TTX has an ad on page 21 of the September issue of Trains magazine that shows a string of the old style autoracks (the kind that left the vehicles exposed) superimposed next to a train of the current, enclosed version. How long did the old type last in service, and have any been preserved?

The Museum of Transportation, St. Louis has the first tri-level auto rack.It is an open car and was built by the Frisco.

I am glad to see that the first SLSF auto rack is in St. Louis. The ATSF claimed they built the first ones as well. I do not know who is right. These cars were 85ft long and most were built on TTX ownership cars but some carriers such as SLSF, ATSF, and SP had flats with their own marks. The racks (part of the car over the main deck) were owned by the carriers. Original markings were RTTX for flat deck trilevels, KTTX for low level trilevels and BTTX for flat deck bi-levels. Quickly the car lengths went to 87' and then to 89' and are now longer. The racks were scrapped and new ones built on the longer cars. 99.9% of the shorter cars were open. The primary original rack builder was Whitehead and Kales in River Rouge, MI but other firms were in the business such as Darby of Kansas City and Paragon of Novi, MI. Enclosed cars came into being in the mid-1970s. The end doors were the biggest engineering problem with the fully enclosed cars.Fred Crissey

I'm not sure if or when they were last used before being retired/rebuilt, but I have photos of one going through Lima, OH in 1993 during the FWRRHS C&O 2765 excursion. I vaguely remember seeing a couple in the late '90's, but there can't be many more out there... liablility being what it is anymore...Dave J