10 Obscure Railcars Explained In 10 Minutes! 

Thanks for explaining the histories of these railcars. I never knew there was video footage of the ICBM car testing.

I'm from Dayton, Ohio, and recently saw that ICBM boxcar at the Airforce Museum (next to Wright Patt) on a trip I made to visit family. I always thought it was cool, but terrifying at the same time!

Let's be here until next Tuesday discussing other obscure rolling stock! This looks like the start of a great series!

When I started hopping freights in the mid 1970s, you could always find an open box car, car carriers were open air, hopper cars had plenty of hidey-holes, and every train had a caboose. Also, atitudes toward letting a wanderer have a free ride were relaxed. For example, in the fall of 1979 north of Eau Claire, Wisconsin, I was running for a Soo Line and when the engineer saw me, he stopped the train and invited me to ride in the engine cab! Most incredible thing I ever experienced. Well the Soo Line and many others are long gone and little by little, all those things I mentioned above have disappeared, including the lax attitudes. After 9/11, if you even thought about hanging out around a freight yard, you instantly aroused the attention of police. Back in 2011, I was crossing a railroad bridge on foot over the Missouri River and by the time I got to the other side there was a K-9 unit ready to take me in. That's the last time I was even close to the rails, but I certainly enjoyed this video.

I worked for the railroad from 1970 to 90s as an Agent dispatcher on our road which was a short line of 54 Mi was the scale car because they used to drop one off once a year for certified scales and we had one of the old slidebar scales so anyway I never knew there were so many different unique cars out there and thanks for showing them to us and it's amazing how some of them looked and how they worked so thanks again we appreciate it and me as being an old dog you can show an old dog new tricks.!

Here in Brazil we had a peculiar boxcar, it was a former ALCo FA-1 that got involved in a collision and lost it's nose, so the shops took the wreck shortened the frame cutting the cab and radiator sections and turned it into a engine block mover, they cut a hole in the roof to make loading and unloading easy and kept the iconic FA trucks, and entire ALCo 244 or 251 engine could be carried on the original engine mounting brackets, there were conversion brackets for other engine types too like ALCo 539, GE 7FDL, EMD 567 and 645.

this was a very nice episode! If you do another one of these, I hope you can include some foreign railcars as well.

The winglets for the B-1 bomber were shipped in the tallest railcar built at the time. They had a bridge clearance that necessitated a specific route. In aircraft, tolling is usually stored someplace. These cars are probably near Palmdale, ca. Note here that the box was lifted off to load and unload.

Canadian National also had an articulated hopper type, instead of shortening a hopper it looks like their idea was to split a hopper in half and add a bogie in the middle.

There was a six axle stainless steel hopper car called "Stainless Whopper Hopper". According to Wikipedia, it is on display along the Rocky Mount (Amtrak station) and Bus Depot in Rocky Mount in North Carolina.

The southern autogaurd was a 3 part articulated auto rack car that was use on the southern railroad. It now sits at NCTM on display.

It is good to hear some history on the peacekeeper rail Garrison. From 1999 to 2003 I did security for the peacekeeper FE Warren.

Forgot the rebuilt boxcars converted into mobile bunkhouse, and the combination boxcar on one end and flatbed on the other. This mod was used for maintenance at remote locations for material storage (covered and uncovered) for track repairs. A nother example was being used for a firefighting pumpcar with a monitor , hose reels, and a manifold for water distribution in forest fire suspension. Normally, we're connected in a combination with surplus tank cars for firefighters' water supply .

The military brought one of those Peacekeeper missle cars to Alaska in the late 80s. It was stored at Elmendorf AFB with the idea of converting it to a "mobile" command post. The car was too heavy to ride the rails in Alaska and it was then shipped back to the lower 48 in the early 90s.

FEC converted some of their ventilated boxcars into cabooses somewhere in the late 60’s. Now those are interesting

Very interesting! I’m a total railcar nerd but even I hadn’t heard of some of these. You could make a whole episode on tank cars alone- specialized cargo calls for specialized cars, of which there are many. Tiny 2300-gallon bromine tanks, 8-axle glycol tanks, the interconnected TankTrain... the possibilities are endless!

I have seen a few of these in person (the scale test cars being the most common). Thanks for letting us know about examples that are still on display - I'm adding them to my travel list

Honorable mention goes to the small "bobber" 4-wheeled cabooses used on the BC hydro railway. They were a small short-line caboose which didn't have sleeping accomodation. The Canadian Pacific used the "shorty" caboose which was employed on the switchbacks around Trail, BC. Using a shorter caboose meant that an extra revenue car could fit on the switchback track.

