TOFC - Part 1

 TOFC freight cars are a big part of any railroad. These freight cars started to appear in 1926 but did not become widespread until the 1950's. The CNW started piggyback service in 1926 by hauling their companies own trailers between Chicago and Milwaukee. This service proved to be valuable and over time railroads across the United States started using these services. When Conrail took over the Bankrupt North American railroads, they acquired numerous TOFC freight cars. However these cars were not directly owned by the railroads as they were owned by Trailer Train Company ( now TTX ). These freight cars could either carry one or two trailers on each car. Earlier TOFC were a simple flatcar modernized with a fifth wheel and the same happened with later versions of the flatcar. Over time the flatcar became obsolete to more modern equipment. Eventually the flatcar returned to its original duty of hauling freight and was no longer needed for piggyback services.

Nowadays it is a rare treat to see a TOFC ( as I still call them ) on a train because most trains now are double stacked because it is more efficient and cost effective for the railroads to haul them this way.

In this series you are going to see myself build two TOFC freight cars since I am modeling the mid to late 80's of Conrail. Conrail began acquiring new TOFC in the 1980's and 1990's in distinct stages to phase out the older TOFC freight cars. 

TOFC is all ready for a fresh coat of paint.

Here you can see one of the fixed trailer hitches. Both cars will have two each since they will be hauling two 35ft trailers.