S-Helper S Scale GSC 53' 6" TOFC Flatcar with 35' Trailer, Milwaukee Road

TOFC Service (Trailer On Flat Car), or “Piggyback” refers to the movement of highway trailers on railroad flat cars. Early use started in the mid 1920s when the Chicago North Shore & Milwaukee began hauling semis on flatcars to improve its less-than-carload service. Many other railroads joined the TOFC revolution in the 1930s. Roads like the Chicago Great Western, New York, New Haven & Hartford and the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy converted flatcars to carry trailers. 

Many 40’ and 50’ flatcars were used for this service, although some railroads used boxcar frames to make new flatcars. Early cars had rub rails added to the deck, and bridge plates added to the ends of the cars to cross from one car to the next. Trailers were driven on to flatcars “Circus Style” originally. This meant the driver had to back down each flatcar to drop the trailer, un-hitch and pull forward – side and overhead cranes came later.

Early loading used chains to secure the trailer to the flatcar. Hitches started to come about in 1954 and were quickly added to flatcars throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Prior to 1958, most trailers east of the Mississippi River were restricted to 35’. These trailers could easily fit onto the 40’ and 50’ converted cars, and some railroads started to develop 75’ flatcars to carry two trailers.

In 1958 Federal Law allowed 40’ trailers nationwide. As trailers grew longer, so did the railcars, and the shorter flatcars and trailers began to be phased out of TOFC service.