Ok,
Had some old heavyweight passenger cars show up at the yard today.
They are BNSF#82 and BNSF#83, the Kootenai River and the Canyon Diablo, respectively.
The Kootenai River looks like a older Pullman, with a clerestory roof, and the Canyon Diablo looks like either a old troop car, or a RPO.
Both painted sliver, both labeled Research and Test Car…
Both in excellent condition, the Kootenai has a pair of rear observation windows and rear platform.
So, what are the exact use, and history of these guys?
Overland Models was supposed to be making a model of #83, which has been cancelled; they made a note that the car originally belonged to the Pullman Company as a research vehicle. This might jog someone’s memory, or produce further leads…
Is that an escape hatch? It is bolted in place. Could there be a piece of equipment in the car too large and maybe too heavy to fit through the standard doors and must be lowered into place by a crane?
Cars 82 and 83 were not on ATSF at the end, 83 could be one of the two former RPO’s that Santa Fe sold and later bought back, rebuilt in Topeka as motive power test cars/ tool cars that had checkered careers as 190XXX series cars, one becoming a tool car to Car 85, the Santa Fe Geometry Car…Will look into it. (Canyon Diablo used to be in the ATSF business car fleet and I thought it was the stainless steel full length dome car #60, IIRC)[|)][|)][|)]
83 is a 1914 ATSF/Pullman heavyweight RPO (Mechanical Instrumentation/Tool Car)
82 is a 1912 GN/ACF Heavyweight Business Car/ BN Mechanical Test Car (BNA7, originally A-4 on Great Northern’s Biz Car Roster and became Kootenai River in 1971 following modifications)
Ed: Do you folks have another upcoming High/Wide/Heavy move coming? Bound for BNSF??
At least one more refinery reactor…and something like 20 ships on the way with the GE Siemons Windmills for a wind farm…dont know if they are headed out on BNSF yet…we are still staging the 89 footers in the storage yard.
We have one of the windmill trains leaving tonight from the city docks…and the two Test cars are not in the yard, they took them down to the docks friday night.
So they may be toteing them behind the first train, to check the route out.
They fit about 6 of the windmills in each ship, so it should be pretty busy down there.
Scuttlebutt is we will be running them out every other day, depends if the Port Authority can get the ships lined up to dock, discharge, and turn around on that schedule.
Six per ship? I know those puppies are big, but I would have thought more than that. Got any idea about the dimemsions? (I am being too lazy to do a Google search)
Update on car 83…ex ATSF car #5015(Dynamometer 1946-1973) and #5001(Power Plant Test Car, 1939-46), originally car # 1338 “San Juan” (buffet-library) …oldest of Santa Fe’s Test Car Fleet…From Joe McMillan’s book
Both cars went out on the tail of the first windmill train.
Looking over the route as they go.
Wish I had more time to get better photos, would have liked to see the inside.
Thanks for the info, will let you know when the next reactor shows up!