Vert-A-Pac Flat Cars

SP's answer to the problem of maximizing the ability of an 89' flat car to carry compact autos was the Vert-A-Pac car. These cars could handle 30 Chevy Vegas nose down wheras a traditional tri-level autorack of the day could only carry 18 of the same car.

Photo by: Bob Dengler

The SP was not the only road to roster Vert-A-Pac cars, however, they were one of only three roads (also IC & SOU) to roster them on home-road lettered and marked flat cars. Most others rode on yellow or mineral red TTX flats with TTVX reporting marks. A total of 410 cars are known to have been produced in four groups or lots. Lot 0 (zero) is the prototype SP 618000. Lot 1 includes the 119 SP cars plus 64 TTVX cars with racks lettered for D&RGW, RI, MP & MILW for a total of 183 cars. Lot 2 includes the 22 SP cars, 7 IC cars, 52 SOU cars and 84 TTVX cars with racks lettered for B&O, BN, D&RGW, FEC, L&N, MDT (leased to PC,) MILW, MP, RI, SCL & SLSF for a total of 165 cars. Lot 3 includes 61 cars lettered for B&O, D&RGW, FEC, L&N, MDT (leased to PC,) MILW, MP, RI, SCL & SLSF. This gives a grand total of 410 cars. Here is a list of known non-SP Vert-A-Pac cars:

Back to Main Page