Shortline Freight Cars

[rockislandmike]

While a great many of us concentrate on larger railroads (me included, what with The Rock and MOPAC), I thought it might be interesting to start a thread with models of our favorite shortline freight cars that get used on our layouts.

This is a pic of Galveston Wharves #1059. GW owned 200 boxcars at the time I model, numbered 1001-1200, all of 'em 50'6" inside length. The shortline operated 43.3 miles of road in the Galveston area, with 7 locos. They handled all traffic passing through the port of Galveston between railroads and ships.

 

[babydot94513]

Mike, nice weathering job! Thanks also for a reminder of the smaller part of railroading - the shortlines which often go unnoticed.

Here in California, I fan the CFNR, California Northern and they have CryoPak cars that are used by a couple of wineries out of the Napa Valley.

If I ever see one or more of those cars in production I will snag them up in a heartbeat. They will look good behind my detailed GP15-1 in CFNR colors with a road number 111.

 

[eightyeightfan1]

Babydot, Walthers used to make Cryo cars a few years back, Don't know if they still do. I have two of them, one marked for McCains and the other one marked for Carnation. I haven't seen them at my LHS in a couple of years, and looking through the 2002 catalog, I didn't see them listed.

 

[upguy]

One very small (less than 2 miles long) short line railroad used to serve a small lumber mill and grain elevator in the small eastern Oregon town of Union. The railroad was the Union Railroad of Oregon, and they had a fleet of boxcars until an economic downturn destroyed the boxcar leasing business. I plan to freeze time on my layout to the period when the Union Railroad of Oregon was still prospering, so I can switch a few of these unique cars.

 

[Drew1125]

RIMike, & upguy,
Kudos to you both!
Those are some great looking models, & ones that will add a lot of realism, & interest to your layouts!
Very nice work!

 

[shamus]

Hi Michael, nice weathering job on the boxcar.
Shamus

 

[rockislandmike]

Thanks, Shamus, a good part of it's due to your process - the old india ink with dish detergent trick (I sometimes add water depending on the level of weathering I want). I use it on everything now. This one I didn't use chalks on, but I still do frequently. Then I drybrush the top with repeated coatings of rust and grimy black paints.

Excellent, upguy !!! Gotta love those shortlines (PS - according to the OER from my era (Oct-1981), they still had 65 boxcars operating).

 

[upguy]

RI Mike,

Thanks for the info. It is my understanding that the Union Railroad of Oregon operated until the early ninety's. My plan is to model the late eighty's, so the UO cars should still be in service. They interchanged with the Union Pacific near Union, Oregon.

Another short line that I like is the City of Prineville. They didn't interchange with the Union Pacific, but occasionally some of their rolling stock found its way over the UP mainline here is eastern Oregon. So, I gotta have some of them on my layout too.

 

[rockislandmike]

This was a great idea if I say so myself; I'm learning all sorts of stuff about some shortlines I'd never heard of. Just looked up the City of Prineville, and there they are, 400 boxcars, numbered 7001-7400. Very kewl.

 

[satokuma]

Got to agree with the Short lines. Weaned on Central Oregon and Pacific and now my own Freelanced BearCatRR is an eclectic bunch of shortline rolling stock....

CORP
Port of Tillamook Bay
Seattle and Northcoast
Willamette & Pacific
Portland and Western
Union RR of Oregon
St Marys
Columbia and Cowlitz
City of Prineville
McCloud RR
Yreka Western
OPE
Longview and Portland....and more with smattering of SP, DRG...

 

[Gary Pfeil]

Thought I'd post a shot of one of Manayunk Canal Line's 50' boxcars bought fromm the Reading. Manayunk was a short line in Eastern Pa.

Gary

 

[Gary Pfeil]

Dang. Wrong shot. Lets see if I get it right this time.

Gary

 

[Gary Pfeil]

This is just a test to see how small a size I have to reduce a photo to to get it to fit on the screen without having to scroll to see it all. Excuse me please.

 

[Drew Toner]

Originally posted by Gary H Pfeil
This is just a test to see how small a size I have to reduce a photo to to get it to fit on the screen without having to scroll to see it all. Excuse me please.

I find that 640X480 is a good rule of thumb!!

Drew

(see, fits good, no scrolling)

 

[tomfassett]

Hey Drew, I was trying to remember where I saw this logger...
I have a bunch of white metal plates at work that I saved from the garbage can that are similar in size and shape to your scratch built flat car base. They come off of POS computer terminals and we throw them away by the dozens... How did you attach the trucks to your base? Do you create a "bolster" assembly or just stick a screw through the truck into the base? I an thinking of using some of these as "frames" for plank covered flats. They are almost the perfect scale (size) for a 40' flat.

Tom F

 

[Drew Toner]

Flat Bottoms

tomfassett,

As you can see, I used 3/16X3/32 wood material for the center beam and was lucky to find that two layers glued together was the perfect height for my Kadee 501 trucks. And for the record, these are only 26 foot cars!

Drew