Your friendly neighborhood CNW fan.
Lord Atmo wrote:CNW's pullman standard 3-bay grain hoppers in the 750000 number series are all ex-CRIP as well
Atmo,
The Pullman Standard hopper cars are in the 752000-753000 series- there are no hoppers in the 750000 series. These are the cars I was talking about in the post that Bob had quoted in his reply. The ballast cars in his post are some of my favorite ex-Rock Island hoppers the CNW acquired- they are in the 791000 series. I can remember watching them go by in the ballast trains in Wisconsin, most of them have been removed from ballast unit train service and retired. Those that survive have been reassigned into the service Bob describes. I saw and photographed 3 of them in this service this summer at Clinton, IA- it was the first time I had seen one of them in several years.
nordique72 wrote: Cris,Those ex-RI hoppers are still running around on UP's vast system, we still get quite a few of them on the grain shuttles that come down to the Gulf ports via Houston. The cars in speed lettering are harder to see because they are in the as-delivered scheme from 1973-74, when the Rock reorganized in 1975 and changed their colors to the "bankruptcy" blue- older hoppers were randomly cycled through the shops for new coats of paint. After the CNW picked them up- some were grey- most were blue. CNW fully patched some, while some others only got new numbers and a little CNW herald stencil. As this paint wore of over the years- the cars were repatched with the new sans-serif CNW style numbers, and the speed lettering was blanked out as well. I would say 1 out of every 10 grey cars that I see still have the speed lettering on them, while the rest have been patched. And yes- the CNW did jump at the trustee's offering of those hoppers, as well as several hundred boxcars (40 and 50 foot), gondolas, and airslides. The hoppers were mainly picked up to help with car supply on their newly aquired ex-RI grain lines in Iowa (and the Spine line.) Other cars and locomotives were simply returned to their financier- like the ex-UP/RI hopper Mark photographed- those were financed for RI by UP, and when they went belly-up the cars were returned to UP.
Cris,
Those ex-RI hoppers are still running around on UP's vast system, we still get quite a few of them on the grain shuttles that come down to the Gulf ports via Houston.
The cars in speed lettering are harder to see because they are in the as-delivered scheme from 1973-74, when the Rock reorganized in 1975 and changed their colors to the "bankruptcy" blue- older hoppers were randomly cycled through the shops for new coats of paint. After the CNW picked them up- some were grey- most were blue. CNW fully patched some, while some others only got new numbers and a little CNW herald stencil. As this paint wore of over the years- the cars were repatched with the new sans-serif CNW style numbers, and the speed lettering was blanked out as well. I would say 1 out of every 10 grey cars that I see still have the speed lettering on them, while the rest have been patched.
And yes- the CNW did jump at the trustee's offering of those hoppers, as well as several hundred boxcars (40 and 50 foot), gondolas, and airslides. The hoppers were mainly picked up to help with car supply on their newly aquired ex-RI grain lines in Iowa (and the Spine line.) Other cars and locomotives were simply returned to their financier- like the ex-UP/RI hopper Mark photographed- those were financed for RI by UP, and when they went belly-up the cars were returned to UP.
To add to Nordique72's observations, at various terminals in Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, and Wyoming I've seen old Rock Island ballast cars sporting CNW reporting marks. These cars are full of ballast and often are coupled to flatcars loaded with track panels. Together this equipment appears to be in some kind of standby service - ready at a moment's notice for movement to a derailment site.
These well-weathered, mineral red ballast cars clearly display the name "Rock Island" in white letters are their car sides. The cars also have removable canvas covers on top to keep both water and rain out of the loads. Face it, ballast mixed with ice won't dump very easily.
The Lake Superior Railroad Museum in Duluth, MN owns a fair amount of former C&NW equipment.
C&NW Parlor/Lounge #6700 The Deerpath. C&NW 6700, formerly 6700, the Deerpath, formerly 6511, was built in 1946 for the Twin Cities 400 by Pullman Standard. It was configured as a 1 drawing room, 22 seat parlor car. In 1961 the car was modified with the removal of the drawing room and the adjacent smoking lounge. At this time the car's conventional 32-volt power system was also removed and replaced with a 480-volt system that was compatible with the C&NW bi-level commuter equipment. From then until retirement it served as a club lounge on Chicago commuter trains.
We own two former C&NW bi-levels, both of which are reapinted in full C&NW livery.
The last piece of C&NW equipment is BUDD Car #9169, which is a RDC-1, was former C&NW, and is the oldest operating Budd Car in the world.
Mechanical Department "No no that's fine shove that 20 pound set all around the yard... those shoes aren't hell and a half to change..."
The Missabe Road: Safety First
Thanks for sharing the photos. I've seen a fair amount of C&NW equipment in UP's Salt Lake Yard, and passing through on trains. Used to regularly see former North Western locomotives passing through too. Mainly C44-9Ws and AC44CWs, with an occasional SD40-2, and even rarer C40-8. The last "C&NW" locomotive I've recently seen was the UP heritage unit heading north towards Ogden shortly after the "heritage photo shoot" in SLC.
