Tim and Ed, Two possibilities for the USAX cars: Many large bases had their own water treatment facilities, which would have used chlorine. They used chlorine for more than just officers' swimming

Tim, Wood pipe was commonly used through WWII. It is absolutely within the potential era of this photograph. Regards, Bruce Smith Auburn, Al

Redwood pipe was used in the early years of the 20th century but the ATSF photo appears to be from at least the 1940's if not later. Here is a 1908 photo -

To me it appears that each car has 8 individual objects of perhaps 10 to 12 feet in length. I don't think they are wine barrels, or pickle barrels, or vinegar tanks, or

The 858-B's were popular photo subjects - I have at least 14 images on my hard drive, from NYC to PC era. -- Tim O'Connor Sterling,

Thanks for that roster Ed! The attached photo may be one of those mysterious USA cars. From the Gerstley duplicates. Tim O'Connor -- Tim

Looks like it could be wooden tank cars that were used to transport Vinegar and other such acidic products. Attached is a couple of photos of these cars. THe Speas Co Vinegar car looks the most like

Nice pictures!! I answered my own question about ACF building these. I forgot I had photos of CC&F (Canadian Car & Foundry) and GATC (General American) cannister flats.

That photo shows a troop sleeper, rebuilt as an ice refrigerator car. -- Tim O'Connor Sterling, Massachusetts

Tim, ACF wasn’t the only builder of cars of this type that were primarily used for chlorine containers. ACF records document the company built approximately 350 "Multi-Unit Tank Cars" from 1924 to

I seem to remember seeing a similar picture years ago. It was undersea telegraph or telephone cable. It was wound spool to spool to spool and continued across from car to car in one long continuous

 Hi Andy and List Members, Andy wrote: "Details aren't clear enough to tell what kind of loads these are, but there's 2 per car" It is true the details are not clear enough, but to my eyes it

Garth, they still dig up redwood pipes inChicago. There are likely hundreds of installations still(mostly) intact. They are a good (if you can get around the wasteand ecological issues) "pipes".

Friends, The idea of these being redwood pipes now makes more sense than spools of wire. Even more sense when I remembered that there once was a factory near Antioch, California on the ATSF that made

Ron, and All; To add: After the Loma Prieta earthquake, I was assigned to damage assessment in the Santa Cruz mountains outside Santa Cruz, CA. Even at that late date, there were water districts

That's the most plausible explanation I've heard so far. Comparing the load to the flatcar says these things are about 4', maybe 4'-6" max, in diameter. That's a reasonable size for water piping.

Thank you, Doug! Very helpful! Elden Gatwood

They look like sections of redwood pipe to me. They were common in California back in the days before they switched to concrete pipe, for water transmission. Elden Gatwood

They appear to have wheels under each one, so, I wonder if these are something like a towed pneumatic compressor, or a heavy duty hydraulic pump. Sunshine had a kit load for something like these,

The location appears to be Frost, immediately after the flyover, so this train is eastbound. What businesses in the LA area would ship something like this? Matthew Metoyer Santa Maria CA