Vol. 18 No. 11  December 1988/January 1989 Safety - Priority #1   Spine Cars to Bolster Container Service By Len Cocolicchio   National Steel Car built spine car - all photos by National Steel Car.     CP Rail is introducing a new type of multi-container car that goes longer, rather than higher, for more capacity and smoother ride.   It's called an articulated "spine car" and CP Rail will lease 100 of them from CGTX Inc., and Alberta Intermodal Services.   Each car is a five-platform set that, viewed vertically, resembles a spine. Each platform can carry two 20-foot containers, one 40-foot container, or a 48-foot container.                     GREATER CAPACITY   The railway is turning to the spine car in response to growing demand from shippers for service, like double-stack, that reduces the jarring slack action in couplers during transport. The platforms on most double-stack cars are linked by articulated connections that eliminate slack action.   Demand for double-stacking has been growing particularly from shippers in the Pacific Rim. They export mainly manufactured goods, including auto parts, which are often lightweight and sensitive. The spine car is expected to help the railway compete against double-stack for a bigger slice of the growing Pacific Rim traffic.   The car, designed and built by National Steel Car, of Hamilton, Ontario, has five articulated platforms. There is an axle with a coupler at each end of the car and four shared axles in between to support the platforms and allow them to swivel.   The shared axles eliminate the slack action, producing a smoother ride and reducing the potential for product damage in transit. The spine car is also lighter than the equivalent number of conventional cars required to carry the same container load. That means improved payload-to-tare weight and reduction in fuel costs.   FLEXIBILITY   The spine car provides more flexibility in the mix of container sizes than does the double-stack car. And the car's platforms have been designed to provide the option of carrying two 20-foot units because of the strong demand for this size container in Canada.   Each spine car is equivalent in carrying capacity to two-and-a-half 80-foot container flatcars - so 100 spine cars can do the work of 250 cars.   The cars are expected to go into service for import-export traffic between Vancouver and Toronto/Montreal in the first quarter of 1989.   This CP Rail News article is copyright 1989 by the Canadian Pacific Railway and is reprinted here with their permission. All photographs, logos, and trademarks are the property of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company.