Auto Train Autorack Question and New Concept

Trinity Industries just introduced a new "Hourglass" shape autorack because:

“There’s a safety issue . . . noting that the Hourglass allows crews to load pickup trucks by using a door of the vehicle, rather than the conventional method of being required to remove the rear window of the truck for access."

What? Certainly the Auto Train people don't do this, right?

Interesting info on this new concept:

https://www.trinityrail.com/bi-level-ho ... -autorack/

Patent info is very interesting:

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/20170334462.pdf

First link is already broken. This autorack is bilevel, Plate J. Does that compare to existing autoracks?

Try this one:

https://www.trinityrail.com/products/autoracks/

That is a pickup in the first picture I believe. Does look kind of tight.

The Hourglass is shown but the link is not working right now it seems.

NO hourglass shape,just the panels at deck level look to be curved a little bit

How does Plate J compare to the Auto Train racks? The existing racks are tri-level, right? And these are bi-level, but could be made tri-level?

BandA wrote: ↑Tue Aug 06, 2019 10:23 pm How does Plate J compare to the Auto Train racks? The existing racks are tri-level, right? And these are bi-level, but could be made tri-level?

No, the AT is bilevel.

More a Figure 8 than a hour glass. More room at truck door level , so they can open the doors of wider trucks.

I find it interesting that if you read the patent and if I understand the information correctly, it is possible to build a full-with 10' 8" wide auto carrier if it had a 55' wheelbase.

So figuring an 89' long autocarrier carries 10/15 cars (5 per level), that means each auto gets about 17 feet of longitudinal space. A 55' long autorack would carry 6/9 cars (3 per level).

So a new design with shorter 55' articulated sections would allow the widest possible car. Maybe a 5 section articulated car similar to the articulated double-stack wells would be the best solution. Don't know if it was ever considered.

P.S. On a similar thought process, I often felt that Talgo is missing a great opportunity exactly because of their short wheelbase (43') articulated design. A newly designed Talgo train could have the widest passenger cars possible at 10' 8". Now they are some of the narrowest car bodies (9' 6") except for the new Averil which finally comes close at 10' 6".