As I look more carefully at the cover of the 1/04 Model Railroader [which, BTW, is a magnificent looking cover - the paper and image quality being the best that I can ever remember], I am trying to identify some of the cars on two of the trains.
(Train 1) >>> Engine 310C ... immediately behind the ABBA engine combination there are four darker cars [we'll number them 1,2,3,4] followed by two silver cars [5,6], and then another darker car [7] followed by three silver cars [8,9,10].
It certainly appears to be a passenger train based on the silver cars [5,6,8,9,10] clearly being passenger cars. However, cars 1 and 2 do not appear to be passenger type cars. Car 3 is a question mark for me, but car 4 and car 7 have a passenger car roof, I think. Car 2, specifically, has a bright, orange/red emblem on its side. Car 1 appears to be maroon, and though I cannot see it well enough to know what it is, I think it looks like a milk car though there's quite a bit of writing on its side
- more so than the classic, green, milk cars I have seem pictured in past train articles. Car 3 has me stumped though it could be a mail or post office car.
Might some of you please offer some guesses as to the identification of the darker cars. And, what ATSF passenger train could this be since it mixes passenger and non passenger cars?
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(Train 2) >>> Climbing the grade from left to right, there's another ABBA engine combination. I think its a Southern Pacific paint scheme. Immediately behind the ABBA [and partially blocked by the large yellow [y] in the word "layout"], there appears to be six, UP, fruit car reefers [a guess based on the p. 94 article/image foldout]. Behind those cars, I see a couple of silver boxcars and then a string of five black tankers.
I was under the impression that fruit car reefers ran as an exclusive, fast freight. Would these cars be empties on this train in order to have been included with the tankers and other cars?
Many Thanks! Matt