I really like the way you gave great details based on your narrative skills about the strange railcars. I just now subscribed your channel. Keep up the great work!👍

Please make more of these about obscure ones! Subscribing in hope for more!

I have never heard of anticulated hopper cars. That was my favorite! I would imagine inspecting the shared truck sets would be a pain as inspecting articulated flats is a pain. One unique railcar I really enjoyed working on were the Coors and Tropicana tank cars with the 1/2" thick stainless steel inner tank and the 1/2" thick carbon steel outer tank with 10" of foam insulation in between. The inner tank was polished to a mirror finish. Coors could haul their beer in a near frozen state from Colorado to distribution facilities and only lose a few degrees of liquid temperature. Super cool tanks! Thanks for putting this video together.

I love trains and I can tell u certainly do and the way u have explained these different train cars ect is brilliant I can understand everything ur saying this is a gr8 channel and I will be watching and enjoying more videos and learning a lot about this stuff every time I watch them , a massive godbless to you sir, x

Thanks for the Very Detailed Video on ten (10) Obscure cars most people have never seen or heard of around the Railroad. 👍🙏

You should explore the BN TroughTrain articulated coal hopper. They were built with 13 units each.

This was VERY interesting, not often one sees something not seen before anymore

Your videos never cease to amaze, with your encyclopedic knowledge brought to bear on the subject matter! Think I said so on another of your videos: your channel is my absolute favourite among the many railfan sites I follow. I don’t know how you do so much but your efforts are sincerely appreciated. Keep the episodes coming my friend!!

Very informative & fun! Part 2, Please!

I had no idea about many of these cars - thank you for this video!

Thank you for this and the 2nd video. It's nice to see what market demand is out there for freight.

People are finally noticing your Channel and your Unusual Topics have sparked a Lot of Interest. Keep up the Strong 💪 Efforts. Thanks! 👍🙏

Very interesting, dude! Great informative video. I live right by dragon cement! See these being hauled every week.

Thank you for all of your effort! I enjoyed this!.... could do one on right of way maint. Cars...and cranes...thank you!

The unusual always floats my boat. A great video, thanks. 😎😊👌👍!

We learn something new every day . THANK YOU FOR SHARING

This video was randomly recommended to me but I am surprised at how much there is to learn about something people like me take for granted. I usually just see a train rolling by and don’t think much of it. Cool video.

Great video! The video production quality is really good!

I would love a sequel of this! The Oklahoma Railway Museum you mentioned also has a unique MKT inspection car made out of a boxcar. That was really neat to see when I went out there.

Thank you. Always something new and weird to discover🙂. Cheers from NZ🇳🇿!

There was also a "TankTrain" that had interconnected tank cars so many tank cars could be load or unloaded from one connection. There used to be one set in storage on the old DT&I tracks in Eastern Ohio next to the Ohio Central main line through Coshocton. The OC owned the old DT&I main, and used it to store cars. There's still cars in storage there today, but you can't tell from Google Earth if the tank train cars are still there, and you can't see them easily from any road. I know they were there in the 2000's.

"The Slotcar" Ballast/Tie carrier, the "Hog Heaven" cattle car, SP's articulated Dining car... to name a few more cars. Nice to see the GN NW-5. Thanks for your great videos. John

Good work explaining these wacky train cars. You know your stuff for a railfanner thats only been watching trains for a year.

Hey Southern Plains Railfan! I love your content! Keep it up!❤

I really enjoying learning about rail cars from you. I hope you make more videos talking about real cars.

The Hutch seems like a very interesting caboose, I might pick it up as a model someday

I used to see triple crown trailers all the time at different gm plants in Michigan and surrounding states, looked them over pretty closely. Saw the trains occasionally in Indiana. Pretty strange looking.

Hi. I worked for a short time on the road version of your Schnabel. The company was Abnormal Load Engineering in the UK. what you called the "Lifting Arms" we would call a "Swan Neck" and the load was suspended between them, normally transformers out of the GEC works in Stafford but occasionally Train carriages. Very interesting video, thank you🚂🚃

This was pretty dang cool thanks for sharing!

On those small whale belly cars at 1:40, I wonder if they were used for industries that wanted to load directly into above ground silos. You have a blower that blows air to push material through a line and up to the top of a silo. I worked at a place that received flour from semi trucks that had onboard blowers to go up the lines to the top of the silos. You don't want that dumped out into grates under the hopper, and it's too fine for a grain drill to move it without a mess.

