About 15 years ago, Interurban Films (now defunct?) had a color VHS tape on the MoPac container operations circa 1956.. MoPac was really ahead of the curve with the idea of using unmodified gons and containers. The formation of Trailer Train orphaned this idea and others.

I think Dick Ryker did a PowerPoint talk at Naperville maybe ten years ago on this operation and also brought up McLeans “container on ship” concept.

The scuttlebutt that I heard is that the Pennsy invested a lot of money in their TrucTrain concept and was able to get a massive influx of cash from Trailer Train when it was formed since the number of specialty flatcars PRR contributed to TTX was more than all the other companies’ TOFC flatcars combined. TTX even standardized on the PRR hitch and tie down concepts. The PRR was ALWAYS looking for other people’s money from the late 50s until the Penn Central Merger and some even say Amtrak circa 1971 injected more money into buying decrepit PC equipment to prevent their bankruptcy the but that’s another discussion.

New York Central had tunnel issues so they worked with the FlexiVan concept also favored by Santa Fe and had a lot of mail contracts which kept it afloat. One has to think PRR wanted to leave the NYC out in the cold up until the merger.

Jim Ogden