<snip, snap, snup> What was that slogan on Burlington boxcars? "Everywhere East"? :-) Al Brown, Melbourne, Fla.

Richard writes: "The Q was a "western" railroad only from the perspective of easterners who think the west starts at the Mississippi River. However, for all of us true westerners, the west

Mike Brock writes: "None of this, however, explains the Mopac triple hopper operating in captive service on the B&O heading back to West Va. for another load. Perhaps B&O crews couldn't

Ummm... you do realize that the Black Hills of South Dakota include some rather large mountains, right?

Mike Brock wrote Mike, that one brief declaration answers so many questions... :-) :-) :-) P.S. The SP was the other railroad you're thinking of that never went bankrupt in its history. Unlike its

My head is swimming.... what does all this have to do with freight cars?? Look... we talk about coal cars for a good reason -- the single largest and most vital commodity on US railroads was coal

Mike Brock wrote: That's what I get for believing the Texan who told me the sequence when I asked about it, in relation to a project to decal a box car. Ah, freight cars! Remember when we

Well, if we use the model railroader's standard of less typical being accepted, I challenge the quote below. I live in Southern California, just 80 miles up the coast from LA, and up the road from me

This is all well and good, but any Texan knows that The West begins at the border of Fort Worth and extends West to the Pacific Ocean. That would make the Western half of Texas, including Pecos and

Will Bob Chapman please contact me.. Thanks Denis Blake North Hamlet Shops, OH

Nice catch, Brian! You beat me, but Mike did say "no one" so he must be buying for the whole Tuscan crowd. See you at the bar. Steve Hoxie Pensacola FL

Richard Hendrickson writes: True enough. Flat as a pancake...like Florida. Sorry...couldn't resist. Now, now...don't bring up the foliage. Surely no one thinks the vegetation in Northern Cal...let

Matt Forsyth says: "BTW, I have a a few early '50's vintage B&W images of loaded CB&Q composite hoppers parked on a siding in Binghamton, NY, just off the DL&W (Lackawanna) mainline." Now THAT is a

Bob Heninger says: True, so true. I'm gonna miss the big steam event in Michigan coming up. Verry annoying. Yes, yes. Note my response to Tony Thompson. I hail from Muskogee, Oklahoma. Not quite

Rod Yeah, but it's not Lehigh Valley, so Richard must be right! :-) Tim O'Connor

Tony Thompson writes: I don't think so. Neither does Raymond George who wrote Missouri Kansas and Texas in Color and co authored Katy Power along with Joe Collias. At the time of publication George

Mr Brock, making a valiant attempt to define some areas of the US, wrote: sections. IOW, it's not just the west...say, beginning at Denver...and the east. That doesn't allow any distinction between

Nah that's not right.? The original gateway to the west, regardless of ST. Louis' claim, is PIttsburgh and considering that the PRR broke its massive system into the PRR and PRR Lines West -- Lines

Distillate was a fuel used in early farm tractors, not to mention the first Doodlebugs. Diesel tractors did not become common until the 60's. http://www.sdrm.org/history/timeline/distilat.html Doug

Mike, many of the midwest coal roads, such as the CB&Q used gons for coal traffic. Labor was cheap to shovel out the cars, and the cars could be used for other things besides coal, sand or