Here's something that I've seen several times viewing at the shared UP - BNSF mainline between Portland Oregon and Seattle. It's not really a rail car but even though there were a lot of them produced, seeing one in service always brought the same question - What kind of a locomotive with no cab is that??? Johnnie that's what they call a Slug!! I've also personally seen the DOD's white train when it was (I'm guessing here) bringing in the missiles for the submarines at Bangor (near the Navy's base at Bremerton Washington) once construction on the naval sub base was complete. I saw armed guards and some with dogs too. So whatever was on that train was being heavily guarded and protected. So it was no secret what that train was carrying. Anyway you have some very well done and interesting videos here!!! And I hope you keep making them!

Excellent video! Thanks!

Wow i founded this video really educational, keep up the awesome work 😊📸💯

Many years ago Atlas made 4 different scemes of the GATX rail whales in N guage. I have all 4. They never fail to catch attention at shows. There is a Santa Fe super hopper at the rail museum near me

The steel mill I worked at, we did not anchor the torpedoes, when we poured. I remember the scale car they had.(do not hump). Always put on a siding that was hard to access. This mill had Fairbanks Morse and Baldwin switchers from the 1960’s. Also a couple of EMD’s. We tried to get the mill to donate a few of the locomotives to museums. They cut them up, “to teach the union a lesson”! Thanks USSteel.

A fascinating video, thank you for sharing.

I once saw a Schnabel car paired up with a shoving platform on the BNSF Staples Subdivision, sure turned my head

Absolutely awesome. Best railway channel on YT

The specialized phosphate gondolas/hoppers where exclusively used by both SCL and CSX in Florida’s Bone Valley who inherited the phosphate hoppers after the SCL-Chessie merger in the 80’s that created CSX.The reason for the use of the phosphate hoppers was to transport phosphate from the phosphate mines in Florida’s Bone Valley to CSX’s Phosphate transloading facility on the shore of Tampa Bay where they were subsequently loaded onto ships. These cars were colored in red for SCL and white on the CSX. The phosphate hoppers’s unique rotary coupler system which enables these phosphate cars to turn on the center axis point of the couplers during a 180 degree turn.

The whale bellies used by Dragon were used to transfer cement from their plant in Thomaston, ME to barges at the port in Rockland,ME. As of a couple years ago they were put out of service and all cement was shipped out by rail in 2 bay hoppers, including a number of pressure differential cars. Dragon has officially announced they’ll be closing their operation in Thomaston by 2025. They started scrapping all of the whale bellies end of 2023, though one is being preserved by the Belfast and Moosehead Lake Railroad.

*Nicely done, Kudos!*

The BN (and older Pacific Great Eastern) ‘bopper’ cars that were designed to handle both grain and general merchandise service are worth a look. Several BN examples are preserved in Duluth, Minnesota.

I would love to see a whole series of these videos!!

amazing Southern plains, i really enjoyed this thanks i wished you could also talk about the SOUthern radio slave unit car I they still have them thanks again 🙂

Pretty nice! I didn’t know about some. I’m mostly intrigued by TTX Frontrunners, Having 1 axle on each truck.

Unbelievable video Buddy :D

Ok, you got me with that thumbnail 😂. Very well done video, enjoyed it a lot!

The title sounded a bit like click bait so I didn't think I'd stay for long. Wrong! Very interesting and very well done. Thanks.

Absolutely Fascinating. Growing up in the late 70's early 80's at around the age of 10 we had rail roads close to us and I remember seeing a guy leaning out the top window of the caboose with a hunting rifle. We always though he would shoot you if he seen you and we always ran and hid from the trains. Once in a blue moon, I will have a dream trying to run and hide from an on coming train barley moving but I manage to hide just in time. Thanks for sharing.

I had several of those long eight axle whale-belly cars on my N scale layout back in the 70s. Little did I know about they never entered rail service to make money. But I lived them none the less as they looked neat going through crossovers and tight curves.

Great video. Please make another on more obscure freight cars.

There’s also few more obscure railcars: *Centerflow Conditionaire Covered Hoppers owned by ATSF and BN. *110 Woodchip open hopper *Railwhale oil tankers that were 6-axle and 8-axle ones. *Radioactive waste gondolas that routinely haul contaminated soil from Cold War era nuclear testing sites to a disposal supersite by Clive, Utah

Very cool and informative video!

They used to have oversized drover's cabooses for the cattle drovers to ride in after their cattle were loaded up to be taken off to market. The drovers would ride in the caboose to the point where their cattle were to be sold and then they would detrain and go negotiate the best prices they could get from the cattle buyers. Some of the longer trips required stops where the drovers would walk the length of the train with cattle prods and keep the cattle up on their feet. Livestock truck drivers (the good ones anyway) do this too. They periodically stop and make sure the cattle are up and safely on their feet.

