greetings all,
looking for ways to research what would have been typical rolling stock on Grand Trunk Western from say 1965-1975 era
for instance would certain roadnames ever appear in michigan?
also, am i thinking right that the typical box car length was 40ft in the late 60’s to early 70’s ??
thanks,
Dave “Chooch”
The majority of cars would have been 40’ by 1970, but there would also have been a lot of 50’ and 60’ cars as well. Someone else will probably come up a ratio.
I got quite a few hits just typing “Grand Trunk Western” into Google.
Switchlists for the period would give you car type, railroad, car # and load info. Unfortunately since they were usually quickly discarded after use they can be hard to find. There may be a document dearler that has some for sale, they can somtines be found in Historic Society archieves or you may get lucky and be introduced to a Collector who has some.
GTW 1965 - 1975 (this should get you started)
Automotive: GTW served GM in Pontiac, Flint, Lansing, and Detroit. Equipment included open tri levels and bi levels for cars and light trucks. 85’ open flats with large GMC trucks carried “saddleback” fashion. 50’ box cars. 60’ box cars. 86’ boxcars. Flatcar loads of frames. Outbound scrap metal loads.
Battle Creek cereal: Inbound grain cars. Outbound 40’ or 50’ boxcars.
Piggyback: Handled some pigs between Chicago and Detroit.
Canadian traffic: carloads of news print in CN boxcars. General commodities in assorted cars. Seasonal trainloads of PFE reefers from Califorina to Canada
General info… GM cars were asigned to GM by varuous railroads participating in the movements of freight.
Happy Model Railroading
Garry
I think the 40 footers were in decline by the late 60s, but because they were so plentiful in the first place, you’d still find a lot of them. They were getting quit old by then. 50 footers would be more plentiful.
Just about any roadname could end up anywhere depending on what was being hauled. For the 60, as been said in the forum a few times, you would probably want so PRR rolling stock just because they had such a large fleet. Many RRs had captive cars in the auto industry. For example, even though the Burlington Route had no trackage close to Detroit, it did have suppliers and customers (for the finished cars) on its system. They had autoracks in service to Ford and 86’ Hi Cube autoparts cars.
You may just want to do a search on GTW photos. Most images are of locos, but if you look in the background, you’ll see what else is in the yard or consist.
Rick
A couple more thoughts.
Automotive stamping plants received coiled steel by rail.
GM shipped to SP destinations in California and many SP freght cars were assigned to GM plants on GTW. Rock Island and Union Pacific participated in those hauls, and therefore UP and RI cars were included in the assignments. However, you would see just about all major railroads represented in cars assigned at GM automotive plants on GTW. GTW shipped auto parts for GM to every GM assembly plant in North America. GTW also hauled replacement parts for General Motors Parts Division to warehouses all over North America.
Other commodities incleded beans in covered hoppers from the “Thumb” region of Michigan. Also, blue Ford tractors were hauled on flat cars from Romeo.
GTW hauled large quantities of gravel from Oxford in open hopper cars. That business was lost to trucks in the 1960’s I think.
Have Fun
Garry
Hey Garry,
Thanks for the great ideas…i am attempting to model the trains of my youth…no not the steam era…seriously it was GT and I grew up in Flint, MI so yes the majority was car parts ,flatcars of frames, steel rolls, scrap, and some autos and light trucks on open carriers
It seems the majority of engines were switchers and some GPs, in my research I have seen some Ftypes but I really don’t remember them. I did remember that the color scheme was black and red…which i did find was correct…then blue and red.
And my favorite the red GT caboose…yes I’m old enough to remember that…sadly my kids are only familiar with a single red light which some people around here call Fred ??
The sad thing is that with the decline of the auto industry in Flint the railroad is really slim…I realize now that I should have taken more photos than I did…if I wanted to do CN then I have a lot of resources I could photo now…but that era of the 60’s and 70’s just seems to have a certain charm to it.
Thanks for the help Garry
Dave “Chooch”
I lived in Michgan back then and spent much time with GTW. GM was really big in Flint with GTW serving the light truck plant and C&O serving Buick. Add all the aprt plants, and it was a busy place. I still have some photos taken from the GTW yard tower and the freight cars were being swtiched with black & red (CN colors) GP9’s there. EMD yard switcers serve the plants.
If your doing passenger, remember the pre-Amtrak trains. CN used GTW to get its passenger trains to Chicago. Detroit-Chicago trains had passnger GP9’s and GP18’s.