Trinity 53' AP Spines - The Prototype of the BLMA model

[James Costello]

I found some time to put some words together for the Trinity 53' All Purpose Spine, the prototype of the new BLMA model.

The crew at Model:160 were gracious enough to host it for me - so check it out if you're interested:

http://www.model160.com/2011/07/30/trinity-53ft-all-purpose-spine-cars-the-prototype/

I managed to score a couple of extra first-run BLMA sets that I hope to back-date to the earlier phases and squeeze into my '93-96 Espee era, so hopefully this will form a follow-up article too. The idea for the article grew from a discussion we had here at the Railwire, so thank you all for the proto-discussions we engage in here. Enjoy!

Please let me know if you have any corrections to the data or have any further information. Thanks.

[FrankCampagna]

Thanks, I see a number of these passing through town every day. I think about modern, but the finances aren't there. Nice to have this info in case I win the lottery  ;D.

Frank

[Denver Road Doug]

Good stuff!  Thanks for putting that together.   

I am modelling a little later time so I don't HAVE to backdate but I might grab another one if I come across it so I can have one that's good and grimey.   Although I suspect that even the ones built in '97 would probably be pretty much grimed out by my target of '99/'00.  I just hope BLMA will eventually pull the trigger on the 48's, too.  What an awesome model the 53 is though.

[GaryHinshaw]

Excellent document James.  Thanks for compiling it!

RE the 48' spines: do you know if there are any left in TOFC service today?  Do you know of any photos that clearly show how the windmill spines are re-configured?

I need to get back to my 48' to 53' conversion that I started ages ago...

Cheers,
Gary

[Ken G Price]

I was over at the other forum reading your write up and looking at the pictures before I logged on to here.
Thanks for doing this. I was quite impressed with all of it.

[James Costello]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

Please let me know if there is anything you'd like me to specifically consider writing up.

Gary - will see what I can dig up.

[Denver Road Doug]

Please let me know if there is anything you'd like me to specifically consider writing up.

Ahh James....a glutton for punishment!   

Well, I'll try to avoid asking for "BNSF California-to-Texas Intermodal Consists During June of 1999", but here are a few I think would be cool:
-Early JB Hunt 53ft Containers (Proto Info, Drawings, and/or "How To Model")
-CP Rail 57?ft TOFC cars
-Intermodal equipment timeline
-N-Scale Container Build-dates/Timelines