Nicely done!

The Hutch Caboose is part of Proz “End of the Line” restaurant and sports bar in Devils Lake ND and is still going strong. It was beautifully incorporated with an existing building.

The white train is an interesting train that the DOD ran in the 60s and 70s, the train ship nukes and other booms from Pantex in the Texas Panhandle, you can see the train at The Amarillo Railroad Museum and go inside the guard coach.

When I went on a tour of an old Pittsburg blast furnace they had a few torpedo cars. Apparently they were heavy enough to require their own reinforced special bridges and could keep their iron molten for 4-5 days. One time, workers forgot about one of the torpedos and instead of contacting management, they came back with an excavator and buried it. Wasn't discovered until one day it was unearthed while building a parking lot.

I used to have a 1973 Chevy Vega GT Hatchback. It sure was nice to see the brand new ones getting ready for shipping by rail 🚃 in such a unique way! 🇺🇸😁👍

The torpedo shipping cars are pretty unusual. Used to haul them all the time.

My father engineered large transformers for GE back in Pittsfield MA . Was this the first place where Snapli trucks were used. Thank you. Great and interesting information.

Thanks for showing us interesting railcars

The SanteFe came up with the Tru-Train and built a 1.5-inch scale model of it. It had a locomotive with an engine and generator and controls with 30 sections for loads on a spline that was supported by powered wheel-sets all along the length. It was in TRAINS MAGAZINE. This idea is somewhat similar to a sectioned intermodal car and train. The Georgetown Railroad has a number of slot trains and aggregate/ballast trains they lease.

Great video thanks for showing us the rail cars that never get the light shines on them.

interesting video, i was expecting milk cars but you found some great gems.

GATX 96500 was NOT the only 8-axle super rail whale built, nor was it the first. UTLX also built one, #83699, in 1963, two years before the GATX car. The UTLX car DID see revenue service as various petroleum companies tested it out. It remained on the ORER for 20 years after which it was retired and donated to the Galveston Railroad Museum. Sadly, the museum did not take any precautions in 2008 before Hurricane Ike devastated the island and southeast Texas. The museum was severely flooded and the carbody floated off its trucks, eventually settling in the adjacent parking lot. The museum couldn't afford to lease a crane to move it back, so it was scrapped on site, as were several other historical pieces of equipment. The Vert-a-pac cars were indeed developed by SP ad GM, but SP was not the only road to operate them. Numerous other roads operated them, either as railroad owned cars or built onto leased TTX flats.

A very interesting topic that I enjoyed.

I once saw a 2 axle scale test car in around 2012-2014, somewhere in that time frame and I remember (but no pics of either) the big CELX 6 axle tank cars that became extinct around 2018

The verti pack always felt like such a good design

Those torpedoes were used in the UK to transport molten iron from the blast furnaces of Teesside to the steel works at Consett whilst the blast furnaces furnaces at Consett were being refurbished. This was during the kate 1960s/early 1970s.

0:21 these are some cool train cars I wish I could catch these one day thanks for the history😊

Great Video! I never knew ATSF had those Articulated Hoppers

When it comes to "King size caboose" you can't go past the South Australian Railways' "Long tom" brake van, which is 60ft long, has 3 axle bogies and really has no right being as large as it is.

Another obscure type of steel mill car is the hot ingot car. Designed to carry large steel ingots in temperature controlled environments from one plant to another. Look up LHFX 25000, 25001, 37000

Very good presentation.

This was amazing. Please make a video converting another 10.

also, the articulated hoppers are fantastic! they look like a really cool idea I don't think the loading and unloading were too bad but it was definitely issues but boy are they cool

Good job. Subscribed.

Great video very interesting

If you want a truly oversize "caboose" check out the original (non-Amtrak) auto-train #3 (one of 3 built) that Florida Adventures In Railroading recently repatriated to home territory in St Marys, GA from California. Originally an 80' bi-level auto rack built 1959 for CN it and 40 others sold to fledgling auto-train in 1970. They were given high speed express trucks from retired REA express box cars and also D-22 passenger car brake systems. After the 1973 wreck at Hortense, GA #3, and 2 sisters, had the rear third converted to caboose sections for use on the Louisville section where passenger cars on front of consist and auto-racks on rear (this was before FREDs came into use) necessitated a rear end brakeman at end of train. The end result is an 80' combo bilevel auto-rack (good for 6 cars) caboose with passenger train capable trucks and brake system. The auto-train paint scheme will blow you away!!!.

I mused to ride the GN huge caboose. It had a small but comfortable passenger accommodation. It was heated, had running water, and a nice restroom.

This should be a series