89' Intermodal Flat Cars, 40' Trailers and Auto Racks
 

by permission with credit to original photographers and contributors

These 'Dual 45' intermodal flat cars (DTI 90000-90234) were leased from Itel in 1982. 90100-90193 were acquired from the Crab Orchard & Egyptian(COER) and were painted solid red or solid white (anyone remember seeing any other colors?). The white cars were originally delivered to the Erie Western(ERES) - I remember seeing one white car that still had an Erie Western logo on it.

The cars were re-equipped by Itel to carry 40'/45' trailers and 20'/40' containers loaded in circus or lift on/lift off fashion. They disappeared from the GTW roster in the 1990's with at least 71 going into Iowa Traction's lease fleet by 1996 (info from 1/96 ORER). These IATR cars were common on GTW/CN Chicago-Toronto intermodal trains into 2001.

Edward Bridges and Jim Eager passed on the following info:

DTI 90000-90099
 -100 cars; ex-Providence & Worcester, built by Pullman-Standard in 1978/79.
All painted solid red with PW markings painted over.

The Ford Model Railroad Club produced an Accurail HO kit of these cars. The kits come with separate decals for the car number and sell for $16 plus shipping. You can get Kadee couplers and Intermountain wheelsets for one kit for only $4 more. Contact Mike Swan for more info.

DTI  90100-90175
 -34 cars from COER series 250000-250049 (built by Pullman-Standard 11/78 as ERES 250000-250049; the cars came to COER in Sept. 1979 after the ERES folded).

 -42 cars from COER series 250050-250099 (built by ACF 3-4/79 as ERES 250050-250099; these also came to the COER in Sept 1979).

The cars were randomly renumbered into this series.
All cars painted solid white with COER/ERES markings painted over.

			DTI 90170 @ Fostoria OH April 1995 Copyright Scott Heiden		file size 69k
			IATR 90128 @ Brantford ON  September 2000 Copyright Scott Heiden Ex-DTI 90128; the GTW 60' hi-cube waffle boxes in the yard are ex-DTI 25950-25964 series boxcars. They were carrying cardboard egg crates in 2000!		file size 74k
			IATR 90148 @ Brantford ON  May 2001 Copyright Scott Heiden Ex-DTI 90148		file size 79k

DTI 90176-90193
-18 cars from COER series 100032-100049 (built by Pullman-Standard 11/78).

These cars were consecutively renumbered into this series.
All cars painted solid red with COER markings painted over.

DTI 90194-90222

-No info right now.....

DTI 90223-90234
 -12 cars from Texas Mexican series 4002xx (built by Pullman-Standard in 1/79)

All cars painted solid green with TM markings painted over?
 

40' Trailers

The DT&I owned or leased several hundred intermodal trailers through the years. In message #2491 on the DT&I Modeler List at Yahoo, Jim Hediger wrote:

The 5/83 issue of the Official Intermodal Equipment Register lists three
groups of DT&I trailers:

RDTZ 600000 - 600099 (100 trailers leased from Transamerican
Transportation Services)

SDTZ 200101 - 200200 (100 trailers built by Trailmobile and leased from Itel)

XDTZ 204000 - 204009 (10 trailers leased from XTRA Inc.)

Notes:
The RDTZ and SDTZ were listed as "Dry vans" 40-ft. long, 8 ft. wide and
13-6 tall.

The XDTZ trailers were listed as "Vans" with the same dimensions.

I don't recall ever seeing DT&I trailers more than 40 feet long.

According to the Transamerica listings, their trailers carried a standard
TSA logo and individual RR initials i.e.: RDTZ and numbers.

I don't know which ones they were, but I recall seeing plain silver DTIZ
trailers in Dearborn that had no lettering other than reporting marks.
However, they pre-date this group.

			DTIZ 240078 40' Trailer  Baltimore MD  October 1977 Collection of Jim Eager		file size 66k
			SDTZ 200163 40' Trailer  Southern RR Atlanta GA 1983 Copyright D. Scott Chatfield		file size 73k

Modeling the 40' Trailers:

Jim Eager suggests the following HO models as a starting point:

DTIZ - This is a corrugated-side van built by Lufkin, series unknown. With that wide smooth area at the top of the side Athearn's circa 1960-61 Fruehauf reefer comes close, although it still won't be an exact match. Just be sure to remove the vents and grabs on the nose, and slice off the molded-on gusset at the landing gear. You can also upgrade the model with A-Line's floor, chassis and landing gear parts.

SDTZ - This is a late 1970s Trailmobile, SDTZ 200101-200200, leased from Itel/SSI. I modeled a similar ICG Trailmobile using one of the original Milepost 501 Fruehauf Z-Van kits where the bottom rail was molded as part of the floor. It lacked the rivet detail that should be there on a Z-Van, but it is fine for these Trailmobiles as they had a deep smooth angle reinforcing the bottom rail for lift-loading. You can also use the current A-Line 50101 kit, but you'll need to sand the rivets off the bottom rail. Either way you need to rework the nose so that it will have angled corners instead of round corners, and rebuild the bottom of the nose as the center coffer is much narrower than on a Z-Van. A-Line makes Trailmoble's distinctive landing gear with that huge triangular gusset, part no. 50111.

BTW, Texas Mexican (STMZ), SCL/Family Lines (XSCZ), Availco Preferred Pool (AVAZ), Mopac (MPZ), and FEC (FECZ) also had similar late-70s Trailmobiles.

Decals to letter both of these trailers are available from Highball Graphics in HO scale - set F-205

40' Flatbed Trailers

Jim Hediger wrote:

DT&I also had a few early 40-foot flatbeds in the early 1960s. They were
bright red, but I have no idea of their markings or how many they had.

Jim Eager adds:

The red flatbeds that Jim Hediger mentions were likely leased from Xtra as that was their standard color for flatbeds and at one time their vans as well.

89' Auto Racks

These cars had split ownership; the flat car was owned by Trailer Train and the rack belonged to DT&I.

			RTTX 907515 @ Maybee MI July 1981 Copyright Scott Heiden Note the 'star' DT&I herald on the rack		file size 69k
			TTKX 909336 @ Mississauga ON February 1986 Copyright Scott Heiden		file size 95k
			TTRX 941879 @ Maybee MI  December 1980 Copyright Scott Heiden Former-RI rack purchased after the Rock's demise in April 1980 (re: Jim Eager)		file size 56k
			TTRX 964977 @ D&H's ex-EL yard in Buffalo NY March 1987 Copyright Jim Eager BSH12 Bethlehem-built flat(3/74) with former-RI Whitehead & Kales rack - purchased after the Rock's demise in April 1980 (re: Jim Eager)		file size 98k
			ETTX 852394 @ Durand MI August 23, 1991 Copyright Dennis Schmidt From George Elwood's Fallen Flags website		file size 69k