i was just reading a forum regarding SEABOARD and MRL boxcars and the rarity of these cars… i was discussing with some modeller friends about getting rid of some of my older HO model rolling stock for example SOO LINE, CHESSIE etc then i got to thinking what older cars are out there… has anyone seen some interesting cars recently… old paint schemes… unusual locations eg BC RAIL in Florida
I once saw a Pennsy hopper, actually 2 weeks ago.
All cars I have seen before:
MILW SOO PRR NW SR B&O C&O SCL Famliy Lines Chessie Ma & Pa NdeM C & G blah blah blah…
not sure of the routing…but the Great Lakes RR …the former TSBY in MI has about 15 round and other covered hoppers that still have the Pennsy emblem on them…and a couple that are marked PC…see them prolly 2 times a week going thru Howell Mi once northbound and once south bound…realy gives me goosesbumpies to see a Standard Railroad of the World car in service…have seen many CSX hoppers still lettered for either Family Lines or Chessie…about a month ago i saw a SCL pre-family lines…box car
I should be writing them down.
Every now and then I’ll see a car that gets my attention. Being on a CSX line nets me the occasional Chessie car. I see NYC hoppers all the time, only they’re former Conrail cars re-marked for CSX using the NYC reporting mark.
Rio Grande, also usually with a leasing company mark, show up around here now and then.
Wish I could remember more that I’ve seen. Have to keep my eyes open and my pen at the ready.
J. Edgar - I used to live on M59 just west of Fenton Road. The house is gone now.
The other day while at work I saw on the same train a rusted Rock Island boxcar and a L&N covered hopper still wearing its faded blue paint and a lot of rust , but the oldest I have seen was in 2004 in the yard at Wentzville Mo. a 50 foot Pennsylvania double door box car with the ladders going to the roof , but no roof walk , it had roller bearing wheels but other than that it was like a ghost from the past .
i
Last Thanksgiving day on the east side of Grand Jct., there is an apple packing house. There we saw a work train consist of 4 cars. They are from the old Uintah RR . One car is a bunk car , tool car wheelset car and a caboose / kitchen car. These cars are about 100 yrs. old / 1909 to 1912. Also there is a large modelRR lay out in the (office) and gift shop. worth the stop if one gets to Grand Jct.
Saw an Erie Lackawanna hopper, with EL reporting marks here in NC, on the CSX about a year ago.
There are still many cars from the 1960’s and 1970’s in their orginal schemes, some with minor modifications.
There is still a Bright Blue, L&N Cushioned Ride 86’ Auto Parts Boxcar out there with only the original reporting marks painted over.
A Southern Railway Covered Coil Car recently rolled through Vicksburg, Michigan.
Andrew
Right now there’s a Burlington quad hopper sitting on the house track (bnsf) in my town along with a BN gondola for some MOW use. The hopper is so dirty you can’t see much (and because of that bnsf crudely spray painted the CB&Q reporting marks on the sides), but i looked close enough and could still read Burlington and see the logo on one side. Got photos of it.
The oldest i’ve seen was in 1995 when i saw (& photographed) a Clinchfield quad hopper on a SP coal train, and in 1998 a GN plug door box rusty but still in it’s original lt blue and reporting marks (photo’d it too) and a N&W ps-3 cov. hopper with the hamburger logo (partial photo). I’ve got photos of other fallen flag cars i’ve taken since 1998 also.
i know Pleasant Valley Road real well…as its known south of M59…if you lived there any time past 1974 i drove by every weekend…
ditto on the NYC…
if you look closely at most MoW cars thier original build date most likely be 60’s or earlier…i know every orange CSX ballast hopper ive ever seen…and ive worked a few MoW trains…had converted plain journal trucks and build dates in the 50’s and 60’s so the linage could be anyones guess…
Don’t know why you would want to get rid of your Soo Line stuff, there’s still a lot of stuff around. I see at least a couple of Soo Line engines every day going to or from work, let alone Soo cars. CP even uses a couple of Soo cabooses!!
I understand there are still some Rock Island cars that are still around.
In the 1980’s I remember seeing a woodside baggage car on a BN MOW train, in GN green and orange paint no less, and GN freight cars made it into the 1990’s.
It takes a long time for a railroad to repaint everything, I don’t know how hard they try nowadays. I know from the pics I took at BN’s Northtown yard 1984-1991 that there were still a lot of GN, NP and CB&Q cars around.
The oldest most unusual, at least for me, is a Chicago Great Western tank car that is kept at the UP office in West Chicago, a little east of the crossing with the EJ&E. It’s a little faded but it’s still lettered CGW and has the “lucky strike” logo.
There are still some boxcars floating around where I live of Pan Am’s predecessors in their last-before-Guilford paint schemes (B&M, MEC), though the B&M and MEC boxcars are slowly turning into Pan Am cars. Some of their MOW equipment and snowplows still wear McGinnis-era B&M and harvest gold MEC paint, although two of the MEC plows were recently repainted with a black dip job and small Pan Am globe logos.
I’ve also seen old N&W, BAR, D&H, ATSF, BN, SP, SCL, Chessie System, Rock Island (The Rock), and BC Rail boxcars in the past two or three years, some with new reporting marks. Most of them were in sorry shape, but the N&W cars were surprisingly clean.
I have seen a few N&W grain cars in Maumee Ohio with the 60s paint schemes.
I saw some old Penn Central gondolas with new reporting marks last October…
Other than that, I’ve seen Southern, Norfolk & Western, re-marked CNW hoppers, and even a couple CB&Q hopper cars with their reporting marks barely visible.
Try 1959. That’s when we moved back into the village of Milford…
Find the shop where they store MOW and you will find really old stuff painted and not that while no longer revenue service is usually only patched and rarely repaint.
Once in Marion, Ohio, I saw a covered hopper in Marion that was a former Conrail car with fading/peeling paint. Behind the paint, you could see Penn Central showing through as well as part of the NYC logo. Over the Conrail reporting marks was the leasing company’s initials. So on one car, you could see who the four owners had been.
On another trip to Marion, I saw an Erie Lackawanna hopper car in the original EL paint.
Kevin
[:-^]…ok ya got me there…the village of Milford isnt a village anymore…the Kelsey Hayes plant is gone…and on the other end of town the corner of GM road and Milford road is like a another suburb with 2 shopping centers and maybe a dozen resturants…but on the good side CSX trains still travel over the Huron on the great bridge downtown and Buckleys Ice Cream Parlor is still open
I was out there a couple of years ago - the place has certainly changed. I remember when it was the Ford Carburetor Plant… My father used to direct traffic at GM and Milford on Sundays…
Wish CSX would run a few trains through in the daytime, though.
I used to swim at “the Arch…”