of trailers or containers per flat in 1967 was 1.64. But containers remain scarce; so multiply, say, 1.5 by 12 million and you have the number of trailer chassis (i.e., 2 axles, 8 wheel hubs and 8 tires, and brakes) which were rolling around the country at one time or another doing absolutely nothing to earn a return on their investment. Wheels on wheels - rubber ones atop steel ones - also hiked tare weight, upped wind resistance 30 per cent, and raised the center of gravity, resulting in more fuel and less speed.
Oh, that's dandy in theory, reply the TOFC touters, but murder in practice. You have to have enough chassis to meet incoming loads or you'll never ground your vans. (Yes, but you have to have enough truck tractors waiting to pull them away, and you don't carry them.)
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