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Now THAT'S what I call good brakes!
Now THAT'S what I call a stupid brother!
6sal6
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That is really cool!
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That just might be the answer to all those factory defects I had to deal with in my Chevys back in the 70's.
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insert 50 cents, pull lever, out comes a chevy.........it's like a railroad car Pez dispenser......
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That was GM’s answer to the teen age boys standing on railroad overpasses throwing rocks at the new cars. Also solved the problem of the railroad bums sleeping in the new cars.
I saw that picture a couple of months ago in a different context. There was a long convoluted story to go with it, but I cannot remember it. Maybe one of our Forum members can flex their Google-fu to find the story?
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Seems like oil and tranny fluid would be leaking out with the car standing on end!!
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Bolted to Floor wrote:
Seems like oil and tranny fluid would be leaking out with the car standing on end!!
They're going to leak anyway once they're driven.
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Bolted to Floor wrote:
Seems like oil and tranny fluid would be leaking out with the car standing on end!!
I'm betting they were shipped dry!
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terry wrote:
Bolted to Floor wrote:
Seems like oil and tranny fluid would be leaking out with the car standing on end!!
I'm betting they were shipped dry!
Shipped dry makes the most sense, but what company does things that make sense!!!!
google was flexed!! The article below and more pictures at the link.
Until the early 1960s, automobiles moved by rail were carried in boxcars. The boxcars were 50 feet long with double-wide doors. Inside was room for four full-sized sedans on a two-tier rack—two raised up off the floor on a steel rack and two others tucked in underneath them. This protected the cars during transport but wasn’t very efficient, as the weight of four vehicles was far less than the maximum weight a boxcar that size could carry. When 85-foot and 89-foot flatcars came into service, it was possible to pack up to 15 automobiles in one car on tri-level autoracks. But this still didn’t approach the maximum allowable weight for each flatcar.When bowtie was designing the Vega during the late 1960s, one of its main objectives was to keep the cost of the car down around $2,000 (in circa-1970 dollars). At the time, the freight charge for moving a loaded railcar from the Lordstown, Ohio, assembly plant to the Pacific coast—the longest distance cars produced at Lordstown would need to travel—was around $4,800. Since the Vega was a subcompact, it was possible to squeeze three more cars on into an autorack, for a total of 18, instead of the usual 15. But that still worked out to around $300 per car—a substantial transportation charge (which dealers passed on to customers) for a $2,000 car. If bowtie could get more Vegas on a railroad car, the cost per unit of hauling them would go down.
Engineers at General Motors and the Southern Pacific Railroad came up with a clever solution. Instead of loading the cars horizontally, they were to be placed vertically on a specially designed autorack called the Vert-A-Pac. Within the same dimensions of an 89-foot flatcar with a tri-level autorack, the Vert-A-Pac system could hold as many as 30 automobiles instead of 18, reducing the transportation charge per vehicle by about 40%.bowtie’s goal was to deliver Vegas topped with fluids and ready to drive to the dealership from their distribution point. In order to be able to travel nose-down without leaking fluids all over the railcar (and onto the tracks), the Vega’s engineers had to design a special engine oil baffle to prevent oil from entering the No. 1 cylinder of the car’s inline-four engine. Batteries had filler caps located high up on the rear edge of the case to prevent acid spills. The carburetor float bowl had a special tube that drained gasoline into the vapor canister during shipment, and the windshield washer bottle stood at a 45 degree angle. Plastic spacers were wedged between the powertrain and chassis to prevent damage to engine and transmission mounts. The wedges were removed when cars were unloaded. The doors were closed with a forklift tractor (see illustrations).The Vega was hugely popular when it was introduced in 1970. However it quickly earned a reputation for unreliability, rust, and poor engine durability. When the Vega and the Pontiac Astre were discontinued in 1977, the Vert-A-Pac racks were retired as they were too specialized to be used with anything else. The Vert-A-Pac racks were scrapped, and the underlying flatcars went on to other uses.
Last edited by Bolted to Floor (8/14/2018 7:07 AM)
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wow!
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Bolted to Floor wrote:
terry wrote:
Bolted to Floor wrote:
Seems like oil and tranny fluid would be leaking out with the car standing on end!!
I'm betting they were shipped dry!