Be sure to check out February's "Difference of Decades" article. There's a great picture of a C&NW coal train on the Powder River line.
sheesh why didnt i think to just bring this thread back. sure beats ruining other threads.
but onward to my point. there just isnt enough acknowledgement for the remaining CNW rolling stock and other various CNW equipment. but i've devoted myself to documenting these objects with photos. i'm happy to say the quest goes well. here are some of my "greatest hits":
autoracks arent as common around here. and so far, that one is the only one i have seen thus far. does anyone know if the ABEBE has a lot of these on it?
the 180000 rounded hoppers are also less common up here. however i saw a whole cut of them in altoona once. the above image was part of that cut. most of them were brown. that remains the only time i have seen those brown hoppers. hopefully it wont be the last
here's Altoona's yard office. a CNW building indeed. notice the green signs with yellow wording
oh goodness. i LOVE these hoppers. smaller 2-bays built by pullman standard. i saw a decent few in my past, but just that one so far in my new fanning life.
loved these in my past, love these to this very day. the ex-CRIP 750000 series hoppers. this one here still had its CRIP number visible, which i thought was interesting. the CRIP symbol i always thought was neat on those blue hoppers.
ahhh zito boxcars. i've seen 1 or 2. in short, not enough. that's one of my better pics.
the 175 series hoppers. add this to my list of "stuff i only saw 1 of so far". NWL did an article on these 2 issues back. so it was cool to see this one. anyone know if the green or yellow ones are still around?
check out this bridge. that really is something, isnt it? this is a bridge at West Allis, WI. possibly over 50 years old. i wish i could see a train on it.
CNW property in name only. this sign still stands. as well as other CNW warning signs. and yes that's my hat on it. i thought it would fit the theme.
well that's just the highlights of my CNW photo collection. anyone else documenting rolling stock or otherwise too?
Ya I was sad to see CNW go. Of all 10-11 railroads that existed here in the Twin Cities when I was born in Nov 1958, they were the very last one still around. Seems like all the contacts I had with CNW people were positive. One guy on my block worked in the Omaha Road HQ in Minneapolis, back when I was a kid and would go out trick or treating as an engineer he always got a big kick out of it and gave me a big handfull of white CNW pencils that I used quite proudly at school the whole rest of the school year. (Wish I had kept a few now of course!!). I was happy to be able to get up to Upper Michigan and take pics of the C-628's back in 1986, not long before they were retired.
BTW someone mentioned the Packer/CNW color coincidence earlier...it's interesting that the Packers entered the NFL in 1920, but it wasn't until 1952 that it occured to someone that the GREEN Bay Packers maybe should wear GREEN jerseys. Before that they wore navy blue and gold, colors Notre Dame grad Curly Lambeau borrowed from his alma mater.
Also someone mentioned Chi Bears Blue and Orange, think the RR they were thinking of was the Chicago and Eastern Illinois that wore those colors too, though their blue was a little lighter than the Bears Navy blue...which I assume the Bears wore because George Halas was in the Navy in World War 1.
But hey, even the baseball Philadelphia/Kansas City A's wore dark blue until Charley O Finley bought them in the sixties (and moved them to Oakland).
C&NW OLS Engines
MP15DC; 1303, 1304, 1305
GP15-1; 4405, 4410
GP38-2; 4601, 4602, 4604, 4606, 4607, 4614, 4627, 4631
SD18; 6629, 6636
SD38-2; 6652
SD40-2; 6825, 6826, 6886, 6902, 6913, 6930, 6934, 6935
SD50; 7004
SD60; 8029
C42-8; 8551, 8553
C44-9W; 8659, 8717, 8727
AC4400; All 8801-8835; note-CNW 8834 after being repainted to UP 6736, retained its OLS markings
Hey, could anybody please write a nice piece on what Nelson Yard was like way back when? I have heard stories of the hotel at the yard and how it was like stepping back in time when you entered the building.
I am very curious about this as all the old timers talk about this place, and some crazy things that went on there.
Thanks,
Zane
It's great to see a C&NW F unit preserved.My only ride on the C&NW was on a Chicago to Harvard "scoot" in 1979. It had an F7 and four bi level coaches.
Well, IRM is almost done with the restoration of CNW F7 411, here are some pics of it painted, but not yet lettered.
http://www.irm.org/gallery/cnw411paintproj
Bert
An "expensive model collector"
Michael27 wrote:I thought that rco's are supposed to be safer, but I guess anything can happen. I also miss the CNW colors. UP yellow is kind of boring.
Lord Atmo wrote:well i hope the RCOs will stop being used and engineers will be able to keep their jobs. i like how CNW never used these. ah they were such a great road!
The only reason the CNW never used remotes was that it was taken over by the UP before it got the chance.
Well, the remotes might be "job-eating horrid machines", but looking at your picture I would have to say a posistion just opened up.
CC
Picture from the Lord... Atmo
Ok, I must not be very familiar with those remote devices. Is there really a button on the belt pack for rollover and play dead??? Good boy!
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