I just saw this woodchip car this morning, but with the "Great Northern" and the Goat rollered out in blue paint. That must have happened in the last year. GBRX 34634 GN Paint Waaaah!
Yep, a very sad day for Rocky. I've seen a few of these, along with NP that were bought from BNSF. I'm just glad they have been around as long as they have in they're original paint!
Sad, indeed. I'd still like to learn who has been painting that white horizontal stripe, along NP and GN chip car sides. According to input from those in the know, it's not done by the RR! Boxcab E50
Could have been worse .... they could have "painted out" the lettering too!!! HORRORS!!!! :tb-shocked::tb-shocked::tb-shocked:
I am realizing that I may have posted the wrong car, but still. There are several GN sky blue goat woodchip cars owned by GBRX and it is only in the last few months that I have seen any painted out.
Weren't some of these cars at the end of their legal service life? If so, what has Greenbrier done to extend use? I can't believe they'd expend too much money on 40+ year old rolling stock? Boxcab E50
Blue paint costs money. Why couldn't they have just left the goat? Waaaah! These are used for hauling woodchips in the local area. PNWR moves a fair number of these.
I heard there was some sort of agreement to extend their service lives. Besides, since woodchips are such a low value commodity, when was the last time the railroad invested in a bunch of new ones? As an aside, the netting doesn't keep that many woodchips from blowing out. The ROW next to the house is littered with them. Nearly as many woodchips as ballast.
I don't know about that one. It was my understanding that woodchips were fairly low value, so I don't imagine that there's money in shipping them a long way. I tend to see a lot of the same woodchip cars around, so I just figured that they stayed close to home. I could be wrong.
It used to be that if not interchanged, freight cars had a few years of extra life. Which made no sense to me. As a worn old part can fail anywhere. It doesn't know what tracks it's on.... Boxcab E50
Maybe it's on the theory that the risk is wholly borne by the cars home road, so if they want to run with rattletraps that's their business. I would LOVE to get an ex-GN woodchip car and put it on my side property on some tracks, but I bet my wife would have other ideas about that. I just love the big goat emblem.
I have a thoery on the white stripes. From my observations it seems to be mostly the ex NP hoppers with the white paint stripes. Now these are slightly smaller cars then the BN bought cars. When the BN first started hauling the red dog orr up to Canada they were using woodchip cars to haul the orr in. They were doing this beacause then they could haul woodchips back therefore getting a 2 way haul out of the cars. Now I am thinking the white line was a load line for the orr as it is very heavy and would have maxed the car out long before the woodchips would have. Anyways that is just a idea. Kevin
Good point, Kevin! Red Dog Ore was a dusty product, IIRC? I have the Leachmann book Northwest Passage, and it notes the Red Dog loads used covered gons. They had some funny white lids. Why would they use an open chip rack? Here's a couple unmolested chip racks with Rocky proudly on the flanks:
I read somewhere last year that the white lines were a fill line for a heavier load. I wish I remember where I read that, maybe the TellTale or somewhere. Anyways I did add weather to my GN, but only the NP's got the white stripe treatment on my railroad:
The woodchip cars used for ore service had a stencil on the side that said something like 25K reinforced floor. They also had to lower the fan speed in Cascade Tunnel when they were going through with the woodchip ore cars.
I will have to take a look but I do belive it was/is the ex-NP cars that do say 25K reinforced floor. Now days they do use a gondola car with a white lid on them. Kevin
RE: Waaah! Just a little fyi: I believe that the Association of American Railroads, or maybe it was the Federal Railway Administration was requiring railroads to remove those fallen flag heralds or at least put a line through them by 2006. I am a member of the Great Northern Railway Historical Society, gnrhs.org, and in one of the issues of The Goat, the society's newsletter, that was something mentioned in the caption of a photo of Northtown Yard featuring a single Big Sky Blue GN chip car. I don't remember which issue it was, I'd have to look for it, then I could tell you which issue has the photo. I cannot understand why railroads would be required to remove any heralds of fallen flags. I don't see the harm in having them there, unless someone thought that people were being misled into thinking that these railroads still exist. That's the only explanation I can think of for such actions. Is there anyone who can get the true facts on this issue and clarify it for the rest of us? Because all I know is what I've heard. One more thing: last summer on a trip to Columbia Falls while I was working in Glacier National Park, there were two of those GN chip cars that, if I remember right, did not have Rocky lined through or otherwise obliterated. I took some photos, but I do not have the film developed yet. Once I have that done, I can see for sure if that is indeed the case.
I have some doubt that's the case with these lines. Seems like we'd also be seeing it done with other companies. Boxcab E50