Shipped dry makes the most sense, but what company does things that make sense!!!!
google was flexed!! The article below and more pictures at the link.
Until the early 1960s, automobiles moved by rail were carried in boxcars. The boxcars were 50 feet long with double-wide doors. Inside was room for four full-sized sedans on a two-tier rack—two raised up off the floor on a steel rack and two others tucked in underneath them. This protected the cars during transport but wasn’t very efficient, as the weight of four vehicles was far less than the maximum weight a boxcar that size could carry. When 85-foot and 89-foot flatcars came into service, it was possible to pack up to 15 automobiles in one car on tri-level autoracks. But this still didn’t approach the maximum allowable weight for each flatcar.When bowtie was designing the Vega during the late 1960s, one of its main objectives was to keep the cost of the car down around $2,000 (in circa-1970 dollars). At the time, the freight charge for moving a loaded railcar from the Lordstown, Ohio, assembly plant to the Pacific coast—the longest distance cars produced at Lordstown would need to travel—was around $4,800. Since the Vega was a subcompact, it was possible to squeeze three more cars on into an autorack, for a total of 18, instead of the usual 15. But that still worked out to around $300 per car—a substantial transportation charge (which dealers passed on to customers) for a $2,000 car. If bowtie could get more Vegas on a railroad car, the cost per unit of hauling them would go down.
Engineers at General Motors and the Southern Pacific Railroad came up with a clever solution. Instead of loading the cars horizontally, they were to be placed vertically on a specially designed autorack called the Vert-A-Pac. Within the same dimensions of an 89-foot flatcar with a tri-level autorack, the Vert-A-Pac system could hold as many as 30 automobiles instead of 18, reducing the transportation charge per vehicle by about 40%.bowtie’s goal was to deliver Vegas topped with fluids and ready to drive to the dealership from their distribution point. In order to be able to travel nose-down without leaking fluids all over the railcar (and onto the tracks), the Vega’s engineers had to design a special engine oil baffle to prevent oil from entering the No. 1 cylinder of the car’s inline-four engine. Batteries had filler caps located high up on the rear edge of the case to prevent acid spills. The carburetor float bowl had a special tube that drained gasoline into the vapor canister during shipment, and the windshield washer bottle stood at a 45 degree angle. Plastic spacers were wedged between the powertrain and chassis to prevent damage to engine and transmission mounts. The wedges were removed when cars were unloaded. The doors were closed with a forklift tractor (see illustrations).The Vega was hugely popular when it was introduced in 1970. However it quickly earned a reputation for unreliability, rust, and poor engine durability. When the Vega and the Pontiac Astre were discontinued in 1977, the Vert-A-Pac racks were retired as they were too specialized to be used with anything else. The Vert-A-Pac racks were scrapped, and the underlying flatcars went on to other uses.
I was going to say for those exact reasons. I use to work in the parts dept of a Chevy dealer in the mid 70’s. I remember reading about this method of shipping when the Vega came out. I worked for Brahm’s bowtie in Palisades Park NJ. The rail yard was not too far away from our dealer in Richfield NJ. The yard workers were absolutely brutal to the new cars and trucks. A lot of our work was fixing up these destroyed cars. I remember one van was blowing parts of a piston out as they drove it off the tow truck into the garage. If those Vegas were shipped dry, I guarantee you we would have been replacing engines in every since car. They just didn’t care in the rail yard back then.
I think one of the problems with the Vega engine not having a steel liner but rather the radiator size. I kid you not, they weren’t too much bigger then a heater core. They were really tiny. Besides the rest of the car was a total POS. They were flimsy and rusted out really quick.
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Huskinhano wrote:
Bolted to Floor wrote:
terry wrote:
I'm betting they were shipped dry!
Shipped dry makes the most sense, but what company does things that make sense!!!!
google was flexed!! The article below and more pictures at the link.
