Stumbled upon this online today, re; Trump. Pretty crazy!
http://www.project.nsearch.com/profiles/blogs/fema-ordered-102-000-boxcars-with-shackles
Comment at the link you posted:
Becky Kay
The pictured rail car is an Auto-Max articulated auto rack,meaning it’s used to deliver automobiles and light trucks from factory or port to distribution hub. The car is two units with a rubber diaphragm between and a common wheelset (truck) in a design intended to reduce slack between cars. Each of these cars is approximately 110 feet long. The sides are not sealed,they’re only enclosed enough to prevent vandalism and theft to automobiles inside. 102,000 of these cars would require 2,125 miles of track to store them on. They could not be hidden. Even if one assumes these cars were conventional modern 60 foot cars,they would still require 1160 miles of track for storage. In other words,in one unbroken line they would stretch from New York City to at least Chicago,or well into Florida. As auto-racks,they would stretch even further.
An automobile being shipped in one of these cars needs to be tied down. Trains stop and start with a great deal of force,and should a train need to apply an emergency brake application, or crest a grade with poor handling, the slack could run in (or back out) and by the time the autos arrive they would all be smashed up. Could the “shackles” simply be tie downs for specific types of automobile? I see no mention is made of where they are installed in the cars.
Modern railroads have been on a mission to reduce capacity for over 50 years. Trying to store this volume of cars would overwhelm them. Sure, you could put short strings on unused lines all over,but that doesn’t come free - it’s a few dollars a day to store a car. Railroads don’t have a lot of choice where these locations would be, either - they’re not going to tie up their railroad storing them on tracks they need for operation,so they go where ever tracks are not being used; these days there are fewer and fewer of these tracks. Such storage is unsecured,meaning anyone could come along and take actual photos of these shackles to share,should they choose to open a car up. Bombs could be hidden on them,or inside them. Handcuff keys could be hidden inside them. And bottom line,someone would know where they are,a train would have to deliver them to a storage location. Often people who live near places where cars are stored long-term complain about them being there.
Every railroad car that moves in interchange and every shipping container that’s in service in the US has some kind of ID markings,railroad cars use a “reporting mark” that is two, three,or four letters; containers I believe are all four letters. What are the markings on these strange cars? They should be able to be traced to a registered owner or lessor. Same goes for the containers.
Black boxcars would stick out like a sore thumb. Very few boxcars are painted black these days. Only certain open top cars (gondolas,coal hoppers) and tank cars are commonly painted black. Although it’s entirely possible a missionary wouldn’t know the locomotive from a caboose to know the difference.
I’m all for sharing information,but do some homework before you post this kind of stuff,when you post things I can blow big holes in in just a few seconds it doesn’t help your cause. If these cars are out there,they should easily be able to be found, photographed,and traced.