TOFC...Getting Them On Or Off?

On the prototype in the days before piggy-packers and overhead cranes, the fifth wheel folded down so the trailers could be driven off.

Rusty

The following link is from the Chicago & NorthWestern Historical Society Modeler publication It is a 32 pg PDF. Pages 28 29 30 show a couple of close up pictures of the fifth wheel being put into position after the trailer was driven on.

http://www.cnwhs.org/cnwhs_modeler/Modeler_6-2.pdf

Here's a Piggypacker loading or unloading a Milwaukee Road trailer. You can see the TTX flatcar behind the truck. Not sure when this was taken, I would guess 1960's to early 70's. I've never seen an 0 gauge Piggypacker, don't know if anybody ever made one. 

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Thanks Rusty, Bill S. and Southwest Hiawatha. I think I will try to make a Piggy Packer and load my own trailers. When I get one built, I will post the results.

Not all the TOFC flats had fifth wheel Stanchions.

see the 3 rail forum titiled merchant row system. there is a scratchbuilt piggypacker there;

In a prior life I worked in the trucking industry and picked up the pigs as we called them. The fifth wheel folded down into the flat car and the trailers were pulled off by a yard tractor down a ramp. The fifth wheels and the chokes on your flat cars can be removed and the trailers can sit on their landing gear. I am putting such a piggy back yard on my layout and that is what I am going to do and scratch build a ramp to drive them off.

RJT, once the trailer was on the flatcar did they jput the fifth wheel back on the flatcar and hook it up to the trailer?

PRRHorseshoecurve, I don't understand your message. Where do I find this sratchbuilt piggypacker?

I think the fifth wheel may have been air operated not sure about how it operated but it hinged/folded down into the flat car so the trailer would roll over it.