You guy’s were a big help to me on the EJ&E question maybe you can help me again. I recently was in Chanute KS. attending radar school. While driving through I noticed a Hopper car at a cement plant siding still painted in Rock Island blue with the big R in black on a white background. Did not get the car no. (too long to remember)and did not see any new ownership marks.Is this possible? If so are there still alot of these unpainted cars out there?
TIM A.
Yes, with new reporting marks CNW got a lot of them and RUSX has many more that are still in Rock Island paint.
Thank you for the info. My gosh, that would make the paint job over 20 years old! The Rock might not have been good at maintaining track but they sure knew how to maintain cars.
TIM
I’ve also noticed the ROCK hoppers. I also still often see MILWAUKEE cars and occasionaly TH&B cars. They must be old too now.
there is a whole line of ex-Rock boxcars not too far from the Cudahy car shops (former C&NW car shop) that does contract work for the UP. It might be that they have reached the end of their useful life. Standards now force cars to be retired earlier than they used to.
Dave Nelson
I have seen cars from the Reading(hoppers),PRR( rusty 52’mill gon),NYC(covered hopper),PC(hoppers and covered hoppers),Milw,B&O(covered hopper),C&O (covered hopper),N&W (all types),NW (mostly boxcars) and alot of other fallen flags including a perfect(how be it slightly ruty) DT&I 50’ boxcar still had the DT&I recording marks.
Those N&W cars should have said all types except hopper cars.
I saw a Rock Island covered hopper in Scranton, Pa the other day, a nice surprise, we see a lot of Southern railroad cars up here now also, some of the local industries are assigned these.
James
The EJ&E has several Rock 100 ton open hoppers used mostly to haul gravel from Joliet to Roundout.They are still painted blue but the paint is quite faded. They have EJ&E reporting marks.The J is pretty busy these days,lots of UP rRon
unthrough power too.
the B&LE has a fleet of old rock hoppers…they are starting to be repainted in black with B&LE lettering, the white and black R is gone…excetp if you look at one of the suports on the outside of the car…you can still make out the paint…
We see old rock island cars down here in texas all the time. Mostly the banckrupt blue scheme you describe. As to car maintainance, its not so much that as the paint. By the time RI went blue, maintaining cars was the least of their worries. But the paint on most railcars is designed to hold up under the most extreme weather, (you dont park em under the carport)
20 plus years isnt that odd. Still see old cnw, even found a old gmo boxcar here, most have the reporting marks repainted over the original. Because the paint on the car still has some service life left in it and the car owner will wait as long as they can to repaint. Get your camera and shoot as many as you can, they are going away slowly but surly.
I’m in total agreement with Greg’s statement.
CNW got a lot of Rock Island’s freight cars when they went under.Most of the ex-ROCK cars I see are in the blue scheme with CNW reporting marks.
They are usually grain hoppers(probably built by Pullman-Standard),and I’ve seen ROCK’s ACF Center Flow hoppers with RUSX reporting marks.I recall seeing an ex-ROCK hopper in Enid,Oklahoma in 1997 with UP reporting marks.
Just recently I observed a BNSF grain train with three Frisco grain hoppers in the consist.Always nice to see a Fallen Flag car still in revenue service.
Noticed 3 Frisco boxcars on a KCS spur here in
Dallas the other day. Seemed to be in pretty
good shape.