Trainworx 86' Thrall Hi Cube Box Car

[Denver Road Doug]

According to the latest NSR, Trainworks is coming out with an 86' Thrall Hi Cube Box Car.

Anybody heard of this anywhere?  Did a magazine finally scoop the Internet!?

[Mark5]

Hmmm - interesting!

They hint at the new tooling here:

http://www.wic.net/~trainworx

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Awwwww *****. It's on.

[GonzoCRFan]

My panties just got wet...  :-*

[sirenwerks]

I hope this signifies that they'll be picking up the pace of new body style releases. They managed to ring out the quad hoppers for years.

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Bout freakin' time.

Damn. I really want a few but none ran on the Boston Line... Time for Ntrak!

[lock4244]

Amazing that we had to wait this long for an 86' AP box. Anyone know what road names operated these Thrall cars? Please say GTW, please!

[GonzoCRFan]

I know Conrail had Thralls in 4 and 8-door varieties.

Looks like GTW did have some, the Thralls can usually be spotted by the recessed panels on either sides of the doors:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=769729

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=416747

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=709294

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=744577

And this one is just plain boner-riffic:
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=113742

[lock4244]

Thanks Sean. GTW goodness.

CN has them too:
http://freight.railfan.ca/cn/cna798350.jpg

I guess it doesn't matter too much, since it seems any road can show up any given plant. But very good news for me. The auto industry is big business in southern Ontario, and I'm gonna need a few of these.

[rswinnerton]

And this one is just plain boner-riffic:
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=113742

Looks like Tom Mann has a new project....
RS

[GonzoCRFan]

I am not 100% sure on how it works, but I know movement of auto parts is governed by pool agreements. So whatever cars that different railroads assign to moving parts to a specific plant are the ones that will show up. Someone with a more knowledge than me can do a better job of explaining it, I'm sure.

[tom mann]

And this one is just plain boner-riffic:
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=113742

Looks like Tom Mann has a new project....
RS

Indeed! ;D

[ljudice]

Some of these cars have strayed into other service, particularly toilet paper service (massive volume, light weight). So they can show up in odd places sometimes.

I think the WTCR or some other shortline cars were the ones dedicated to this service, though there must be others.

Lou

[lock4244]

I see HCSX 86' cars on CN east of Toronto. I'm told they're hauling peat moss, though toilet paper makes scense, too.

[cv_acr]

Thanks Sean. GTW goodness.

CN has them too:
http://freight.railfan.ca/cn/cna798350.jpg

A lot of those CNA cars are actually ex-GTW marks. Of course, for all intents and purposes GTW=CN.

I guess it doesn't matter too much, since it seems any road can show up any given plant. But very good news for me. The auto industry is big business in southern Ontario, and I'm gonna need a few of these.

That certainly seems to be the case with autoracks; they pool together and go just about anywhere. I've seen everything from CSX to NS to BNSF to CN to CP to Ferromex and TFM at the local Toyota plant.

The auto parts cars are more assigned to specific pools for a manufacturer with the railroads providing percentages of cars to the pool. The old NS trains to Ford in Talbotville (near London, Ontario) were 95% NS and SOU and unremarked CR cars, with a couple of CNs thrown in occasionally. There was also this old MP car in original marks and lettering that showed up more than once, so a couple of UPs might have also been in the pool. (I don't recall ever seeing CSX owned cars on this train for example, and I don;t think I've ever seen BNSF family 86' cars up here. On any train. Ever.)
There's a CP train (135 I think) that handles some CSX big boxes via the Hamilton subdivision, but I don't know where they go.
Parts cars that end up in CN trains like 271 or 275 I think go to/from GM in Oshawa, and IIRC are mostly CN (and family including GTW, IC/ICG) and UP (and family - eg CNW). (But I haven't really seen these trains in a long while.)

My friend David's site is good for seeing an overall mix of cars in particular trains mostly in Southern Ontario, but he does some occasional travelling through the Northeast US.
http://railfan.ca