D.O.T when it comes to containers.

[QUOTE="semi" retired;4218981]Hi Cody, I don't mean to be judgmental. If it works for you, by all means, have at it. I'm just saying I've done it all, and intermodal was the worst, and of all the types of trucking I've done, I would never do intermodal again. Conrail was bad, but compared to what? Part of the problem was Chicago itself. Again, take it from an old fart, there's better money and less hassle in other areas of trucking. Best of luck to you.[/QUOTE]
Intermodal and Chicago. I don't blame you, Chicago sucks. Running mostly air mile work inside a state with a Y plate is where intermodal is at. It don't pay to cross state lines.

 

[QUOTE="semi" retired;4219132]Yup, Ebola Guy, that's the ones. The most famous were Realco (REAZ) and XTRA( XTRZ). If you remember, years ago, you'd see those vans that were 102" wide, but the wheels were 96" wide, and they looked kind of funny. That's because, the flatcars were designed for 96" inch wide trailer wheels, and when they came out with 102", they wouldn't fit on the flatcars. Also, the suspensions were rebuilt from 96" trailers, and mounted on new 102" van bodies.[/QUOTE]
Memories! I also remember the Redon, or REDZ's. We had one loaded in a stack car and a new guy asked what kind of chassis he had to get for it. Man it was funny. I also recall some trailers that had green letters and Vermont on them. I want to say they were VIPZ's maybe?

 

Hi Foots, stop it, stop it, STOP IT! All those nightmares are coming back. That was VTRZ, and, if I recall, those were pretty good. I forgot all about REDZ's. Those were the worst. They were the crap that Realco or Xtra didn't want anymore. In many cases, you could still make out the REAZ or XTRZ. Remember some of the container yards with the big holes and smelled to high heaven? I asked a guy once, why don't they get some gravel in here and grade it? He told me, they do, on a regular basis, but the ground keeps swallowing it up, and as for the smell, he said, a lot of these places were where they used to bury the guts from the stockyards years ago.

 

Yes, VTRZ. I can't vouch for other stinky yards, I've just worked at one intermodal yard for 14 years and used to load those trailers on the trains.Our yard is in good shape since its all concrete. I loved loading the 45's and 48's because they didn't have lift points, you could pick them up anywhere. My favorite thing to do was unloading them off the train, especially if they were empty.

 

Where is the is so-called all concrete yard? Sir, I think you are expressing the fruits of your imagination at our expense![emoji4] [emoji4] [emoji4]

 

Lol. Its the UP yard in Marion, Arkansas. It was built in 1997. Its got some rough patches now, but they're repairing them a little bit at a time.

 

The years I pulled intermodal out of railyards never got DOT'ed one time. Went thru many scales and inspection stops but never was pulled in. To me it's just a myth. I see straight trucks getting pulled into inspection areas alot in NJ. What, are they all in terrible shape too??? I never had any major issues with a rail chassis or container. Nothing that couldn't be fixed quickly. Only ever had one blowout too. I certainly would never pull containers from ports as the ones I see on the road are scary enough to pass, not to mention pull.

And I have to agree about the otr folks or others who have never pulled intermodal, saying how it's the worst gig, lol. I made #### good money doing it and I was home every night. Rarely ever worked a weekend either. Moved on for a company position with full benefits as I didn't have them running intermodal. But alot of guys make a very good living doing it. I can only speak for my experiences running out of Harrisburg railyards though.

 

Hi dgman, yeah, that's cool, and like you say, I can only go by MY experiences. Here in the midwest, I can't tell you how many times I saw a container dropped behind the scale at the state line of Wis./ILL. I'm sure different parts of the country have different deals, but anything coming out of Chicago being pulled by some dirty POS tractor was money in the bank for them.

 

yeah semi, you are dead on. Some places do target certain vehicles. I've noticed it while passing the same scales over and over on my runs.