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

[NW Mailing List]

The Vega was America's Yugo. I used to car-pool with a guy who  traded his 
perfectly good Chevy pickup in on a Vega. It oozed cheap when  you got in 
it; cardboard headliner, cheap cheesy carpet and  upholstery, etc. He wound up 
hating it, only kept it 6 or 7 months, and  bought another Chevy truck.
 
Greg Harrod
============================================
 
 
In a message dated 07/28/2013 6:08:00 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org writes:

Wasn't the Vega the car that almost destroyed Chevy as a company?  Great 
article, by the way. I've never seen vehicles transported like that;  
interesting that it was fully enclosed, which was something I don't think I  saw on 
the railroad auto transporters until the 80's or so.  


Mike Weeks
now in Seattle, WA



On Sat, Jul 27, 2013 at 6:07 AM, NW Mailing List 
<_nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org_ (mailto: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_ (mailto:dacamax at oh.rr.com)  
To: _Undisclosed-Recipient:;_ (mailto:Undisclosed-Recipient:;)  
Sent: Thursday, April 04, 2013 10:15 PM
Subject: Moving Chevy Vega's in the 70"s



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


    
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


 
____________________________________
 
 

 

 
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.
 

 
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.
 

 
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.
 
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  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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