Cool picture of the train of DREAMS....

[jbgroby]

I'd follow this train anywhere.....

[Clyde65]

Cool!

[LostMy65]

Here's another that's been floating around these forums.

Originally Posted by jdl71

Found the train, but not the site itself that had all the other pics:

[raidmagic]

Great pics.

[PGSigns]

The second picture has some GMC's in the load. Look at the two tone on the gold and white truck.
Jimmy

[jbgroby]

Train conductor has taste......

[hewittca]

Those are amazing pictures. It's funny how we look back on them with starry eyes, yet at the time most people probably didn't give it a second look. Heck, we still have trainloads of GM trucks rolling into the States and nobody is following those either. I wonder if we will look back on pics of them in 50 years and think, "wow if only we could go back!"

[Killer Bee]

this made me chuckle.. '74 Vega stacking, LoL



eta - found another picture of this unusual loading..



eta - and another, with a crowd of suits looking on, LoL

oops, just noticed the suit standing on the fender of the fork truck!! wow, safety much?

[jbgroby]

Our grandkids will, when they start restoring the current batch of plastic.....

Originally Posted by hewittca

Those are amazing pictures. It's funny how we look back on them with starry eyes, yet at the time most people probably didn't give it a second look. Heck, we still have trainloads of GM trucks rolling into the States and nobody is following those either. I wonder if we will look back on pics of them in 50 years and think, "wow if only we could go back!"

[jbgroby]

I wonder if the drivers stayed in the Vega's while they loaded - Standing on the brake pedal?

Originally Posted by Killer Bee

this made me chuckle.. '74 Vega stacking, LoL



eta - found another picture of this unusual loading..

[Captainfab]

I've never heard of or seen care stacked like those Vega's.....I suppose they could get more on a train car that way.

[damnyankee36]

Wonder if they had to drain the engine oil? I would imagine they would have started the engines on the line first. Don't know if Vegas ever had a power steering option. I've never known for those reservoir caps to hold fluid very well. All other fluids would probably stay in place.

[VictoriaHardware]

Originally Posted by damnyankee36

All other fluids would probably stay in place.

Not all of the coolant stayed. The engine-driven fans crashed into the radiators because the rubber engine mounts were never designed for such usage. The Logistics arm had no idea of what the Vehicle Design arm was doing. I have heard stories about the problems that rail shipment caused but I forgot most of them. They had to do with fluids leaking and even windshields popping out. Oh the mess in the bottom of the rail cars when they were opened after a cross country trip! Rail car shipment is a lot rougher than you would imagine. In contrast, today's semi-trucks with air-ride trailers and soft-tie wheel straps are incredibly smooth.

Those rail cars were specially designed by GM to haul those cars. Another example of tremendous effort expended on a poorly thought-out idea. And you can just imagine the "suit" standing on the fork lift is telling all the other suits what a ground-breaking & cost-saving idea this is. A little talk, a demonstration, and a lot of back-slapping. But they did stop the practice of hobos riding inside.

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by jbgroby

I wonder if the drivers stayed in the Vega's while they loaded - Standing on the brake pedal?

....

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by damnyankee36

Wonder if they had to drain the engine oil? I would imagine they would have started the engines on the line first. Don't know if Vegas ever had a power steering option. I've never known for those reservoir caps to hold fluid very well. All other fluids would probably stay in place.

The cars were full of fluids and driveable; Specially designed components were used to keep the fluids from draining out:

* Unique carburetors, with special chambers so the fuel would not run out
* Special windshield washer bottles
* Special radiator/overflow bottles, etc
* Unique transmissions
* Special battery caps to prevent acid leakage

among other things -

They were building them at about 110 jobs per hour, so something had to be done to pick up the pace of the shipping process.


K