Hi all,
can someone please share information regarding the UP/MOW BATHTUB GONDOLA Aqua-Green color as produced by Athearn.
any reason why MOW required Coal wagons? Have they ever been used in revenue service? and from what year period. Please kindly shed some light on this.
J
Probably used ties.
a couple of shots:
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=2984742
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1137664
These cars showed up approximately in the middle of 2007.
I doubt very much whether these cars have been used in revenue service. For cars to be used in interchange with other railroads, they have to pass various safety rules/inspections; and once cars are put into the MOW grouping, they tend not to be kept “off-roadable”. Now, UP COULD (if they wanted) use these cars ONLY on their own railroad for revenue service. But “could” doesn’t translate into “did/does”. It couldn’t be done without management approval; and I think management would be, among other things, wary of confusing employees about car usage and consequent very expensive mistakes.
Ed
PS: Sorry, should’a checked the post
I’m no UP expert, but I suspect these cars were formerly in revenue service and have been downgraded to MOW service. So at one time, yeah, they did haul coal.
Dave is correct, AFAIK these are used for tie service. Awful hard to steal ties out of a car that tall![:O][:o)]
As for them being restricted to on-line use, they might be. MOW rolling stock often is. But it may be the case that UP uses them to haul ties it is selling, so it’s possible that they might be maintained so they can move in interchange. Different RRs have different marking systems to indicate this. I know the Rio Grande’s but not UP’s, so really can’t tell if that’s the case here or not.
Thanks for all kind replies and posts.
But during the modern diesel days, what UP wants coal for within MOW service? There is hardly any steam engine oe equipment and what else could these cars be used? Do they carry ballast only? even they are coal wagons. Can anyone please shed some light?
J
They may not be in revenue service but they are in interchange service.
Because…(a softball; but, still, yer s’posed to say)
Ed
They don’t want coal. Its not a “coal car” its a high side gondola. High side gondolas are used for all sorts of things. One of the most common uses for old rotary gons is scrap metal service. There are thousands of former “coal” cars operating as gondolas in scrap metal service.
The UP cars are used to haul ties, not coal.
Revenue service means the railroad makes the car available to shippers to haul business for which the railroad makes revenue.
Thes cars are hauling railroad property for the railroad. They are not “making money” so they aren’t making revenue. They are for internal uses.
Interchange service means the car complies with the AAR and Federal rules to permit it to be interchanged between railroads.
Air Force one is an airliner (747) but it doesn’t carry paying passengers, you can’t book a flight on it. Its not in revenue service. However it does comply with all FAA airworthiness requirements and has all the proper avionics to permit it to fly in any country’s airspace and land at any airport equipped to handle a plane of that size.
Its not in revenue service but it is in interchange service.
dehusman, thanks for your valuable information, and now its much clearer. I was confused by Athearn’s models as they all loaded with Coal load, obviously it was misleading…
Thank you for all members’ information contribution, now I better look for the proper Coalporter models.
Cheers
J
The MofW gons will almost always be steel cars with flat bottoms.
The UP does own cars used for coal service, they are normally black or aluminum.