Aircraft on Rails

We are all used to seeing 737 fuselages and other assemblies transit the BNSF and MRL by rail from Wichita, Kansas to Renton, Washington. Even England's Daily Mail newspaper did a story on this (link.)  As can be seen below there are some earlier examples of such rail transit.

The 737s now move on the Seattle Q Train instead of the KICKSPO,  as in the past.
Taken last week on a typically smokey day in Helena.

The Q Train is made up mostly of JB Hunt, and Schneider containers.

Cooling off just a bit, taken earlier this year, an empties express with no other traffic.

Now, forward into the past. All photos from the Kansas Historical Society.

A DC-7 fuselage on a KCS flatcar. Douglas's main plant was in Long Beach, California, but they had plants in Tulsa, and Midwest City, Oklahoma. The DC-7 was introduced in 1953 and produced until 1958.  This plane is in American Airlines paint.

From: http://www.oldmodelkits.com/index.php?detail=20190&manu=revell

Always used to love riding by Convair's sprawling San Diego factory on the San Diegan.  Convair would eventually lose all of its identity with the merger with General Dynamics.
These cars were used to ferry Atlas Rocket assemblies to San Diego.

And finally, another SoCal aerospace giant, Lockheed, whose Burbank factory was online of course with the SP and not the Santa Fe, as was also the Skunk Works in Palmdale.

Go to this link for a photo of  a car used to transport L-1011 assemblies from Tennessee to Palmdale: http://www.railcarphotos.com/PhotoDetails.php?PhotoID=10867