Tony; Thanks for the clarification! Where were those alloy processors located?

First, I didn't know what I was starting here.  I just had a gut feeling that recently coal cars were not a hot topic. Secondly, if they didn't go "off road" why would the charge per diem to get

Gatwood, Elden wrote: Not really. The molybdenum ore (or crude metal) will be converted to ferro-molybdenum at an alloy processor, and AFAIK that was not done on D&RGW lines. Now if you had a

Thanks Richard and Jerry! This gives some people a very valid reason to have a few, or even one, DRGW gon show up with a funny mineral load. All they need is a small steel mill on-line. Elden

Mike; prototypes NEVER made in model form that I'm aware of is the C&O 50 ton, offset side 2 bay hopper car...the AAR Alternate Standard design. C&O had about 29,000. Yes, they had more of those cars

Well, if hopper cars are the subject, there's not all that much to talk about. As you yourself point out in SP Freight Cars Vol. 5, the SP owned no cross hoppers until after WW II, and the cars

Elden Gatwood writes: Good point. There were 40 UP light Challenger steam locos built and they ran over the entire UP system. There were 25 Big Boys built and they operated from Ogden to Cheyenne,

Matt Forsyth wrote: Matt, since coal mine photos on most roads show the cars being loaded as extremely heavily home-road cars, does this mean that the loaded cars which traveled off-line were

"Andrew Miller" wrote: Andy, No offense intended here, as each of us are entitled to our own opinion, but that has to be one of the most outrageous statements I have ever heard. Granted, as an

Ed Hawkins wrote: Ed, were these leases a separate operation from the REA pool? I have a number of PFE documents which speak to the participation of PFE (along with ACL, ATSF, PRR and several

Having recently spent some time reading Bob Karig's very fine book on coal cars, I nevertheless have to say I'm amazed how little attention he pays to those Western roads which DID have coal

I believe it would have been the AMAX (American Metal Climax Company) mine at Climax, from which the moly ore was shipped first over the Colorado & Southern's isolated branch (originally narrow gauge,

The oldest stencilling drawing I have of the CPR's bury style lettering is 1902. The steam engines with the large numbers on the side of the tenders also had that style of lettering but much larger

Elden ,My point of view,for what it is worth, is that there have been too few good hopper models.Yes,KD has a great hopper ,but for forty dollars a copy?Not oin my budget.Modeling an eastern road in

Our maximum leader has decreed that head end cars used to carry express are legitimate subjects for the STMFC list. The short answer to your question is that the red diamond logos did not appear

Rob, The red diamond had not appeared by 1949. There has been considerable debate on exactly when the diamond made its appearance. Some say 1953 was the earliest date when the diamond first

Tony-- To be more precise, one should describe the stencilling used on most Canadian STMFC's as railway-designed lettering. The IRC/CGR lettering style was very distinctive from that used by other

Al; I had some interesting discussions with manufacturers about what has been successful for them, and why, and a big part of it has to do with us, and what we will buy, not only the reality of what

Joseph Lofland wrote: I'll be making some inquiries this week (I'm only 20 miles from InterMountain's office), but yesterday was Sunday and I thought I'd see if anyone here already knew the answer

This whole discussion has been very enlightening! Now I understand why there is so little interest for most western RR modelers in open top hoppers, and it is then probably no coincidence then that