Please open up my web site then the California gallery Aug-Sept 2005 then go down to Colton pix & then find the pix created @ 2:29:24, 2:30:06 or 2:30:49 to see the cars I am speaking about. There was one loco on the point & a DPU on the rear. It was westward on the UPRR Sunset route about a mile outside the West Colton Yard [:o)][:p][:)]
Gravel.
Dave H.
These links will be alot faster to find the pics.
Could they be ballast cars???
Commercial gravel.
Dave H.
Looks like they’ve had the sides extended, which would be very likely. I suspect gravel is overall lighter per cube than some other commodities.
Beat cars. These replaced the wooden cars.
Must be a pretty rough neighborhood.[;)]
Beat cars or beet cars?
OK if you say so but they sure did not look like “normal” gravel cars. [:o)][:p][:)]
[quote]
Originally posted by dehusman
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OK if you say ballast cars but for sure they didnot look like “normal” ballast cars that you see all the time. [:D][:p]
[quote]
Originally posted by railroad65
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They are closed on the top which I think of they were carrying gravel they would not be. [:p][:)][:o)]
[quote]
Originally posted by tree68
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Aha if you mean beet cars sounds like goodie. Yes I remember the SPRR was big in the beet biz in its heyday. Thanks [:)][:p]
[quote]
Originally posted by chad thomas
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A reporting mark and number would help. With those, I could try and figure out a little more about the cars, perhaps even run a trace to see what’s in them.
These look a lot like ACF Coalveyor gons. If they were rebuilt for gravel service, they would have had slope sheets and hoppers added, since gravel is, unlike the above speculation, a very dense, heavy commodity.
Beets, on the other hand, would best be shipped in even larger cars than these.
It looks like WXXI 1039. If you look at the 3rd pix in the series you can see it [:o)][8D]
http://vgalleries.com/members/railfan1/The+Trainfan.vrg
[quote]
Originally posted by CShaveRR
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Upon closer inspection these don’t look like the beet cars. The beet cars have mesh extentions on top, not solid, and they are bigger.
What.s the matter if they are cars used for cement ?Colton area isn’t it? Davebr.
raw cement that is.
Guys.
They are hauling gravel.
Gravel is what is in the cars.
They are gravel cars.
The company they are going to uses gravel.
The company they came from produces gravel.
It is a unit gravel train.
All the train does is haul gravel.
It is not a beet train.
It is not a ballast train.
It is not a cement train.
It is a gravel train.
Dave H.
Garvel cars…
The funky looking top is a containment/slope sheet, so they can be dumped on a rotary dumper if needed.
Ed
Ed, do you have an idea what the reporting mark might be? I can’t make it out (which is why I asked), and “WXXI” is not, and never was, a valid reporting mark.
I’ll buy your explanation of the containment extensions. I’m just curious about such things as overall length, to see if these were rebuilt from old coal gons, or whatever. The bodies look like ACF Coalveyors, but the bottom looks like it was modified from the original “tubs”. And, as I mentioned before, a full load of gravel would probably amount to about therr-quarters of the capacity of an unmodified coal gon. If I could find these cars in UMLER, I’d have a lot of the answers.
Cant get it sharp enough to read…
But I am with you, they look like rebuilt coal cars or old coke cars…
Ed