Fw: Moving Chevy Vega's in the 70"s

[NW Mailing List]

I think the Ford Maverick was moved in the same manner.  It seems like
I've seen photos somewhere of them being loaded like the Vega's were.

Ben Blevins

On 7/27/13, NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:

> My Uncle sent this along knowing of my RR interest. Thought I'd pass it

> along as I found it interesting & had never seen before

>

> Ron Wilkinson

> ----- Original Message -----

> From: maxwell

> To: Undisclosed-Recipient:;

> Sent: Thursday, April 04, 2013 10:15 PM

> Subject: Moving Chevy Vega's in the 70"s

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>  Subject: Moving Chevy Vega's in the 70"s

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>           Until the early 1960s, automobiles moved by rail were carried in

> boxcars. These were 50 feet long with double-wide doors.  Inside was 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, as 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 approach the maximum allowable weight for each flatcar.

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>           When Chevrolet started designing Vega during the late 1960s, 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, OH assembly plant to the Pacific coast -

> the longest distance 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.

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>           The engineers at GM and Southern Pacific Railroad came up with a

> clever solution.  Instead of loading the cars horizontally, the Vegas were

> to be placed vertically on a specially designed auto-rack called the

> Vert-A-Pac.  Within the same volume of an 89-foot flatcar, the Vert-A-Pac

> system could hold as many as 30 automobiles instead of 18.

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>           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.

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>           The Vega was hugely popular when it was introduced in 1970,

> however it quickly earned a reputation for unreliability, rust and terrible

> engine durability.  When the Vega was discontinued in 1977, 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.

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