Until the early 1960s, automobiles moved by rail were carried in boxcars. The boxcars were 50 feet long with double-wide doors. Inside was room for four full-sized sedans on a two-tier rack—two raised up off the floor on a steel rack and two others tucked in underneath them. This protected the cars during transport but wasn’t very efficient, as the weight of four vehicles was far less than the maximum weight a boxcar that size could carry. When 85-foot and 89-foot flatcars came into service, it was possible to pack up to 15 automobiles in one car on tri-level autoracks. But this still didn’t approach the maximum allowable weight for each flatcar.When bowtie was designing the Vega during the late 1960s, one of its main objectives was to keep the cost of the car down around $2,000 (in circa-1970 dollars). At the time, the freight charge for moving a loaded railcar from the Lordstown, Ohio, assembly plant to the Pacific coast—the longest distance cars produced at Lordstown would need to travel—was around $4,800. Since the Vega was a subcompact, it was possible to squeeze three more cars on into an autorack, for a total of 18, instead of the usual 15. But that still worked out to around $300 per car—a substantial transportation charge (which dealers passed on to customers) for a $2,000 car. If bowtie could get more Vegas on a railroad car, the cost per unit of hauling them would go down.
Engineers at General Motors and the Southern Pacific Railroad came up with a clever solution. Instead of loading the cars horizontally, they were to be placed vertically on a specially designed autorack called the Vert-A-Pac. Within the same dimensions of an 89-foot flatcar with a tri-level autorack, the Vert-A-Pac system could hold as many as 30 automobiles instead of 18, reducing the transportation charge per vehicle by about 40%.bowtie’s goal was to deliver Vegas topped with fluids and ready to drive to the dealership from their distribution point. In order to be able to travel nose-down without leaking fluids all over the railcar (and onto the tracks), the Vega’s engineers had to design a special engine oil baffle to prevent oil from entering the No. 1 cylinder of the car’s inline-four engine. Batteries had filler caps located high up on the rear edge of the case to prevent acid spills. The carburetor float bowl had a special tube that drained gasoline into the vapor canister during shipment, and the windshield washer bottle stood at a 45 degree angle. Plastic spacers were wedged between the powertrain and chassis to prevent damage to engine and transmission mounts. The wedges were removed when cars were unloaded. The doors were closed with a forklift tractor (see illustrations).The Vega was hugely popular when it was introduced in 1970. However it quickly earned a reputation for unreliability, rust, and poor engine durability. When the Vega and the Pontiac Astre were discontinued in 1977, the Vert-A-Pac racks were retired as they were too specialized to be used with anything else. The Vert-A-Pac racks were scrapped, and the underlying flatcars went on to other uses.I was going to say for those exact reasons. I use to work in the parts dept of a Chevy dealer in the mid 70’s. I remember reading about this method of shipping when the Vega came out. I worked for Brahm’s bowtie in Palisades Park NJ. The rail yard was not too far away from our dealer in Richfield NJ. The yard workers were absolutely brutal to the new cars and trucks. A lot of our work was fixing up these destroyed cars. I remember one van was blowing parts of a piston out as they drove it off the tow truck into the garage. If those Vegas were shipped dry, I guarantee you we would have been replacing engines in every since car. They just didn’t care in the rail yard back then.
I think one of the problems with the Vega engine not having a steel liner but rather the radiator size. I kid you not, they weren’t too much bigger then a heater core. They were really tiny. Besides the rest of the car was a total POS. They were flimsy and rusted out really quick.
Butt.........they make sah-weeeeeet drag machines!! Same with the Pinto.
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Yea, Sal, there used to be a bunch of them headed for the dead strip.
There was guy that was part of a group I used to associate with. He built small block 400’s that ran pretty good then spray with nitrous. He stuffed one of those with some Brodix heads, a plate system, and a fogger into a Vega. This thing this had the three point seat belts and 3.73 gears from GM. He got one pass at the track in the low 10’s if memory serves me right. Track officials told him to load it up and leave till he could pass tech for that time frame.
A rusty car should be lighter, which means faster, right?
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Bolted to Floor wrote:
Yea, Sal, there used to be a bunch of them headed for the dead strip.
There was guy that was part of a group I used to associate with. He built small block 400’s that ran pretty good then spray with nitrous. He stuffed one of those with some Brodix heads, a plate system, and a fogger into a Vega. This thing this had the three point seat belts and 3.73 gears from GM. He got one pass at the track in the low 10’s if memory serves me right. Track officials told him to load it up and leave till he could pass tech for that time frame.
A rusty car should be lighter, which means faster, right?
They used to dip can am bodies in acid to eat away the sheet metal to reduce weight.
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