Someone Please Take Me Home!

[Willy2]

Today in Council Bluffs I saw a British Columbia Railway car in a siding. The car was on the Union Pacific. The siding was on the mainline so maybe it was sitting there and a later train plans on picking it up. I don't know what would have happened for the car to get so far away from home. Just thought it was interesting and decided to post it.

Also, I saw a coal train on the Union Pacific with all Norfolk Southern cars. The train had UP locomotives. This made me wonder. Are the UP and NS doing some kind of interchange buisness or was it just a weird set of cars that got on the UP for some odd reason? If anyone knows why that NS train was on UP please let me know.

Willy

[Anonymous]

Many powerplants in the Southeast are converting to burn Powder River coal--less emissions but not as much "power" when burned. I thought my leg was being pulled about an FBOX car--I checked it out and sure enough, pretty as you please, there it sat.
Don't be surprised to see any 'mark, anywhere'--"The times, they are a'changin'.

[Mookie]

Let's see - (scrabbling through bits of paper) - my notes say - I have seen those BC Rail cars on BNSF, and this last weekend - saw Conrail, NS, GTW (remember that?)
CN and SantaFe box cars. PLUS - 15 CATx box cars - brought tears to Mookie's eyes!
All that kitty litter.....

Moo

[JoeKoh]

we have mp wp and up boxcars in our siding at wok right now.Emory is right.more eastern plants need powder river coal so its diffrent seeing csx empties going west and full cars coming east.
stay safe
Joe

[CShaveRR]

You know what?

Freight car watching is kind of fun, interesting, and mind-expanding (at least in geographical terms).

Threads like this have to be expected when somebody discovers that there is interesting stuff behind the locomotives. Ever since the Pacific Great Eastern (later British Columbia Railway, now just BC Rail) began buying bunches of box cars in the early 1970s, their cars have become pretty common anywhere that lumber from British Columbia is delivered...this is nothing new, or merger-connected, or anything like that.

My apologies, however, to anyone who really has seen something new or unusual. Mook, I hope you can hang on to one of those CATX cars (they should be covered hoppers, not box cars, unless I'm missing something even newer), because I have yet to see one.

Being here in the Chicago area, nothing stays unusual for too long. Mergers can change things...although I've seen plenty of CN cars, and plenty of IC cars, and plenty of WC cars, they're being handled differently after the merger, and you might see something from those three railroads that hasn't been too common before (like the GTW and D&TS covered hoppers that suddenly appeared with all of the WC cars in roofing-granule service).

A little research will lead to many other discoveries. You'd be surprised how many CNW cars the UP has unloaded after their merger, and where they're turning up. Some magazines posted photographs of MMA 1, the red, white, and blue "State of Maine Products" box car recently repainted...it's a former CNW car! ATW box cars in the 8000 series, painted CSX blue? Built for CNW!

But if you're getting BC Rail cars where there have never been any before, just chalk it up to new (or rearranged) business. The car isn't really lost (in most cases!), and it will find its way home after its customers are done with it.

Carl

[Anonymous]

Some day the PRB will be the coal monpoly and their will be very little Southeast Coal

DOGGY

[Noah Hofrichter]

I've noticed on the web cam of rochelle dimond that UP trains will have a norfolk engine in the middle of several UP engines, Whats up with that!!?? There competitors aren't they. The only thing I could think was they bought a locomotive from NS and just didn't have a chance to paint it. I've also seen CN locos as well.

Noah

[Anonymous]

BC Rail ships out a lot of lumber and forest products all over the U.S. It is not uncommon to see such cars even in the South...

LC

[corwinda]

On those BC rail boxcars; lately I've been seeing some here in Eugene Or. with EEC reporting marks patched over the original number but no further repainting. They are being loaded here with lumber, plywood, and paper.

