Until the early 1960s, automobiles that were moved by rail were carried
in boxcars. These were 50 feet long with double-wide doors. Inside were
room for four full-sized sedans on a two-tier rack - two raised up off
the floor on a steel rack and two others tucked in underneath them. This
protected the cars during transport but wasn’t very efficient has the
weight of four vehicles was far less than the maximum weight a boxcar
that size could carry. When 85-foot and 89-foot flatcars came into
service, it was possible to pack a total of fifteen automobiles in one
car on tri-level auto racks. But it still didn’t exceed the maximum
allowable weight for each flatcar. 04 more images after the break...
When Chevrolet started designing ‘Vega’ during the 1970s, one of the
main objectives was to keep the cost of the car down around $2,000 in
circa-1970 dollars. At the time, the freight charge for moving a loaded
railroad car from the Lordstown assembly plant to the Pacific coast -
the longest distance that cars produced at Lordstown would need to
travel - was around $4,800. Since the Vega was a subcompact, it was
possible to squeeze three more cars on a railroad car for a total of
eighteen, instead of the usual fifteen. But that still worked out to
around $300 per car – a substantial surcharge for a $2000 car. If only
Chevrolet could get more Vegas on a railroad car, the cost per unit of
hauling them would go down.
The engineers at GM and the Southern Pacific Railroad came up with a
clever solution. Instead of loading the cars horizontally, the Vegas
will be placed vertically on a specially designed auto-rack – the
Vert-A-Pac. Within the same volume of an 89-foot car, the Vert-A-Pac
could hold as many as 30 automobiles instead of 18.
Chevrolet's goal was to deliver Vegas topped with fluids and ready to
drive to the dealership. In order to be able to travel nose-down without
leaking fluids all over the railroad, Vega engineers had to design a
special engine oil baffle to prevent oil from entering the No. 1
cylinder, batteries had filler caps located high up on the rear edge of
the case to prevent acid spilling, the carburetor float bowl had a
special tube that drained gasoline into the vapor canister during
shipment, and the windshield washer bottle stood at a 45 degree angle.
Plastic spacers were wedged in beside the powertrain to prevent damage
to engine and transmission mounts. The wedges were removed when cars
were unloaded.
The Vega was hugely popular when it was introduced in 1970 however it
quickly earned a reputation for unreliability, rust, safety issues and
lousy engine durability. When the Vega was discontinued, the Vert-A-Pac
cars had to be retired as they were too specialized to be used with
anything else. The Vert-A-Pac racks were scrapped, and the underlying
flatcars went on to other uses.
Comments
Post a Comment