Auto-Racks
#1
I was wondering if anyone knows of any protoype examples of facilities that may receive just a couple of auto-racks at a time?
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#2
Hmmm...I was going to say a dealership in a small town, but small towns no longer have rail service. :oops:

Maybe luxury cars being shipped to a Rolls dealer or some such?
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#3
You could use a "satellite" storage area..Hondas Marysville Ohio Plant used to ship Hondas from the plant to a storage area in Marion..You can have loads in and loads out.
Larry
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#4
Steve Williams Wrote:I was wondering if anyone knows of any protoype examples of facilities that may receive just a couple of auto-racks at a time?

Good question.
I know that auto-rack traffic is heaviest at the manufacturing plants, but I don't know where, and how, motor vehicles are transferred from the rail cars to trucks for delivery to dealerships. I haven't yet seen a dealership that has rail service, everything arrives by truck.
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#5
Sumpter250 Wrote:
Steve Williams Wrote:I was wondering if anyone knows of any prototype examples of facilities that may receive just a couple of auto-racks at a time?

Good question.
I know that auto-rack traffic is heaviest at the manufacturing plants, but I don't know where, and how, motor vehicles are transferred from the rail cars to trucks for delivery to dealerships. I haven't yet seen a dealership that has rail service, everything arrives by truck.

They use a mixing pool where the cars are off loaded from auto racks assigned storage row and slot number(parking space) and they are parked there until needed..Then they are loaded onto truck auto carriers and delivered to the dealer however,these transports may have 2 or more deliveries per trailer..
Larry
Engineman

Summerset Ry

Make Safety your first thought, Not your last!  Safety First!
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#6
Sumpter250 Wrote:
Steve Williams Wrote:I was wondering if anyone knows of any protoype examples of facilities that may receive just a couple of auto-racks at a time?

Good question.
I know that auto-rack traffic is heaviest at the manufacturing plants, but I don't know where, and how, motor vehicles are transferred from the rail cars to trucks for delivery to dealerships. I haven't yet seen a dealership that has rail service, everything arrives by truck.

Along the Front Range, there is a huge transfer yard just south of Denver where the auto-racks are off-loaded to trucks that carry them to dealers in the Denver, Castle Rock and Colorado Springs metro areas.
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#7
Brakie Wrote:You could use a "satellite" storage area..Hondas Marysville Ohio Plant used to ship Hondas from the plant to a storage area in Marion..You can have loads in and loads out.

Tried to locate this on Google Maps, but without success.
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#8
I once stumbled upon a small facility in Montana (using Google earth) that was literally a branch with a long run-around, and the whole area was paved. Auto-racks were spotted on the run around, and mobile ramps were lined up where convenient for unloading. The entire facility held something like 5 or 6 autoracks, and had a lead long enough to shuffle them around to the loading area with a trackmobile or some other vehicle.
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#9
This may not be what you're looking for, but it is a shot of a rather large facility here outside of Phoenix. If you want to find it, look on Google Earth. It is SE of Bell Rd. on Grand Ave. in Surprise, AZ. I pass by several times a week since it's not that far from our house. The tracks run parallel to Grand, and there is a siding that goes into the lot. The carrier storage lot is at the bottom of this photo.


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#10
ezdays Wrote:This may not be what you're looking for, but it is a shot of a rather large facility here outside of Phoenix. If you want to find it, look on Google Earth. It is SE of Bell Rd. on Grand Ave. in Surprise, AZ. I pass by several times a week since it's not that far from our house. The tracks run parallel to Grand, and there is a siding that goes into the lot. The carrier storage lot is at the bottom of this photo.

Thanks. Useful to have a look at.
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#11
As soon as I say this, some one will post a link to prove me wrong, but that would then give you a definitive positive answer to your question, Steve. I don't think it likely that any auto racks would service a dealer directly. A small town dealer would probably not sell enough cars at a time to justify autoracks being delivered, and large dealerships are most likely too far from the tracks and often built in an auto-mall with many other dealers. The most efficient method is to bring the autoracks to a central location for distribution and unload them to go on to trucks for final delivery. The most expensive and labor intensive thing a railroad does is to make local deliveries of cars for loading or unloading. They would much rather deliver an entire train to a facility to be loaded or unloaded and let trucks do the local switching.
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#12
I have come across these two videos:

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#13
This is the auto-load yard between Denver and Castle Rock which serves most of the Front Range dealers. Not as big as some.

[Image: autoload.jpg]
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