C&S Boxcars at Alma Jct., c.1900-1905+ Chalk Mark Decal Info

[Jim Courtney]

While my wife was napping today, I surfed the web and revisited the Park County Archives site. Is it just me, or does everything look different there??

But I stumbled on a new (to me) photo of Alma Jct.:

https://www.parkcoarchives.org/photo-directory/nggallery/railroad-junctions/alma-junction#gallery/fb065d6b8c92e345276a57da1e1b9aac/171


The photo shows teamsters transferring ore from their wagons into a string of boxcars. The location seems to be the long spur north of the Alma depot and house track.

The photo is of such quality to allow enlargement for study. For the early C&S freight car enthusiast there is a wealth of information here:




Left to right, C&S 7397, 7632, 7741, 7306 and 75xx. To focus on the individual boxcars, further enlargement and clean up is possible:




At left frame, C&S 7397 is one of the UP built, 27 foot, 14 ton boxcars of 1882-83. Note the car still has a wooden side ladder. The transoms of Michael York's type C 14 ton trucks are visible.

At right, C&S 7632 is one of the 30 foot, 20 ton Peninsular boxcars of 1884. Note Keith's paint masks. The car may still have its white upper side fascia.

Moving our gaze to the right, we discover the real finds in the photo:




C&S 7741 is one of the first order St. Charles boxcars, 30 foot and 25 tons, built for the UPD&G in the spring and summer of 1898. Be still my heart! There is only one other good photo of this class of cars, Jeff Ramsey posted it in his South Platte photo, sister car 7731:  http://c-sng-discussion-forum.254.s1.nabble.com/South-Platte-1900s-td15793.html

When built, these boxcars were lettered for the UPD&G, numbered 6505-6524. With the end of the receiverships in January of 1899, the cars were eventually renumbered C&S 7727-7746 and lettered in the "Colorado Road" scheme. The key spotting feature identifying St. Charles boxcars is the horizontal board above the side doors. Derrell Poole has referred to these as "moisture guards", designed to prevent rain, ice and snow from collecting and corroding the upper door rollers and the rail from which they hung. The C&S seems unimpressed with this boxcar feature. No other C&S boxcar class had these door moisture guards. None of the new build boxcars of 1907-1910 had them. When the St. Charles boxcars were shopped in the mid-teens to early-20s, most of these boards were removed. Note also how the St. Charles boxcar hunkers down above the rails, compared to the older inherited boxcars.

To the right, in the middle of the same photo, is another camera shy boxcar class. C&S 7306 is one of the 26 foot, 12 ton Litchfield built boxcars of 1879-80.  The type A 12 ton trucks are visible. Note the 2x10 board installed between the door sides, to keep the ore being loaded from spilling out the open door.

Finally, C&S 75xx, at the right frame is another 27 foot, 14 ton car:




But note that the side door rail is located below the fascia board. This would suggest it is numbered in the C&S series 7529-7615. These cars were also built by the UP in 1883-84, but for the Kansas Central, original numbers 25100-25203. They were transferred to the UPD&G and the DL&G when that line was standard gauged, with different lettering for the respective owners.

So there you have it--C&S boxcars from 5 different classes in one photo!

[Chris Walker]

Great stuff Jim, isn't this another in the series taken at or about the same time?

I appreciate the run down on the Cars.

[Jim Courtney]

Yep Chris,

There are a couple others on the Park Co. site, taken the same day. but the others are too blurry to make out freight car numbers.

But this is a great photo:




The boxcar is C&S 7417, another UP built South Park 27 foot, 14 ton car. An enlargement of a better print is in Grandt's C&S Pictorial:

[Keith Hayes]

Jim, thanks for sharing the link for National Scale Car chalk marks. I ordered a couple sheets and couldn't wait to get my cars chalked!

I am so happy!


UPDATE!

I shared this with some local friends and found out that several manufacturers make chalk marks. I got mine from National Scale, formerly Speedwich, http://nationalscalecar.com/product/d135-freight-car-chalk-markings/.

These come only in white decals and are HO. Though the directions suggest they are fragile, I found them easy to work with. The marks appear to be taken from photos and though there are some that are clearly from northeastern locations, they are suitably generic that I will find most all the sheet usable.

If you model in 1:48, consider these decals from Protocraft, https://www.protocraft.com/category.cfm?ItemID=1040&Categoryid=24

I thought these looked familiar, and sure enough the art appears to be the same as the National Scale sheet.

A surprise for me is Microscale: http://www.microscale.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=48-1522

These come in N, HO and O. They have numbers, alphabets and hash marks so you can make your own. My complaint is that this sheet has a lot of graffiti on it. For those of us with 100 cars or so, you only need so many "Bozo Texino's" I may still get some of these for variety

A real treat is knowing that Clover House has dry transfer chalk marks in white, black and yellow: https://cloverhouse.com/Cart/product_info.php?cPath=1_21&products_id=13430.

These come in N, HO, S and O, and have a nice variety of generic marks along with a couple "Bozo Texino's." Also nice is I can order a couple sheets of dry transfers along with some wire and chain. One cannot ever have enough wire and chain on hand!

Jim, thanks for the tip. I had no idea and am glad to find so many options to add some dimension to my layout. That said, I need to take care not to get too carried away.

[Jim Courtney]

Keith,

One other past source, Sunshine Models about 15 years ago offered chalk mark decals by region (NE, SW, Pacific NW, etc.) in HO scale.

The decals were offered in white (fresh) chalk marks and grey (faded, old) chalk marks. Sunshine closed over a decade ago, when the owner passed away. They still show up on eBay from time to time.

BTW, I changed the thread title to include chalk mark decal info.

JIm

[Todd A Ferguson]

You can also draw your own chalk marks using Prismacolor pencils sharpened to a sharp point.  I have a starter set that has 10-12 pencils in it for $10 or so.  Different packages are available too, I think 24 and 48 sets.  I got mine at Hobby Lobby.  Individual pencils are about $2.25 and come in a variety of colors.  They can also be used for highlighting details or tinting car siding boards.  

[Chris Walker]

Ahem,  

http://c-sng-discussion-forum.254.s1.nabble.com/Freight-Car-Chalk-Markings-td928.html

.....in the interest of further research.  

DPL OP-6260



Not included in my original enlargement was the Reefer on the head, and its markings.