stevelischynsky

I remember that there was a problem with a lot of cars showing up with bullet holes when they were train delivered. That's why they add a cover being put in place by the forklift as shown by the photo.

Zymurgy

Umm... The tracks leading in/out of the Bowling Green Assembly Plant

Rad22

He's talking about looking at the google maps view of the Corvette plant in Bowling Green...and he's right about the tracks there...they are overtaken with weeds. There are literally trees growing out of the tracks...

Cruiter

The trees surprise me. I'd figure the tracks would still be operational for the supplies from the vendors to build the cars. Surely the don't come on Big Brown .

SkyTopp

They stopped shipping Corvettes by rail about 15 years ago. It was said they had too many paint damaged by rail dust.

tail_lights

kenrobb

Tom Hill from BG talked at the NCRS convention last month in Hampton, VA. He showed a photo much like the one here with the cars and covers. He said the cover is to be given to car owner by dealer. The area of the windshield is open and tape is used around the opening. Cover is tested to not "flap" in the wind and damage the paint in transit.

Pie R Squared

If I remember correctly my C5 was trucked to a rail head and shipped on rail out to San Diego and that I was able to track it on the BNSF web site.

michaelinmech

It is nearly impossible to "just in time" supply a manufacturing facility with rail shipments.

However that is not to say that some vendors are not using rail to ship their supplies to a 'cross dock, sortation & delivery' facility. Such a facility would be located very near the plant and just in time, precisely what is needed, and in production line sequence, delivery would be made from there by truck to the plant.

Long gone are the days when a production facility inventoried all the parts and pieces they need to build stuff for a month or more. A few parts they need are delivered as far in advance as 1 week and most parts are delivered the same day they are used. Often the delivery schedule has only a 1 hour time window. The burden, and it's a serious one, is squarely on the vendors. Imagine the consequence and cost for shutting down production with late/missed parts delivery.

rmarc7828

That vertical shipping method via train car is why battery side terminals were developed.

michaelinmech

I do not know whether you are being facetious of factual - but that is not the development reason for the Delco-Remy design. The side terminal battery was introduced in 1969, and sold as aftermarket. In 1971 Chevy adopted the D-R side terminal battery for use across their entire model line, including the Vega . . . .though the Vega 2300 did require a specially designed unit.

JoesC5

The Vega did require a special designed battery, but it was to prevent battery acid leakage from the caps. Also, a new design timing chain cover seal had to be designed to prevent oil leakage while the car was standing on it's nose during the rail shipment.

Bullet holes had nothing to do with the so called "covers" The fork truck is using the one piece drive on ramp to raise the car into position, which did afford extra security. When the original two level and then three level car carriers were designed, they were totally open. Bullets were not a problem. Objects dropped from highway overpasses were, thus roofs were put on the car carriers, and vandals were hopping aboard the car carriers and breaking out the car's windows to access the car to steal radios, seats, batteries etc. The railroads then put sides and ends on the car carriers to prevent the looting. Even then, they did not design the sides to be "bullet proof" as they have small openings, but not near large enough for a human to crawl through. You could fire a rifle shot into the side of a "enclosed" car carrier, and most likely the bullet would either pass directly through an opening or be deflected into the car, hitting the contends(a new car/truck).

The reason behind the Vert-A-Pak car was that it would carry 30 Vegas vs 18 on a standard tri-level rack. Also the Vert-A-Pak did not require a special unloading facility/rail car, just a fork truck, thus it could be unloaded just about anywhere. There was a special unloading procedure that had to be followed because if the fork truck operator unloaded all the cars on one side, the rail car would lay over on it's side. They had to unload a few cars from one side, and then unload a few cars from the other side, then a few more cars from the original side....etc

Back then, before the FRED, cabooses were still in use, and the railroads had to put bars over the end windows in the cupola to prevent cinder blocks, etc from being throw through the windows from overpasses and hitting train personnel riding in the caboose.