<html><head><style type='text/css'>p { margin: 0; }</style></head><body><div style='font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; color: #000000'>An interesting article passed on to me from one of the other club members.<BR><BR>
<DIV><SPAN name="x"></SPAN>
<DIV><EM>Ed Halpin</EM></DIV></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; FONT-SIZE: small"> </SPAN> </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="POSITION: relative; BORDER-LEFT: blue 1px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 10px; MARGIN-LEFT: 0px">
<DIV style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff; FONT-FAMILY: HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">
<DIV id=yiv8174616396>
<DIV>
<DIV style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff; FONT-FAMILY: HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">
<DIV id=yiv8174616396yqt47951 class=yiv8174616396yqt5891143210>
<DIV style="DISPLAY: block" id=yiv8174616396yui_3_13_0_ym1_7_1391700562156_6 class=yiv8174616396yahoo_quoted>
<DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif; FONT-SIZE: 12pt" class=yiv8174616396ms__id1184>
<DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif; FONT-SIZE: 12pt" class=yiv8174616396ms__id1185>
<DIV class=yiv8174616396y_msg_container>
<DIV id=yiv8174616396>
<DIV>
<DIV class=yiv8174616396WordSection1>
<DIV class=yiv8174616396MsoNormal><SPAN class=yiv8174616396ms__id1191><SPAN style="COLOR: #1f497d"></SPAN><BR clear=none><STRONG>Subject:</STRONG> How The Chevy Vega Was Shipped in the 70's....</SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV class=yiv8174616396MsoNormal> </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="MARGIN-TOP: 5pt; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 5pt">
<DIV>
<DIV class=yiv8174616396MsoNormal>*Remember the Chevy Vega? This is how they were shipped.* <BR clear=none><BR clear=none>*Until the early 1960s, automobiles moved by rail were carried in boxcars. <BR clear=none>These were 50 feet long with double-wide doors. Inside was room for four <BR clear=none>full-sized sedans on a two-tier rack - two raised up off the floor on a <BR clear=none>steel rack and two others tucked in underneath them. This protected the <BR clear=none>cars during transport but wasn't very efficient, as the weight of four <BR clear=none>vehicles was far less than the maximum weight a boxcar that size could <BR clear=none>carry. When 85-foot and 89-foot flatcars came into service, it was possible <BR clear=none>to pack a total of fifteen automobiles in one car on tri-level auto racks. <BR clear=none>But it still didn't approach the maximum allowable weight for each <BR clear=none>flatcar. * <BR clear=none><BR clear=none><BR clear=none>*When Chevrolet started designing Vega during the late 1960s, one of the <BR clear=none>main objectives was to keep the cost of the car down around $2,000 in <BR clear=none>circa-1970 dollars. At the time, the freight charge for moving a loaded <BR clear=none>railroad car from the Lordstown, OH assembly plant to the Pacific coast - <BR clear=none>the longest distance cars produced at Lordstown would need to travel - was <BR clear=none>around $4,800. Since the Vega was a subcompact, it was possible to squeeze <BR clear=none>three more cars on a railroad car for a total of eighteen, instead of the <BR clear=none>usual fifteen. But that still worked out to around $300 per car - a <BR clear=none>substantial surcharge for a $2000 car. If only Chevrolet could get more <BR clear=none>Vegas on a railroad car, the cost per unit of hauling them would go down.* <BR clear=none><BR clear=none>*The engineers at GM and Southern Pacific Railroad came up with a clever <BR clear=none>solution. Instead of loading the cars horizontally, the Vegas were to be <BR clear=none>placed vertically on a specially designed auto-rack called the Vert-A-Pac. <BR clear=none>Within the same volume of an 89-foot flatcar, the Vert-A-Pac system could <BR clear=none>hold as many as 30 automobiles instead of 18.* <BR clear=none>*Chevrolet's goal was to deliver Vegas topped with fluids and ready to <BR clear=none>drive to the dealership. In order to be able to travel nose-down without <BR clear=none>leaking fluids all over the railroad, Vega engineers had to design a <BR clear=none>special engine oil baffle to prevent oil from entering the No. 1 cylinder. <BR clear=none>Batteries had filler caps located high up on the rear edge of the case to <BR clear=none>prevent acid spilling, the carburetor float bowl had a special tube that <BR clear=none>drained gasoline into the vapor canister during shipment, and the <BR clear=none>windshield washer bottle stood at a 45 degree angle. Plastic spacers were <BR clear=none>wedged in beside the powertrain to prevent damage to engine and <BR clear=none>transmission mounts. The wedges were removed when cars were unloaded.* <BR clear=none><BR clear=none>*The Vega was hugely popular when it was introduced in 1970, however it <BR clear=none>quickly earned a reputation for unreliability, rust and terrible engine <BR clear=none>durability. When the Vega was discontinued in 1977, the Vert-A-Pac cars had <BR clear=none>to be retired as they were too specialized to be used with anything else. <BR clear=none>The Vert-A-Pac racks were scrapped, and the underlying flatcars went on to <BR clear=none>other uses.* </DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="MARGIN-TOP: 5pt; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 5pt">
<DIV>
<DIV class=yiv8174616396MsoNormal></DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="MARGIN-TOP: 5pt; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 5pt">
<DIV>
<DIV class=yiv8174616396MsoNormal></DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="MARGIN-TOP: 5pt; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 5pt">
<DIV>
<DIV class=yiv8174616396MsoNormal></DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="MARGIN-TOP: 5pt; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 5pt">
<DIV>
<DIV class=yiv8174616396MsoNormal></DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="MARGIN-TOP: 5pt; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 5pt">
<DIV>
<DIV class=yiv8174616396MsoNormal></DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV></DIV></DIV><IMG id=1.2044117982@web161903.mail.bf1.yahoo.com border=0 src="cid:1.2044117982@web161903.mail.bf1.yahoo.com"> <IMG id=2.2044117982@web161903.mail.bf1.yahoo.com border=0 src="cid:2.2044117982@web161903.mail.bf1.yahoo.com"> <IMG id=3.2044117982@web161903.mail.bf1.yahoo.com border=0 src="cid:3.2044117982@web161903.mail.bf1.yahoo.com"> <IMG id=4.2044117982@web161903.mail.bf1.yahoo.com border=0 src="cid:4.2044117982@web161903.mail.bf1.yahoo.com"> <IMG id=5.2044117982@web161903.mail.bf1.yahoo.com border=0 src="cid:5.2044117982@web161903.mail.bf1.yahoo.com"> <BR clear=none><BR clear=none></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE>
<DIV><BR> </DIV></div></body></html>