Re: Freight car ratios

Posted by Derrell Poole on Jan 19, 2015; 4:39pm
URL: http://c-sng-discussion-forum.254.s1.nabble.com/Freight-car-ratios-tp205p310.html

Well I don't have a top of my head which is why I say a LOT of boneheaded things. I think a lot of them get missed or people are just being kind...

I happen to be a closet Southern Pacific fan and I like Covered Hoppers and Tank Cars - two anemic classes on the ng - so ya sorta got ambushed - sorry about that.

The C&Sng roof hatch cars have not really been discussed on this forum yet. It is an interesting mystery. The Schwedlers pointed them out to me many years ago and it took a bit of forensic investigation to find out as little as we know today. At least one car went to the RGS - 8308 iirc. There are photos of such cars on the Highline to Climax as well as Alma and others. They show up in the early '30s about the time the big mill at Climax was being built. I'm not sure when the mill at Alma was built (off  the non existent  top of my head). Anyway as the fog slowly burns off we see in the bigger picture - a proliferation (?) of cement transport by rail all over the country. Big concrete mills? Box cars with roof hatches? Seems sorta obvious....

Abandonment is another issue and I couldn't agree more about the forgone conclusions in 1909. Geez; in about 2 years they (the Q) had induced a shut down of what? 2/3rds of the line? Like the end of 1910 was some kind of target date! Okay, maybe half. But it was a significant chunk.