I nearly swerved off the road coming from a date nail collecting trip north of Great Falls, MT: Yes, before anyone asks, I did obtain permission to be on this guy's property to get pics. Actually struck up a conversation with him--talked for 2 hours! Turns out he;s a contractor that tears out abandoned spurs, etc when the RR scraps a line. It is AMAZING what he has squirreled away... GN & MILW switchstands, ties, plates, spikes, bricks from RR structures (he's also a used brick re-seller) and I quote, 'Date nails out the yin-yang'!
Well, yes. What's he doing with this stuff? I know the bricks are resold. But the freight cars? Has he ever demolished any old depots? Looking for train orders....... Boxcab E50
He uses them as storage sheds. Train orders? Beats me, but with his collection of RRiana, you never know!
Well, not quite as "purty", but quite a shock nonetheless... NP Flat hauling some track panels sitting in BNSF's yard in Wichita Falls, TX on Mother's Day 2007. Virtually untouched except for some apparently repainted reporting data.
If you live in the northwest you have proably seen the NP woodchip cars, there are quite a few around altough in the last 6 months BNSF has been selling them to GBRX. There are also lots of GN chip cars up here too. Kevin
After a trip to Missoula 2 weeks ago, there were a number of old NP cars hanging around, owned by the MRL. Very nice place to visit!!
I've found that out in the Southwest at least, when riding in a car, you can determine what railroad ran through the area by the railroad name on old boxcars used for storage. For example, along the BNSF Transcon between Encino, NM and Lubbock, TX I remember seeing 10+ old ATSF freight cars out in people's yards. It was a cool sight.
That's a good point, Matthew. I've seen similar things around Amarillo. But, there is also a stockpile of old ICG boxcars north of Fort Worth so that might throw you off a bit.
