12-02-2010, 01:20 PM
Before I retired, I used to go to Redondo Junction which is now where the Amtrak coach yard is in Los Angeles. Express Trak was a company that was separate but owned by AmTrak. They shipped 2-4 loads of oranges out on every Southwest Chief train for a few years. I think they are out of business now. It was an idea that AmTrak had to try to add revenue to their trains, but they low balled the price to pick up shippers and thought that they could raise prices later. When they tried to raise prices the shippers balked, but they were losing so much money on the original prices that they went bankrupt. Anyway, they used to load the cars by loading boxes of oranges on pallets, that were put into the car by forklift where crews would hand stack the orange boxes into the car, and the forklift would then take the empty pallet out and get another one from the trailer there were transloading out of. On the ExpressTrak cars, they loaded from both ends to the middle, and the last boxes were put on the top of the stack from the dock before closing the door. There was no empty space in the car so no bracing was needed. I think in the old days where they used ramps between cars for loading, they would load the outside car first. It would be loaded completely, and then the ramp would be removed and the door closed and sealed. Then they would load the second car in, and thus work their way to the car that was dock side. In the case of the citrus industry at least, the cars were always loaded tight enough that no bracing was ever needed. Obviously, if the cars were being unloaded, they would unload the inside car first and then work their way out.