Scale Intermodal Spine Cars - Were they ever made?

Both MTH and Atlas made these.

@Bossman284 posted:

Both MTH and Atlas made these.

MTH?  The ones that they have with the containers-only?  I completely forgot about those.

OK then, I have a couple questions. Can those MTH cars accept trailers instead of the containers they ship with? Do they have the trailer rack/hitch (sorry, I don’t know the proper name)?  And, lastly, can cars be combined into a longer 5-car consist?

Thanks again.

@Carl Peduzzi posted:

MTH?  The ones that they have with the containers-only?  I completely forgot about those.

OK then, I have a couple questions. Can those MTH cars accept trailers instead of the containers they ship with? Do they have the trailer rack/hitch (sorry, I don’t know the proper name)?  And, lastly, can cars be combined into a longer 5-car consist?

Thanks again.

Carl,  the MTH two-car spine sets can't be combined to make five-car sets without modification because of the coupler sets on either end.  If you want a five-car consist, your best bet is to look for the MTH 20-95035 and 20-95036 sets.  They have the connecting ends and bogeys for the interior three cars.  I'm pretty sure MTH did not make the inner three spine cars as a separate set to insert with two-car spines as they did with their Gunderson twin-stack car sets.  Yes, they can accommodate trailers as seen in the MTH item photos.

FWIW, there is presently a 20-95035 5-car set F/S on the Bay.

Good luck!

https://mthtrains.com/20-95035

https://mthtrains.com/20-95036

So obviously I need to do more research.  I never knew the MTH cars could do this or these sets were even offered.

I will do some searching, the thank you all for the help.

No, MTH did not separately sell the mid-car units (C, D, and E). You have to buy the five-unit sets mentioned above. They’re nice sets, but have limitations. The hitches don’t fold; indeed on the A, B, and E units they’re cast into the body in the retracted position. So you’re limited to carrying only two trailers on units C and E as shown in the pictures. I modified one of my sets to carry a third trailer, but it involves cutting out the cast-in hitch and mounting a replacement.

K-Line also made five car sets with retractable hitches. These can carry any combination of containers or trailers. The mounting pins probably limit you to K-Line containers, but they can carry pretty much any O scale trailer.

Here are some videos of both an MTH set and a K-Line set in action. All equipment is converted to scale couplers for true thee rail scale.

RM

Atlas has never made an O spine car.  They may make the MTH sets available again or, but...  They are 48' for 40 and 48' MTH containers and trailers.  Other containers  will require modifications to either the cars or the containers.  The 5-car sets are pretty rare for the MTH secondary market.  So most sellers want near MSRP or above (even for the 2-car sets) for them and will call them mint or like new condition but every (5-car set) set I have gotten will require work because most of the internal weights that the articulated end pieces are mounted to are broken.  They are not visible in any listing pictures.  But the intermediate ends will be loose.  As noted the 2 car sets do not have any intermediate cars so replacement parts are not available; at least at this time.

Top row broken, bottom OK.

Well rdunniii, Atlas O did make front runners. Are front runners technically spine cars?

For O Scale, a private individual, Barney Stumple made scale 48 ft spine cars and double stacks. Crude by todays standards but can be effective.

Good discussion- as noted above, the spine cars need to be able to accommodate the 53' containers, at least for modern day operations. Rich has a fantastic set up above in the videos, and it depicts the earlier era of intermodal when the Santa Fe had some awesome consists going through. Hence, those spine sets can utilize the 45' and 48' containers and/or trailers.

It would be really nice to see a correct set of these cars in the near future for sure.

MTh also made these two car sets, (see Below)

You can see them on my train at the 1:11 mark of the video from a club Intermodal run session

@prrhorseshoecurve posted:

Well rdunniii, Atlas O did make front runners. Are front runners technically spine cars?

For O Scale, a private individual, Barney Stumple made scale 48 ft spine cars and double stacks. Crude by todays standards but can be effective.

Hmmm, to me, no.  The front runners and the fuel foilers were on a different track from the beginning.  They are in a class by themselves to me.  Pretty much all freight cars have a spine except the center beams.  I think the front runners were a dead end from the beginning.  Have there even been prototype 48 or 53' front runners made?  But it could go either way I suppose.  To me spine cars are articulated like the original fuel foilers.  While I have never seen a prototype two car unit as several manufacturers have marketed to me the minimum is three units.

@rdunniii posted:

Hmmm, to me, no.  The front runners and the fuel foilers were on a different track from the beginning.  They are in a class by themselves to me.  Pretty much all freight cars have a spine except the center beams.  I think the front runners were a dead end from the beginning.  Have there even been prototype 48 or 53' front runners made?  But it could go either way I suppose.  To me spine cars are articulated like the original fuel foilers.  While I have never seen a prototype two car unit as several manufacturers have marketed to me the minimum is three units.

Exactly! The “articulated” description, to me, signifies the term spine car, as in set. I hope Atlas O makes these at some point down the road. And no, there has not been a 48’ or 53’ front runner made… only for a 45’ container or trailer.

I like my K-Line 5 car set, but only after lowering them a bunch, and installing Kadee's. I will look for a photo.

Clem

I have 3 of the 5 car MTH sets. They are nice as mentioned it only service two trailers per 5 car set.

OK i'm back    hope these photos help

Prrhorseshoecurve,

Here’s a photo of several Barney Stumple  spine cars that I built from his kits.  I had the five-car set and split it with a fellow modeler.  They did benefit from brass and styrene detail parts along with the appropriate TTX decals.

Please excuse the ugly bolts used for connections—they’ll be cut down when I weather the cars.  Trailers are, left to right, my Champ of the Road repaint, Lionel, and MTH.  

Don

Somebody need to get the plans for the TTX RTTX 3-unit spine cars and use them to produce a program for 3D printing these modern spine flat cars in the USA>

Andrew

@falconservice posted:

Somebody need to get the plans for the TTX RTTX 3-unit spine cars and use them to produce a program for 3D printing these modern spine flat cars in the USA>

Andrew

Were the prototype cars ever made in the USA?

While I have seen these cars in intermodal trains, I never thought much about them until I started reading this thread. I am beginning to like these spine cars. Online searches for freight car manufacturers that currently offer these cars only brought up National Steel Car in Canada as the only source for these cars.

These are just my opinion,

Naveen Rajan

@naveenrajan posted:

Were the prototype cars ever made in the USA?

While I have seen these cars in intermodal trains, I never thought much about them until I started reading this thread. I am beginning to like these spine cars. Online searches for freight car manufacturers that currently offer these cars only brought up National Steel Car in Canada as the only source for these cars.

These are just my opinion,

Naveen Rajan

Thats because Bethlehem Steel Johnstown freight car division closed.

@prrhorseshoecurve posted:

Thats because Bethlehem Steel Johnstown freight car division closed.

I was doing a bit of research, and the Bethlehem Freight Car division lives on as Freight Car America, a subsidiary of JAC Holding (the old Johnstown America).  According to the Freight Car America website, it it still maintains a parts and engineering division in Johnstown though all manufacturing takes place in Mexico.

https://freightcaramerica.com/