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Introduced
in the early 1960s, the Trailer Train (now TTX Company) F89F flatcar
has been a mainstay of contemporary railroading. A product of
Bethlehem Steel Company’s (BSC) Johnstown, PA plant, over
9,000 of these (89’ 8” over the strikers) cars were
built throughout the 1960s. Visually distinctive from other long
flatcars of their era thanks to their “C” channel side
sills, these versatile cars were adapted for many types of service
and loadings over the years, ranging from Trailer-On-Flatcar (TOFC),
to autoracks, to structural steel loading. While the majority
went to Trailer Train, many were built for various railroads,
typically for autorack service. Many were “de-racked”
in later years, being reassigned and equipped for other service
- TOFC, vehicle loading, pipe service, etc. It wasn’t unusual
for these cars to see several different loading configurations
throughout their careers, in order to meet the changing needs
of shippers. In service with Trailer Train, the three or four-letter
reporting marks indicated the cars’ intended service and
corresponding equipment. For example, an “XTTX” car
was equipped with four collapsible hitches, capable of carrying
various combinations of 28’, 40’, or 45’ trailers.
A car in the “RTTX” configuration featured a pair of
fixed hitches at the ends, and a retractable hitch amidships,
allowing it to carry a pair of long (up to 45’) trailers
back-to-back, or three 28’ “pup” trailers. This
Athearn model was designed from the start to incorporate as many
prototype details and variations as possible, based upon field
measurements and builder diagrams, in order to appeal to modelers
of multiple eras. Many new hitches, body variants, and other separate
details were created, allowing us to accurately offer these cars
in their different configurations over the years, from four-hitch
“XTTX” cars, to the distinctive drawbar-con-nected “TTEX”
Triple-57 “Long Runner” bulge-deck conversions introduced
in 1987. And you can rest assured of its smooth performance, thanks
to a heavy die-cast frame for reliable tracking. Operationally,
these cars are appropriate for any layout set from the 1960s to
the present day. In TOFC service, F89Fs could be found mixed into
manifest trains, or as part of dedicated TOFC trains. It also
wasn’t uncommon to find them mixed into stack trains, alongside
such cars as Gunderson Maxi-Is or Maxi-IIIs.
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