What is your favorite piece of rolling stock and what type of railcars do you see in your area?

[thor]

In Britain, where I lived, I got to see a lot of short trains of mixed freight and our station yards were often quite busy because of the numerous branch lines that were fed from it as the nearest mainline depot. Before the Beeching axe fell (a heartily loathed man brought in to make BR more efficient) my home county of Hertfordshire was riddled with short branch line spurs and a lot of it was as if the clock had stopped in the 1920's. I saw all kinds of short wagons with company names, some familiar, many now out of business, and they also ran some glorious old coaching stock, some of it quite archaic but still in good shape.

Then in the 80's I went on vacation to Munster, W.Germany and found another treasure trove of old rolling stock (like the ETS stuff) and took a lot of pictures meaning to model it some time in the future, if I ever find them I'll scan some.

I grew up with steam, went to school on steam hauled trains and hung out at railways all over Britain whenever I could but I wasn't really a 'train spotter' collecting numbers, I was more an artist trying to store impressions and memories, I've painted quite a few of them actually.

There was, to me, something very solid and at the same time poetic about steam. The sight of all that complex machinery, the glorious smell of coal smoke and hot oil. When and if I ever find a place of my own to build a decent sized layout again, this time in O, I'll try and recreate that slice of time except not prototypically, more artistically. I want the flavour of the time, not the facts.

I even write my own stories starring my very own branch line which explains what American steam locos are doing in Britain, its a very little known railway.

The little girl I'm bringing up for her hard working parents is always asking questions about my past, we've built models of wooden blocks and Lego of my town and using her favorite toys and episodes from stories she likes, so the trains have a logic all of their own and the tales I tell are, I'll admit, somewhat loosely based on any recognizable reality but it makes sense to us and thats all that matters.

Those familiar with Thomas will recognize the sort of atmosphere I'm familiar with and trying to create for her amusement. The private owner wagon S.C.Ruffey for example is the sort of rolling stock I'd like more of, I could buy half a dozen troublesome trucks but they're a bit pricey for what they are, I think I'll build my own of basswood, my hardest job is locating suitable running gear.

Lionel used to make short wheelbase tippers, I'd like a few of them, operating wagons are where its at from a childs point of view. The reason why I said I dont like boxcars is because they're boring and they're too big. You can't see whats in 'em, you can't put much in 'em - unlike a gondola - and two or three is half a circle of track whereas short wagons you can have the illusion of a decent train load.

My little partner wants to put some pretty oversize loads in the rolling stock. Right now I'm using a coach with the roof removed. We send each other loads of Lego, wood blocks, to build our seperate empires with and exchange train loads of assorted overscale passengers.

So my comments about rolling stock should be seen in this light, I'm really a toy train person.

[FJ and G]

tanks

[drums1427]

Growing up near Lambert's Point in Norfolk, VA I got to see a lot of coal trains. I geuss that's why coal hoppers are my favorite. Nothing better than a long coal train.

tgovebaker - I live in Northern VA & it's kind of funny you mention seeing a NS out there in CA with some UP's. At least 7 to 8 of the NS trains that come through here each week have a UP engine with the NS ones.

[Anonymous]

1. Anything NOT covered with that gawdawful urban grafitti. I like tankers and flat cars with interesting loads.

2. Many coal hoppers, full and empty.

wolverine49

[phillyreading]

I like the Lehigh Valley quad hoppers from the 50's, I have them in; red, black and maroone, have some two bay Lehigh Valley hoppers. Have other quad hoppers in Reading Lines and two Reading & Northern quad hoppers by MTH with different numbers on them. Next favorite would be gondolas, have them in NYC, Lionel and Reading Lines. Also have some passenger cars, a set of six Williams Sante Fe luxury liner/plated passenger cars pulled by a three F7 diesels.
Have a partial set of Reading Company passenger cars by Lionel # 15104 & 15106.
The local trains around here are FEC & CSX & Tri-Rail. FEC does a lot of sand hauling for the cement companies in Palm Beach & Martin Counties, other common frieght are auto loaders and TTAX cars, even five unit container cars and trailer flat cars. Some times in Stuart FL you will see maintenance equipment on the rails, about every five to six weeks. From what I can see about track repair and upkeep I would prefer to travel on FEC tracks, on CSX tracks you can see the spikes sticking up that hold the rails to the 8 by 8 ties, one or two every ten feet or less, the area is near 10th Ave & I-95 in WPB.
Have seen Norfolk Southern on FEC tracks about once a day or so, was told that NS runs from Atlanta to Miami on FEC in FL. The locomotives are SD-40's to SD-70-2's for FEC and GP-60's and newer for NS, CSX runs a whole bunch of different locomotives because of buying out many railroads to include older Conrail. CSX ruins Conrail frieght cars that have been oversprayed with Conrail, example is NYC with Conrail overspray, reason for the overspray was to save Conrail money.
Was at a train show about two years ago and heard that Conrail was down to 10% of what they used to be because CSX and Norfolk Southern and BNSF were buying off parts of Conrail.
Lee F. in West Palm Baech FL

[Jumijo]

I bought a Lionel Hood's milk car a few weeks ago. That's my new favorite.

Jim

[Birds]

The most common I see are coal, box, wood/wood products, and intermodal.

The most interesting was this summer - a consist of flatbeds carrying a variety of military vehicles.

[MTsteamfan]

My town is right on the BNSF mainline and this is coal country, so we get lots of full and empty coal trains daily. We see lots of grain hoppers, tankers and stack cars too. Really a little bit of everything. A lot more lumber cars lately (I'm guessing due to the hurricanes down south). Plain old boxcars are probably the least-seen item.

I can't say I have a clear favorite model rolling stock. Lately I've been trying to buy more scale detailed items. Lionel's new reefers are great. (I have the Borden's milk car.) I like flatcars with interesting loads and tankers too, really anything depicting the 1950s or '40s. Northern Pacific is my favorite road name and we see an occasional NP car around here -- rare, but it happens.