A well car, also known as a double-stack car, is a type of railroad car specially designed to carry intermodal containers used in intermodal freight transport. The "well" is a depressed section that sits close to the rails between the wheel trucks of the car, allowing a container to be carried lower than on a traditional flatcar. This makes it possible to carry a stack of two containers per unit on railway lines wherever the structure gauge assures sufficient clearance. The top container is secured to the bottom container either by a bulkhead built into the car — possible when bottom and top containers are the same dimensions, or through the use of inter-box connectors (IBC). Four IBCs are needed per well car. In the terminal there are four steps: unlock and lift off the top containers of an inbound train, remove the bottom containers, insert outbound bottom containers, lock assembly after top containers emplaced. Generally this is done car-by-car unless multiple crane apparatus are employed.
40 foot containers in well cars on the BNSF line through La Crosse
53 ft, 48 ft, 45 ft, 40 ft and 20 ft containers stacked
A train of well cars in Arizona carrying double-stacked containers
A 53-foot well car also fitted with a fifth-wheel coupling to allow semi-trailer transport as well
A railroad car, railcar, railway wagon, railway carriage, railway truck, railwagon, railcarriage or railtruck, also called a train car, train wagon, train carriage or train truck, is a vehicle used for the carrying of cargo or passengers on a rail transport network. Such cars, when coupled together and hauled by one or more locomotives, form a train. Alternatively, some passenger cars are self-propelled in which case they may be either single railcars or make up multiple units.
A passenger car of the China Railway, 2011
A freight car (boxcar type) for the South Australian Railways, 1926
A Metropolitan line S8 Stock at Amersham in London
An interior of a Circle line S7 Stock in London