[JoeKoh]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Noah Hofrichter

I've noticed on the web cam of rochelle dimond that UP trains will have a norfolk engine in the middle of several UP engines, Whats up with that!!?? There competitors aren't they. The only thing I could think was they bought a locomotive from NS and just didn't have a chance to paint it. I've also seen CN locos as well.

Noah

They are probably trading hrs for hrs on locomotives.I see up and bnsf engines on csx and ns all the time here in Ohio.
stay safe
Joe

[dharmon]

Ahem....would someone from the east coast please come pick up your Conrail unit...we found it here in San Diego this morning. Slightly sun burned and a little scared. It apparently made some friends and has a new tattoo from Tiajauna.

[CShaveRR]

Those BC Rail cars that are showing up with EEC reporting marks have been off the BC Rail roster for some time now...they're the same ones that had been in the ALM 5100 series for a while. EEC is the East Erie Commercial Railroad, a GE subsidiary (yes, that's Erie, as in Erie, Pennsylvania, and GE, as in GE Rail Services Corp., probably the biggest owner of freight cars in the country). There are now literally thousands of EEC box cars and covered hoppers, none of which are new cars (oh...and some of which are ex-CNW--see my previous post), but these BC Rail/ALM cars are the only double-door cars so far.

Many of the EEC box cars are leased to the UP. I'm not sure what that means in terms of the UP deriving any money from them, but I'm sure that it means eventually that UP doesn't have to buy or rebuild any plain 50-foot box cars of its own!

[CShaveRR]

I would guess that the reason for the NS coal cars on the UP (a bunch of their "Top Gons", right?) is that some utility served by NS (one that doesn't have a coal-car fleet of its own) is getting its coal from Wyoming. NS probably offered the company a better rate for a train (or trains) of coal cars than the leasing companies did.

[Anonymous]

Take pictures of those pure BCRail cars while you can, they won't be around much longer. CN is just getting ready to gobble BC Rail up.

[Willy2]

QUOTE: Originally posted by dharmon

Ahem....would someone from the east coast please come pick up your Conrail unit...we found it here in San Diego this morning. Slightly sun burned and a little scared. It apparently made some friends and has a new tattoo from Tiajauna.

A Conrail unit in San Diego?! That is totally screwy! And to top it off folks from Tiajauna spray painted the engine. That is really wierd!

Willy

[mudchicken]

When the BNSF "Dey-GO" train picks that lost CR rascal up to drag it north to Fullerton, LA or San Berdoo...maybe they can clean it up at the wash rack at Barstow, take the dingle balls out of the windows and put regular height wheels back on it now that it is north of National City? Eh Chuy! Este ojo fayo CR loco !

Willy, no more unusual than the CN RS-1320's and CN widenosed GP-40's that show up in LA and wind up sold to the refineries in the LA Basin...

[tree68]

QUOTE: Originally posted by MudchickenWhen the BNSF "Dey-GO" train picks that lost CR rascal up to drag it north to Fullerton, LA or San Berdoo...maybe they can clean it up at the wash rack at Barstow, take the dingle balls out of the windows and put regular height wheels back on it now that it is north of National City? Eh Chuy! Este ojo fayo CR loco !

A CR low rider? Cool! Can they make it bounce, too?

QUOTE: Willy, no more unusual than the CN RS-1320's and CN widenosed GP-40's that show up in LA and wind up sold to the refineries in the LA Basin...

Wait - does CN know they've been sold to the refineries? [:D]

[mudchicken]

I imagine the bouncing can be accomodated by finding a dip in the track at a set of low joints[:D][:D][:D]

[dharmon]

QUOTE: Originally posted by mudchicken

I imagine the bouncing can be accomodated by finding a dip in the track at a set of low joints[:D][:D][:D]

Say esse.....ju gotta nice ride there man....let's check the hydraulics..........

[Anonymous]

Nah! If that dude goes into Hobart, it's right in the heart of the ELA. Let get some tuck and roll in the cab and pull off the door handles! Smooooooth.

[Anonymous]

Well BNSF has a ton of leased Locos

DOGGY