Intermodal Bogies (By Nova55)

[Lirr168]

Intermodal Bogies
Nova55

Often times when one rides a train going to or from New York on the mainline, you might look out the window by Hicksville and spot these short blue things on a siding, with weeds growing through them and covered in graffiti.  You notice the 5th wheel hitches and couplers so you know they are rail related, but just what are those things?

These cars are known as Bogies.  The Bogies are a set of experimental intermodal cars that were used by the LIRR in the late 1980’s through the early 1990’s.   The entire purpose of these cars was to be able to introduce intermodal-type services to LI businesses.  The reason that it took so long to do this was the fact that LI is plagued with some very low clearances which will not accept the traditional double stack containers or trailer-on-flat-car services.  This is somewhat ironic being that LIRR helped to pioneer intermodal in the 1800’s by placing wagons on flat cars destined for the city. The Bogies eliminated the problem with the latter of the two.  In the late 1980’s, LI was in a crisis of overloaded roads and something had to be done…

Starting in 1988, The Berwick Car Company of Berwick, Pennsylvania designed and built the first set of the Bogies. Berwick is a known freight car builder with a line of well known box cars and would later develop the ULTRA (universal load, twin railcar, articulated) container waste cars in 1991. When complete, the set was leased to the LIRR to test.  The tests went well and a DOT grant was issued to pay for the new cars.  The original cars were delivered in April 1988 with a second order coming in August 1992.

LIRR entered into an agreement with the New York Cross Harbor Railroad, who operated carfloat service between Jersey City, New Jersey and Brooklyn, New York.  Trailers would be come into NJ, be loaded on the Bogies and taken to Brooklyn to be interchanged with the LIRR.  This is the only route the cars would ever take.
 
The cars were unlike anything ever built at the time, featuring some very sleek lines on a very low profile , but heavily built chassis. What made these cars interesting was the fact that the trailer body became an important part of the cars.   The trailer we straddle the cars with one end in the 5th wheel hitch and the wheels sitting in wells of the next car.  The process would then be repeated.  The end cars (8000# series, “A” cars) featured a standard height tight lock (Type H) coupler and a set of cast steel counterweights.  The other end featured a 5th wheel hitch.  Next in line would be the intermediate car (1000# Series, “C” cars).  On one end would be a set of wells for the tires to sit in, on the other end a 5th wheel hitch.  Both ends of the car had low height couplers.  The next and final car (9000# series, “B” cars) would have only a set of wells for the wheels, then on the end would be steel counterweights and a standard height Type H coupler.  An air hose would be strung out under the trailer and connected to the next car to operate the air brakes.  Originally, the cars had black lettering, but it was changed to white later on.  A more refined red air hose reel was also added, along with guides for the truck tires on the wells.

Normal configuration would have the end car, 4 intermediates and the other end car. This setup used 5 trailer bodies and was limited to 3 sets of these per train (which would be 15 trailers).  Loading and unloading would be handled by a pair of custom built cranes, one located in Pinelawn on the wye team track and the other in Cross Harbor’s Greenville Yard.

The bogies were used by the US Postal Service to haul trailers of mail onto LI.  This customer did not last long, as vandals set a trailer on fire.  They were also used by Clare Rose beer distributors in Farmingdale.  In the long run. the cars were deemed a failure.  They were too light on the wheels and liked to derail when switching.  The cars met their end when a set would be left to sit on the siding in Hicksville, and another, much longer cut was placed on the Montauk Cut-off in Long Island City.  It is doubtful these cars will ever come back to service being that they haven’t been used in 15 or so years.

[li7039]

Great write up Nova

[JTunnel]

Excellent write up.

From talking to one of the persons who were involved with these cars, a big part of their failure was the rate each railroad and party involved wanted for handling these cars.

Priced themselves right out of the market. NYS DOT ordered parties involved to make it happen. Mechanical problems made it that much easier to sideline the cars.

NYS DOT had an article explaining the entire project. Used to be online.

[Nova55]

Thanks for the comments guys.  Photos are going to be added later tonight or tomorrow.

John,

If you ever come across that article again I would absolutely love to see it...

Paul

[m7train]

nice article good job

[RGlueck]

Great explanaiton. Paul!  Nicely written up!

[rs31556]

Thanks for the information.

Question:
There are cars used for double stacks that have a low clearence.  Would using these cars with one trailer placed in it instead of two clear the overheads?

[JTunnel]

RS,

Yes, it would.

There are intermodal cars that can do such a thing too.

IIRC, Conrail/LIRR hosted the "Low Pac 2000" when Budd was still making railcars. It was tested in the New York Area. Too late to save Budd, but the car design was picked up by others.

Railroads have run single stacks in areas with clearence problems. Just that there is no infrastructure on Long Island to load/unload or marshall the trains that would do this.

CSX tried to run some intermodal to the Harlem River Yard several years ago. Scheduled trains and everything. Brought in a piggy-packer into The Bronx to do the loading/unloading. No shippers showed up at the Illinois ramp. The extra day to transit to the east side of the Hudson scared away the shippers. Why should they wait an extra day when the Jersey side of things can handle it and then all one needs to do is drive out to the Island? If you were a shipper, what would you do?

We the consumer pay for the transit time on the LIE and we all pay for the fumes.

[Nova55]

LIRR 8001, an end car. Not the standard coupler on the left, and the non standard on the right. While small, these cars weighted in at just under 9 tons empty, and can hold close to 50 tons. Al Castelli Photo


LIRR 1001 is an intermediate car.  Both ends have the non standard coupler heights.  Al Castelli Photo


LIRR 9001, the other type of end car. P. Strubeck Photo


The surviving Bogie crane in Pinelawn.  The wye is now used by Coastal Distribution, and the crane sits unused. Al Castelli Photo


8001 in Hicksville over 15 years after the above photo was taken.  Not the modifications such as the air hose reel and white lettering.  Joe Gregory Photo


A cut of Bogies stored in Long Island City. P. Strubeck Photo

[Dump The Air]

The forever exiled Bogies sit beneath the citicorp building in LIC.

[alcoAL]

I pass by the Coastal facility in Farmingdale often & didn't realize until today that the bogie crane isn't there anymore. I was so used to seeing it sitting there that I didn't know if was gone until I was looking at the track bumpers since the gate there was open.

Anyone have any idea when it was taken down & what happened to it? Probably went for scrap I suppose.