It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
"I like my Pullman Standards & Budds in Stainless Steel flavors, thank you!"
Ray Breyer
Modeling the NKP's Peoria Division, circa 1943
QUOTE: Originally posted by AntonioFP45 2. Railbox cars made their big splash in the mid 70s. A big hit with railfans. (Plus, virtually no graffitti back then either!)
http://mprailway.blogspot.com
"The first transition era - wood to steel!"
QUOTE: Originally posted by ebriley "Roof walks" (correctly called running boards) were illegal in interchange after 1977.
QUOTE: I don't remember the midwest being burdened with dying railroads other than the Rock and the Milwaukee.
Chip
Building the Rock Ridge Railroad with the slowest construction crew west of the Pecos.
Scott - Dispatcher, Norfolk Southern
QUOTE: Originally posted by orsonroy QUOTE: Originally posted by ebriley "Roof walks" (correctly called running boards) were illegal in interchange after 1977. True, but I photographed in-service cars as late as 1999 with running boards. In the 1970s, they were still relatively common. Not in interchange. Company service cars maybe. Then you must have forgotten all the roads that made up Conrail, and which made it to Chicago and beyond, E-L and PC especially. Never saw either in the 70s. I lived a couple of hundred miles west of the Mississippi. Neither came this far west. . The Monon was still (barely) alive, but hadn't seen paint in 10+ years. None of us west of Indiana saw much (if any) of the Monon The Soo introduced a nice white & red paint scheme, and then never washed it. I'll take your word for it. Even BN looked horrible for a few years after their 1969 merger, since nothing got cleaned or touched up until the engines or cars were ready for a major shopping or scrapping. I often visited the BN yard in St. Joseph, MO in the mid 70s and photographed a lot of the action there. Everything was always clean and shiny. Much of it was still in Chineese Red and even saw some stuff in Big Sky Blue. Nearly all of it was clean. The merger was in 1970, not 1969. Reply Edit chutton01 Member sinceDecember 2001 3,139 posts Posted by chutton01 on Saturday, October 8, 2005 10:14 PM Heh, plenty of 1970s corporate rock (Kansas, ELO, BTO, Boston, Foreigner, Journey, Fleetwood Mac, Eagles), 60s survivors (Pink Floyd, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Jefferson Airplane/Starship) and bands which would eventually revive rock (ZZ Top, Van Halen, Elvis Costello, Blondie, Clash, Bruce...yeah, you get the idea) on the radio nowadays... Anyway, back to October/November 1976, me still a pre-teen kinda new to Model Railroader magazine, came across an article about how to paint and decal this new fangled railroad - ConRail (considering the lead time for articles back then, I guess the decals came out the minute ConRail took over in April 1976) - I don't have the article, but I do remember the block letter CR (Penn Central style, I guess); alas I don't recall if the can-opener ConRail logo was available or not. It still took a while (years, in fact) for me to realize that I had just lived through the death of well known and centuries old railroads like the Reading, LV, CNJ, EL (well... I guess the Erie and the Delaware & Lackawanna had disappered in the 1960s, but still). At this late date, I see that beginning in 1974 or so money from the states and the Feds started going into fixing up the most critical trackage of the soon-to-be Conrail 6 (for example, there are several pictures of rehabiliation of CNJ trackage during 1975 in the book 'The Trail of the Blue Comet'), so probably if you want the maximum amount of decay, despair, lack of maintainence, and gloom you should pick the 1972 (post Hurricane Agnes, of course) -1973 era on a major Northeast road. Reply Anonymous Member sinceApril 2003 305,205 posts Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, October 8, 2005 10:21 PM Orsonroy, I looked up your profile. If you were in Rockford in the 70s you saw a much different railroad world than I did. I was born in the 40s in St. Louis which probably looked as grim as you describe. However, I spent the bulk of the 70s in St. Joseph, MO which is about 50 miles NW of Kansas City. BN always looked good and freshly shopped, MoPac was usually sharp, Santa Fe ALWAYS, UP was dirty, but obviously prosperous. Rock Island was a mess and would soon come to an end (1980 bankruptcy ended the Rock). I spent the 1980s along a BN branch in western Kansas. Even the ancient SD9s looked good most of the time. I guess they weathered the fleet before entering Illinois. I was enjoying life in the 70s and that may have colored how I saw the railroads, but all my pictures of BN from the mid 70s show nice clean locomotives. Reply Edit Anonymous Member sinceApril 2003 305,205 posts Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, October 9, 2005 5:29 AM " "Roof walks" (correctly called running boards) were illegal in interchange after 1977. The flashing beacons on top of loco cabs became common. A few roads (SP and D&RG) used other "safety" devices like oscillating lights on the front end of locomotives. " I was thinking of pointing out that roofwalks remained in NON IINTERCHANGE traffic as long as the owning roads had a use for them / hadn't got round to changing them. Thanks for the date! Same applied to 40' cars... anyone got an end of interchange date for them please? Did high level brake wheels get banned at the same time? Why don't tank cars come under the 40' rule? Is there any broad guideline for what locos got yellow beacons on the cab roof? Do "Mars Lights" count as "oscilating lights" or were they something different? Reply Edit AntonioFP45 Member sinceDecember 2003 From: Good ol' USA 9,642 posts Posted by AntonioFP45 on Sunday, October 9, 2005 7:11 AM As I mentioned earlier, railroads of the south tended to "comply slowly" to changes and even rules. Even after the 1977 ban, some roof walks or "running boards" could still