Would these cars ever make it to the east coast?

Hi Bruce,

Not exactly coastal, but is Harrisburg, Pa., far enough east for you? Larry Kline and Ted Culotta's book, "The Post War Freight Car Fleet," includes a photo on page 189 of ATSF 171033, a class Ga-5 Caswell gon built in 1921. The car is shown in the Reading's Rutherford Yard at Harrisburg on June 19, 1947.

So long,

Andy

Andy Sperandeo
Executive Editor
Model Railroader magazine
asperandeo@...
262-796-8776, ext. 461
FAX 262-796-1142

On Aug 18, 2011, at 5:44 AM, fielderbruce wrote:

Would these cars ever make it to the east coast?

In addition to the photo at Harrisburg that Andy Sperandeo cited,
there's a photo in my book on Santa Fe open top cars showing one at
Washington, D.C. in 4/48, and I've been informed that a conductor's
time book on the Rutland in the '50s documented one in New England
loaded with potash. They wouldn't have been common on the east
coast, but since the Santa Fe owned more than 10,000 of them, the
chances that one would turn up there from time to time were pretty good.

Richard Hendrickson

Bruce Fielder asked:
"Would these cars ever make it to the east coast?"

Richard Hendrickson replied:
"In addition to the photo at Harrisburg that Andy Sperandeo cited,
there's a photo in my book on Santa Fe open top cars showing one at
Washington, D.C. in 4/48, and I've been informed that a conductor's
time book on the Rutland in the '50s documented one in New England
loaded with potash. They wouldn't have been common on the east
coast, but since the Santa Fe owned more than 10,000 of them, the
chances that one would turn up there from time to time were pretty good."

ATSF 85484 was listed as an empty in Rutland Train 9 on 11 Jul 1950 (from a
Premo Collection shfting list) which documents this car on the O&LC in upstate
New York.  I haven't identified the car class, but the car series is listed in
the July 1950 ORER as a 40 ft composite gon, AAR car class GRA.


Ben Hom

Thanks for the info !

Bruce F