Freight Cars, circa 1950s

[thirdrail]

Check out this website for all kinds of information:

http://www.steamfreightcars.com/

[glennk28]

I think that therre was a book in the past year or so dealing with the "Fifties freight car fleet"  I don't have time to look for it now--perhaps someone knows of it.   gj

[r.cprmier]

DrEMD;
I passed that engine in Kingman, Arizona in 1967, driving back on US rte 66, enroute across the states to Connecticut.  It was big, majestic, beautiful, and exuded the very essense of power.  I will never forget her, facing westr'd.  what a sight!  She's been there a long time, apparently.

The Old Reprobate

[pdlethbridge]

"PD Lethbridge's wife may keep him locked in the basement, but he sure gets around the net,"
She is kind enough to let me use the bathroom,,,,,every few days! But only if I have too go!

[glennk28]

OK--I found the book:
"The Postwar Freight Car Fleet"  by Larry Kline and Ted Culotta, published by NMRA, Kalmbach Memorial Library, 2006. ISBN 0-9647050-8-7 

Author Culotta has frequent articles in RMC on freight car modeling. 

NMRA also has a couple of reprints of the ORER (Official Railway Equipment Register) for sale. 

[RAM]

Dave,   About the only thing that is the smae with the 2750 class and the 3780  is that they are both 4-8-4s.  If you want a 3730 class 4-8-4 look for a BLI.  Yes it cost more but it is a very nice locomotive.

[grumpy]

The only freight car that was missed in the conversation was the cattle car .I have been trying to build a train long enough to represent a train of about say 25 to 50 cars  with various road names   but  they seem to be in short supply. My preference is the wooden slat style . I don't know how many different road names there might be . Anybody got an answer .
Don

[Yampa Bob]

I have some stock cars, they are lettered Union Pacific, Southern Pacific, Santa Fe, and MKT.  I also have several undecorated Athearn kits I found in Kansas last year. They must be pretty old, the price tags are $1.98.

I think Santa Fe had the most stock cars, since they covered the Texas area.  RedTail67 could probably add to the list of roads that used them.

Hey Red, are you still up?

[RAM]

Most of your cattle cars should be the home roads.  It was not often that one railroad would used another railroads cattle cars. 

[Yampa Bob]

It is quite common to see a mix of road names.  During our 25 years of ranching, we sold our beef cattle in lots, one lot may go to Nebraska, one to Kansas, one to Chicago. all to different buyers. Similarly, a local packer may buy a lot from a rancher in Texas. Through the shipping process, cars are often handed off to other railroads.

It is the interconnectivity of the railroad system that makes it work efficiently. It's a matter of logistics and economics.   

The same is true with freight cars. I see many Santa Fe cars in the local yard, and I'm sure BNSF knows exactly where the cars are at.

I just checked my inventory, I also have stock cars in WP, MP, CNW and SSW.  Union Pacific has 16 reporting marks.

Don: I sent emails to some of my dealer friends around the country, hope to find some old Athearn or Roundhouse stock car kits.  I remember seeing some wood and resin kits but forgot where, I'll do some checking.

[grumpy]

Bob
Thanks . see what you can find . I wouldn't mind some at $1.98. Did you notice the price tags on the cars I sent you.
Don

[Yampa Bob]

Yes, I did.  Kinda like finding nickel candy bars.

Don, I found this on Ebay, don't know if they are used or what. One description said some parts were missing, might be just junk.

http://stores.ebay.com/Papas-Train-Depot_Stock-Cattle-Cars_W0QQfsubZ10446407QQfrsrcZ1

Bachmann shows 9 assorted in their catalog.

[Redtail67]

In the late 1960 time frame I was an Engineer on one of the last cattle trains run from Whites Ranch, Mile Post 37 on the the old G&I Branch of the G.C.&S.F.. This was located on the old branch to Galveston from Beaumont, Texas.

All the cars were A.T.S.F. 40 ft.

As far as cars in that time all the Southern Roads such as K.CS. , S.S.W., S.L.S.F, S.P., Katy all had stock cars in service as well as many of the Northern and Eastern Roads.

The cattle service was driven to trucks as the cost of having to rest the cattle and water them was to great and the railroads went outy of there way to get rid of them.

I can remember sitting by the tracks on spot waiting for other trains and watching for the cars of other roads. All kinds Central of Georgia, Nickle Plate, N.YC. Pennsy and on and on. The list of Roads and sizes shapes and so on were endless. Even the roads that had disappeared into history and other that had been swallowed up by Penn Central were still in service well into the 1970's. Many of the cars were the late 30s' and many more were 1940's era. The roads were represented long after they had died and the other roads took there equippment and did not bother to aggressivly repaint or renumber they just ran them into the ground getting all the service they could from them.

A person modeling in the 195-1960 time frame could use any equipment of the 1940-1950-1960 time and any road name and initials even of roads that did not exist and would not be inaccurate.

Redtail67

[Yampa Bob]

Back in the early days of shipping cattle by rail, the buyers wanted the cattle to arrive as fat as possible, not allowing any shrink.  So the railroad had to stop at corrals along the way to feed and water them.  Huge mistake.  You do not stuff cattle full of water and hay then shove them into a stock car.  They "slosh" around, get sick and sometimes get down, then are trampled. 

Today, we ship by truck.  The cows are fed and watered the night before shipping, then "dry loted".  By morning they are all crapped out and in good shape.  It takes a long time for the complete rumination of food through the multiple chambers of their stomach.  They can do without water for long periods but they shrink a bit.  Think of the long cattle drives from Texas up to Abilene in the 1800s. The cattle can be hauled hundreds of miles without food or water, and the trucks don't get as messy.

For beef calves averaging 600 pounds, they may be on the truck for 24 hours. They arrive in good shape, and quickly forget the mamas they left and head for the feed bunks. Any "shrink" is calculated in the buyer's bid price. We get paid by the pound the day they are shipped, we have our own scales.

With the price of fuel today, the railroads may have to start hauling livestock again, they just need to know the proper way to do it.

Some advice for drivers, never pull up beside a cattle truck with your convertible top down or the windows open, you might get painted green.  Yup, seen it happen, too funny.

[RAM]

When the railraod hauled livestock.  It was a long way to the packing plants.  Many animals were lost.  That is when the government stepped in and said you will rest livestock after so many hours.  When you load a 40 car train it takes a long time.  by the time car 40 is loaded, the livestock in car one had been there for some time.  Trucks, you load one and send it on its way.  you don't have to wait until all truck are loaded.  Also the packing plants moved out of the big cities.  Redtail67 may remember about how long it took.