scrap yards for train cars & engines & the rebuilding of them

[tractor]

hi all  i have not seen a article on the tare down & rebuilding of the freight cars and engines and the scrap yards i am modeling this in my  HO layout and would like to find pictures of this type of railroading and info

[dknelson]

Are you asking about a true scrap yard where cars and locomotives are dismantled, or a car shop where damaged cars are repaired? 

I assume you mean a repair facility.  Some are fairly small but I just visited the Transco shop in Oelwein Iowa.  They have a nice aerial shot on their website:

http://www.transcorailway.com/repair/images/oelwein_01_lg.jpg

Painting is done in an old roundhouse, where tracks and switches have replaced the turntable. Entire stalls are filled with the sand that is used for sandblasting and there is spent sand everywhere.   Other buildngs (modern steel, rather like Pikestuff structures) are where major repairs take place, and there are car jacks for lifting cars up off of their trucks, as well as large portable welding machines.  And as you can see there is a large yard to the side where cars to be worked on are stored.  Cars that are finished are placed on a siding waiting for the local freight to pick them up

Dave Nelson

 

[chutton01]

Perhaps Larry's Truck and Electric (LTEX), which both scraps (parts-out) and refurbishes locomotives (which they then sell/lease) is what you are looking for?

Their web site is really not that special, but Google Image for "Larry's Truck and Electric" and you'll find some rather interesting images.

[NittanyLion]

There's not a whole lot to see in the current imagery, but they scrap railcars at this place near Pittsburgh. North bank of the Allegheny near Aspinwall.

Older imagery showed a line of what looked like Front Runners getting taken apart.  From right to left they went from whole car to just a pile of parts, and in various stages of disassembly as you went down the line.

[wjstix]

tractor

hi all  i have not seen a article on the tare down & rebuilding of the freight cars and engines and the scrap yards i am modeling this in my  HO layout and would like to find pictures of this type of railroading and info

Note that these are two different things. Railroads maintain repair shops for working on freight cars and engines (and in earlier times, passenger cars). A railroad normally doesn't scrap it's own stuff, it sells it to a private non-railroad scrap dealer who would dismantle the engine or cars at their facility. In the 1950's you'd sometimes see a freight train with several 'dead in tow' steam engines in the train, being taken to an online scrap dealer.

[chutton01]

wjstix

Note that these are two different things.

Not necessarily true - the example I mentioned, Larry's Truck and Electric, disproves that as they do both - they scrap and part old locomotives, and they also rebuild locomotives which they then lease out, normally under the LTEX reporting marks, or resell outright.  They do this at their Ohio facility -and why not? It makes sense, part out trashed/worn-out locomotives, build up an inventory, and then use that inventory in rebuilding similar locomotives.
This blog has a link to an 2004 RMC story about LTEX which is interesting.

Now, if you're talking railroad owned and operated facilities, haven't Class I/ClassII railroads normally been using outside contractors to rebuild locomotives since, I guess, the 1980s?  For large scale scrapping, I think they have been using outside contractors since, well the 1950s? 1940s? WWI?

If the OP was thinking along the lines of mid-20th century timeframe, then probably there was both railroad scrapping and rebuilding, although not necessarily at the same facility as wjstix stated.

 

[EMD.Don]

In July's issue of Trains magazine on pg-19 there is a photo and quick blurb about Larry's Truck Electric and their recently refurbished ex-BNSF GP30's (2402, 2411, 2442, and 2443) for use with Arkansas-Oklahoma Railroad. All locomotives are painted in AOR markings but retain their previous BNSF road numbers. Also, the February 2012 issue of Trains magazine did a complete article on Larry's Truck Electric...well worth picking up a back issue if you have an interest in locomotive bone yards/refurbishment facilities. Some great photographs! Page 22-23 pictures will totally STUN you and make your jaw drop as all you can see is an entire field...FULL...of different locomotives from dozens of railways just waiting for refurbishment/up grades or parts sourcing. 

Happy Modeling!

Don.

[wjstix]

The fact that in recent times one or two companies both rebuild and scrap engines doesn't really "disprove" what I said. First, these companies buy the engines from the railroad and then either scrap them or rebuild them to lease out. Yes there have been instances of railroads contracting out repair work, but over the history of railroading, the majority of the time it's been the railroad themselves doing the work in their own shops (although in some cases, small railroads have had work done by a larger railroad). Similarly, to my knowledge it's been rare for a railroad to scrap it's own locomotives. Generally they have been sold to outside companies who dismantle the engines.