be seen on SCL cars, however, brakemen were not allowed up there. I''ve heard of ladders to the roof being cut short to curtail the temptation to climb up. Around 1980, the 40ft. boxcar fleet shrunk to almost nothing. There was a big batch of them stored in a yard near my home, some still had their roofwalks as they were shuttled to a larger yard where the blow torches were waiting. I didn't see anymore running boards or 40ft boxcars after 1981. "I like my Pullman Standards & Budds in Stainless Steel flavors, thank you!" Reply soumodeler Member sinceDecember 2004 From: Georgia 486 posts Posted by soumodeler on Sunday, October 9, 2005 6:09 PM Anybody got the answer to: Ballast on an Appalachain branchline? Cinders? Rock? Signal arrangement? (see drawings) Thanks, soumodeler soumodeler --------------- The Southern Serves the South! Reply Anonymous Member sinceApril 2003 305,205 posts Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, October 9, 2005 7:40 PM I don't know about the Southern, but it will depend on how much traffic the branch sees, one train a day ,three a week, or a couple a day. I'de say it would be safe to use stone ballast, but add some weeds mixed in and maybe some cinders to and weather your ties more to give the look of a less maintained branch line Reply Edit Anonymous Member sinceApril 2003 305,205 posts Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, October 9, 2005 7:44 PM PS, don't forget "southern rock" the alman bros,marshall tucker band,charlie daniels etc, disco and leisure suits didn't make it to the end of the decade. Reply Edit DavidBriel Member sinceJanuary 2002 From: US 150 posts Posted by DavidBriel on Sunday, October 9, 2005 10:16 PM The 1970's was the last full decade for cabooses on most mainline freight trains. The caboose was phased out beginning around 1985, now replaced by end of train devices and computers. Also many freight cars with 1970's paint schemes still exist today in 2005, including many with current reporting marks such as CSXT and the modern NS. Many former Southern Railway boxcars originally painted in the 1970's are still common and still have the original Southern reporting marks and numbers. Reply Anonymous Member sinceApril 2003 305,205 posts Posted by Anonymous on Monday, October 10, 2005 4:27 AM QUOTE: [i] Same applied to 40' cars... anyone got an end of interchange date for them please? Did high level brake wheels get banned at the same time? Why don't tank cars come under the 40' rule? Is there any broad guideline for what locos got yellow beacons on the cab roof? Do "Mars Lights" count as "oscilating lights" or were they something different? I am not aware of any rule banning 40 foot cars from interchange. 40' boxcars were phased out because 50' boxcars could carry more stuff, as far as I know. There were some large tank cars manufactured in the 60s and 70s. Some of them were later banned for safety reasons (don't want THAT many gallons of that stuff to explode!). The high brake wheels and ladders to the roof all started to come off in the mid 60s. Various govenment agencies became very safety oriented in that era and began to make and enforce rules which led to these changes. I remember watching a commercial railfan video at a model train club meeting about 1990. The video in the program had been shot along the Union Pacific in 1970. There were plenty of 40 foot boxcars in evidence, but not one of them (in that tape) had their running boards still in place. An article in the now defunct Kalmbach magazine "Trains Illustrated" several years ago featured the then recent grain harvest in the Pacific Norrthwest and showed a "grain train" made up of all 40 foot boxcars pressed into service because no more covered hoppers were available. To top it off the power was a lash up of A & B F units. Except for the missing "roofwalks" and yellow beacons on top the locomotives (and the BN on the locomotives) it looked like the 1950s revisited. I think the "guideline" on yellow beacons was pretty much if a particular railroad (BN for example) was buying beacons they slapped them on top of every unit that came through the shops. The SP and D&RG units I referred to had a light arrangement above the windshield on low nose units that would slowly move left to right and right to left casting thier beam accordingly. All the units I saw equiped like that did not have a beacon on the roof. I don't know the manufacturer of these lights, perhaps it was Mars, but I just don't have that information. Hope this is of some help. Reply Edit Anonymous Member sinceApril 2003 305,205 posts Posted by Anonymous on Monday, October 10, 2005 5:06 AM I can't believe nobody mentioned the Chessie System and its paint scheme! It was one of the best, or perhaps worst, paint schemes ever. I really miss seeing it on the rails. Fortunately, there are many Chessie System models out there and the Chessie System is alive and well on my model railroad. Love it or hate it, the Chessie paint scheme fit the era and it wasn't dull. MRC still uses a Chessie System deisel on some of its packaging. Don't forget the kitten with plenty of personality! Reply Edit 12 Subscriber & Member Login Login, or register today to interact in our online community, comment on articles, receive our newsletter, manage your account online and more! Login Register Users Online There are no community member online Search the Community ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Model Railroader Newsletter See all Sign up for our FREE e-newsletter and get model railroad news in your inbox! Sign up
Not in interchange. Company service cars maybe.
QUOTE: [i] Same applied to 40' cars... anyone got an end of interchange date for them please? Did high level brake wheels get banned at the same time? Why don't tank cars come under the 40' rule? Is there any broad guideline for what locos got yellow beacons on the cab roof? Do "Mars Lights" count as "oscilating lights" or were they something different?