RailRoadFan.com

A while back there was a post about pickup truck frames that were being shipped via semi and seen on I75 near Toledo.
I can't find the original post, but in traveling home from Dayton on I75, I had the opportunity to look at a couple truckloads and determine which vehicle the frames are for. They are for the Ford P522 - which is the new F150.

where they the new aluminum frames or are just the bodys aluminum on the new f150

astrovanman1989 wrote:where they the new aluminum frames or are just the bodys aluminum on the new f150

FYI the frame is made of Steel

"The 2015 F-150 will be built about the boxed frame that Ford drivers have come to know and love. From there, Ford engineers increased the use of high-strength steel to encompass 77 percent of the frame (up from 23 percent in previous models) to ensure durability and safety while effectively cutting a great deal of weight. The result: an F-150 frame that is about 60 pounds lighter than that found in the 2014 model."

I just did a trip Hartselle Ala and passed many trucks carrying frames north.

The F-150 frames come from a plant in Elizabethtown, Ky., owned by Metalsa S.A. de C.V., a Mexican company that bought Dana Corp.'s structural products business in 2010.

Hopes this helps... and I love my F-150 !

Tell me again how strong the Ford frame is....

BerkshireKid wrote:Tell me again how strong the Ford frame is....

Ford is the only one of the Big 3 that's not been on Welfare... Frame is made to flex and the frames we are discussing are on the F-150's

Not on welfare eh? GM paid the government back and the government made a profit on the deal AND twas Mr Bush that initiated the so called bailout.
Any idea what would have happened had GM and Chrysler declared bankruptcy and what that would have done to the state of Michigan? No I didn't think so.

KittyLitter wrote:Not on welfare eh? GM paid the government back and the government made a profit on the deal

Um, no.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/car ... t/4043607/

"The General Motors bailout may have cost the government $10 billion, but GM CEO Dan Akerson rejects any suggestion that the company should compensate for the losses.

He says Treasury officials took the same risk assumed by anyone who purchases stock"


http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter ... loans-it-/

"All told, the Treasury Department reported that the program cost taxpayers $79.7 billion, of which $70.4 billion was recovered. Under that estimate, the program lost about $9.3 billion. In April, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the program would end up costing about $14 billion."

So once the supplier issue is worked out will the frames go via rail ?

I just read on Railfan and Railroad that NS has recently grabbed the truck frame traffic out of Louisville to Michigan. From what the article stated..The frames are brought up from Elizabethtown Kentucky on Paducah and Louisville and from there are handed off to NS. The train symboled as 099 heads up to Cincinnati and on up the New Castle District to Fort Wayne and eventually to Detroit on the former Wabash.

Speaking of GM (which now stands for Government Motors).... Not to mention the way the government totally hosed GM stockholders, basically making the stock worthless. In other, not so polite words, the government STOLE the money from the stockholders! I was smart enough to dump my GM stock before it came to that. Of course, I bought a whole bunch of Ford stock when it was $2 a share. I'm hoping that someday we'll get a business-friendly President in DC, and that Ford's stock will get up to around $30 share (or more). Then I can retire happy and will have lots of time to watch trains!

And if Chrysler and GM would have declared bankruptcy, they would have stiffed their suppliers. And even if they had totally gone out of business, some other company or companies would have bought up the pieces and kept the factories going.

I used to be a Mopar man, but no more. Won''t touch a GM product, either.

Garry K

redside20 wrote:I just read on Railfan and Railroad that NS has recently grabbed the truck frame traffic out of Louisville to Michigan. From what the article stated..The frames are brought up from Elizabethtown Kentucky on Paducah and Louisville and from there are handed off to NS. The train symboled as 099 heads up to Cincinnati and on up the New Castle District to Fort Wayne and eventually to Detroit on the former Wabash.

Must have been pretty recent. I passed several truckloads of frames on my way to Fostoria/Deshler last weekend.

Garry K wrote:And if Chrysler and GM would have declared bankruptcy, they would have stiffed their suppliers. And even if they had totally gone out of business, some other company or companies would have bought up the pieces and kept the factories going.

Somebody stiffed their suppliers. The area north of Detroit had several automotive suppliers go under right after the government bailed out the auto industry.

redside20 wrote:I just read on Railfan and Railroad that NS has recently grabbed the truck frame traffic out of Louisville to Michigan. From what the article stated..The frames are brought up from Elizabethtown Kentucky on Paducah and Louisville and from there are handed off to NS. The train symboled as 099 heads up to Cincinnati and on up the New Castle District to Fort Wayne and eventually to Detroit on the former Wabash.

The NS 099's have been running for a little while now. They are interchanged to CN at Oakwood Junction.

The NS 099's have been running for a little while now. They are interchanged to CN at Oakwood Junction.

Does this train run under the cover of darkness? Since the trains inception this summer, I hadn't really seen anybody trackside reporting in any way the passage of this train. With one locomotive toting the reported one to two dozen loaded frame flats with two spacer cars at each end, just how quickly can a train like this skirt through Cincy and on through Ohio, indiana and Michigan overnight? BTW those of you that have the subscription to R&R like I do can find this information in the very front of the magazine called "Mainline Railnews". Usually this news is about a month old when it hits the subscribers mailbox.