1950s Southern Pacific Consist Question...

[Tracklayer]

Hello gang.

Could someone tell me what roads a 1950s Southern Pacific freight train running through south Texas might have been pulling. Keep in mind that the locos will be a Black Widow F-7 A,B,B set. I figure it would have been made up of a percentage of its own cars in the mix followed by the first type of bay window caboose, but I've just been guessing at all of the others up until now.

Thanks in advance for any info.

Tracklayer 

[twhite]

Though you would find a lot of SP cars in the consist, the fact that it's traveling on SP's transcontinental Sunset Route would probably open it up to almost any railroad back in that era.  Freight cars on interchange traveled coast to coast.  My guess it might consist of a smattering of Southern railroads such as ACL, Seaboard, Southern, etc.  Probably some of the East Coast railroads such as Pennsy, NYC, New Haven, and probably some midwestern railroads picked up from interchange such as Burlington, MP, Frisco.  'Foreign road' freight cars were very prevelant on almost any freight consist back in the 'fifties no matter what the home railroad.  You can almost take your pick. 

Tom

[Tracklayer]

Though you would find a lot of SP cars in the consist, the fact that it's traveling on SP's transcontinental Sunset Route would probably open it up to almost any railroad back in that era.  Freight cars on interchange traveled coast to coast.  My guess it might consist of a smattering of Southern railroads such as ACL, Seaboard, Southern, etc.  Probably some of the East Coast railroads such as Pennsy, NYC, New Haven, and probably some midwestern railroads picked up from interchange such as Burlington, MP, Frisco.  'Foreign road' freight cars were very prevelant on almost any freight consist back in the 'fifties no matter what the home railroad.  You can almost take your pick. 

Tom

Hi Tom. Okay. So I haven't been so wrong after all... I've been mixing in CN, MP, NP, D&RGW, Rock Island and a lot of those you've named, etc. Well. I just wanted to make certain. I'd hate to have a fellow modeller over telling me that SP never hauled so in so road...

Tracklayer

[SSW9389]

Tracklayer I am sure you have included a Cotton Belt car or two in that consist. Those Cotton Belt F7s were doing the same kind of work to bring down the traffic from the St. Louis and Memphis Gateways into TEXAS. The primary connection of Cotton Belt with Espee was at Corsicana, TEXAS. A few trains to consider would be the Blue Streak Merchandise and the Motor Special. Don't forget those auto frames moving in gondolas from the midwest to the assembly plants out in California.  

[Tracklayer]

Tracklayer I am sure you have included a Cotton Belt car or two in that consist. Those Cotton Belt F7s were doing the same kind of work to bring down the traffic from the St. Louis and Memphis Gateways into TEXAS. The primary connection of Cotton Belt with Espee was at Corsicana, TEXAS. A few trains to consider would be the Blue Streak Merchandise and the Motor Special. Don't forget those auto frames moving in gondolas from the midwest to the assembly plants out in California.  

Thank you SSW9389. Yes, Cotten Belt is in there. I also have a good mix of gondolas and north east coast roads. Glad to know I'm "on the right track"...

Tracklayer

[csmith9474]

MKT would fit right in via Houston and San Antonio.

[Tracklayer]

MKT would fit right in via Houston and San Antonio.

Okay. I've got a yellow MKT car. I also run an orange Fruit Growers Express and Santa Fe steel reefers at the head end. I saw those in a 1950s movie being pulled by an SP Black Widow.

I'm also guessing that at that time (1950s) they were still running wood side box cars and reefers ?... 

Tracklayer

[dehusman]

Not so much SFRD cars, more PFE cars.  You would also have a lot of tank cars going to refineries along the Gulf coast.  There would be lots of 40 ft boxcars of grain and cotton.  Very few hopper cars.  The eastern gons would have structural steel, rebar and lots and lots of drill pipe.  Eastbound would be copper, mineral ores and auto parts.  Don't forget a few Mexican cars out of El Paso and Nogales.

Dave H.

[twhite]

FGE reefers would be just fine--they were all over the place in the 'fifties.  I used to see blocks of them eastbound over Donner Pass during the glory days of SP fruit consists.  And remember that there were also solid blocks of reefer trains heading east on the Sunset Line from Southern California--mainly PFE's, but also some SFRD's mixed in.  SP and Santa Fe seemed to play 'mix and match' a lot on their southern transcons, in fact you could see blocks of SFRD's in a lot of the SP Donner Pass fruit extras in Northern California.    

Tom  

[jimrice4449]

Reefers can do funny things.   While you would epect PFE to predominate on SP and SFRD on Santa Fe, while working on the SP at Oxnard we had a Salinas Reefer Block buzz through town w/ an SP engine on the front and SP caboose on the rear and everything else was SFRD ice reefers.    There would also be a seasonal influx of BAR mech reefers that looked to be identical to the PFE mechcanicals except for the lettering.   I suspect that, when the BAR was shipping spuds there was a corresponding influx of PFE cars Down East.