MR [1/04]: Cover Questions

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

Reply to
Matt & Kathleen Brennan
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Looks like a Railway Express Agency steel express reefer. They used a richer (than Pullman Green) forest green color and had a scheme with their large red diamond herald.

Maroon (actually Tuscan) mean PRR most of the time - I'd guess it is a Pennsy express reefer like the recent Walthers model.

It has an arch roof with a row of vents down the middle. Probably a baggage car, or maybe an RPO, but it looks like 2 large baggage doors on the side.

Car 4 has a clearstory roof, and is also a baggage or RPO; the side looks more "busy" so it may be an RPO.

Car 7 is an air conditioned heavyweight. In its mid train position it could be a diner, substituting for a bad order regular lightweight car, but the window pattern is more regular, and the rook doesn't seem to have the necessary vents, so it's more likely a sleeper, again substituting for the regular car, or added to meet extra demand.

Karl Zimmermann's nice little soft cover book "Santa Fe Streamliners" (you should find a copy - pub by Quadrant Press, 1987) mentions that the Chief was a streamliner from 1938 on, but often carried heavyweight head end cars. So I'd guess it could be the Chief.

They could be empties, but they could also be loads, perhaps travelling from a local loading dock to a yard to be added to a solid reefer train, or travelling to a destination that did not have demand for a whole train of reefers. GQ

Reply to
Geezer

Thank you - your answers have helped a ton. They're terrific! I will add Zimmerman's book to our list of book recommendations from this NG. They are exactly what we need to better educate ourselves with the various RR's and their operations.

Reply to
Matt & Kathleen Brennan

Geezer wrote: > Maroon (actually Tuscan) mean PRR most of the time - I'd guess > it is a Pennsy express reefer like the recent Walthers model.

I found the one you are referring to on p. 99 in the Walthers catalog. It's a nice looking car.

I am curious. Why would a PRR Express reefer be on the head of a Santa Fe passenger train? Did they share cars or would it be a lease scenario?

Thanks! Matt

Reply to
Matt & Kathleen Brennan

You're all talking like that's a prototype photo!

Maybe the owner just liked that model. Keith Make friends in the hobby. Visit Garratt photos for the big steam lovers.

Reply to
Keith Norgrove

The PRR Express Reefer was operated by the Railway Express Agency. Note that two of the three versions offered by Walthers also have Railway Express Agency markings as well as PRR on the car.

Stuart Sabatini Palm Coast,FL

Reply to
Stuart Sabatini

For the same reasons a PRR box car would be in a Santa Fe freight train. Because the PRR was a major RR with the largest (at least at times) interchange car fleet in North America. Express reefers were interchange freight cars like box cars or ordinary reefers. They were equipped with high speed trucks, and signal and steam heat lines so they can be operated in passenger trains, because only these trains could provide the rapid service required by express reefer loads - fresh strawberries, lobsters, cut roses, etc. Just like ordinary reefers, some were owned by the RRs, and some were owned by non-RR private owners (REX, PFE etc.). The cars would go where ever their loads were waybilled, with perhaps some greater tendency for RR owned cars to stay on line or close to the home line (to avoid per diem charges). Express reefers were not like RPOs or diners that mostly stayed on home rails. GQ

Reply to
Geezer

Fantastic information/insights!!! Thank You!

Reply to
Matt & Kathleen Brennan

I think they said approximately realistic. There is certainly some license taken. For instance, on any given day, you're likely to see a train behind an SD70 following one that's pulled by steam. There is a certain amount of playing with trains that goes on.

- ken

Reply to
Ken Rose

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