Judging by the condition of the brake shoes I'd say that car isn't exactly revenue service on any line now! John

If still available (great price) I'll cut you a check or if it's close just send cash. John Larkin

Mont, Did you consider the model to be "well-done" after the first baking? (Groan!) John Larkin

I'm assuming the car is now history....

This is the type of issue that really points out how unaware we can be of our surroundings. I've been around railroads since the Roman days and inside boxcars numerous times and I never paid attention

That shot highlights 3 Milwaukee boxcars with 3 different paint schemes. I'm not a Milwaukee expert by any means but the cars appear to be built to the same plan. That's one of the best pix I've ever

Next to last photo was on e-bay for a while a couple of months ago. I'm not sure whose station is shown there but multiple railroads ran through here. I'm going to have to dig out my old Omaha map to

The first picture may likely be cinders used for fill. Many years ago when UP built the cut-off through Omaha (bypassing the original line south of there) they built massive trestles. These were fille

For a fan of details, note the single handhold on the first car versus the double handhold on the second. These are two otherwise similar (in gross detail) cars and the picture is a great way to show

It wasn't just a merger that triggered it. Back in the late 70's the UP decided to clean out their old annex building NE of the HQs building. They simply put gondolas on the service track and dumped e

Jim, Thanks for the info. I've been trying to figure out where the tracks ran in and it appears to be from the northwest side of the base, just looking at the connecting railroad configuration and how

George hit a bullseye with the comment on per diem. When I first started railroading with UP in 1982 I did a study of the yard office operations. Among the other surprises was the priority given to ge

Remember that prototype tonnage ratings were done by first estimating how many tons a locomotive could pull over the assigned district, then often modifying the rating when experience dictated a chang

It's been a long hot day but my math says a 110 car train of 286,000 lb hoppers would probably weigh in at 7800-7900 tons. Given 3 units (2 front, 1 back) generating 12,000 hp, that more like 1.5 hp/t

I've never seen a "published" schedule for UP trains but I did work in Schedule Control where we had a 24/7 operation to schedule priority trains across the UP system, this back in the 1980 time perio

I can see what appears to be a poling pocket on the first car in the series. The rest would, of course, be hidden. John Larkin

I happen to own ex-UP 25624 and I can only address these cabooses with accurate knowledge, however I believe most modern steel cupola cabooses would share these traits. The UP cabooses had switches fo

Bruce, I looked at the width of the track and it (very) roughly looks like the center two rails are the same as the other tracks in the picture (4-81/2"+/-), leaving the outer rails at a wider gauge,

Also interesting is the center track which looks like dual guage or long gauntlet track. Don't I've ever seen a piece quite like this. Wasn't the Erir 6' originally? John Larkin

Hi Andy, I'm just geting caught up on my emails after back surgery -- almost 1,000 when I got back to my computer. Just by chance, are any of these cars left? Thanks, John Larkin