Canadian Piggyback Flat Car

Prototype Information

Both of Canada’s two major railways started piggyback (TOFC) services in the 1950’s. By the late 60’s and early 70’s, this traffic had grown substantially and both railroads saw a need to purchase purpose-built flatcars that could handle both 26-foot and longer trailers, up to the then-new standard of 45-foot. These cars were not limited to the Northlands, as they were often seen all throughout the United States. Cars were commonly seen in New York State, Maine and Vermont, but often seen as far west as California. They travelled in large cuts and in solid TOFC-intermodal consists, but also would be mixed into manifests. The cars are a lot shorter than normal TOFC 89’ flatcars, thus making them more versatile and able to navigate tighter curves.

Canadian National placed an order for 283 cars with Vancouver Iron and Engineering Works (VIEW). Delivery on these cars started in 1966. They would continue in service well into the late 1980’s, after a major rebuild in 1976 to a single hitch configuration which resulted in the cars being renumbered into the 687000–687184 series.

Canadian Pacific ordered a large batch of 305 cars from Marine Industries Limited (MIL) in 1972, which were delivered as road numbers 505625-505930. These cars would soldier on in service after several rebuilding programs. As well as the removal of the second hitch, container pedestals were later added to many of the cars. A final group of cars were reconfigured for the Southern Ontario XpressWay service with rub-rails for the circus-style loading and unloading at terminals.