In case you haven’t noticed from my many other recent posts, I have been looking though pictures and scanning a few up. I have pictures of two pretty old cars that you can still see in use on the Hartwell in NE Georgia, and I was wondering what anybody else has seen. The Hartwell and its sister line, the Great Walton are pretty much two museums for fallen flags, but it is nice to see this old stuff still rolling down the rails.
Here is SOU 941410 BLT 3-39. it doesn’t see much use right now, but it was serviced in 92. It has also had some upgrades to the trucks in order to meet current standards.
I out train watching and watching the web cam am never suprised by the
railroad equiptment seen on the move.Freight cars as a Southern Pacific with
the sunlight lettering style was seen at Ocean Steel.the Gondola was hardly rusty
which blew me away as must be at least 30 years old.I have noted freight cars &
lettered for several railroads asa old house repainted.
Another likely qualifier would be a scale test car. They don’t get moved that often and they are usually subject to special instructions in the employee timetable. They also are not equipped with brakes (although a brake line passes through the car) so the number of moving parts is minimal.
A good candidate would be CTA rapid transit cars 4271-4272. Built in 1922 by the Cincinnati Car Company, these are the last two 4000 series cars in service. They’re strictly for special occasions, but are 82 years old.
I suspect the very oldest equipment in actual use is on an industrial line. For example in South Milwaukee Wisconsin, the Bucyrus Erie factory has numerous flat cars that are used as platforms to move large parts from one building to another. They are also used as painting platforms. It is hard to see their complete collection but one of them had arch bar trucks when I saw it and all of them are quite old and battered.
Dave Nelson
