[princessclyne69]

One more thing — I looked in the 4/1976 diagram book and there is a sheet for this car. It’s shown as being built at Oaklawn Car Shop 1953. No more precise date is shown. That diagram book has the C&EI diagrams reproduced as is.

Only one car, 35386, is listed as having a roof (class GBR).

RG7

[princessclyne69]

In the 1968 MoPac Summary of Equipment (SoE), these cars are shown. There are 98 of them, shown as built 1953 with 1380 cuft capacity. Is this the right car series?

There are 15 still shown under that number series in the SoE of 1970, and 22 that are shown under the new number series of 602740-602826. In 1975 only one shows up, the 602755, and none in 1976.

In the 68 SoE I see a few cars from two other lowside gon series, listed as having been built in 1913. I gather the ’53 cars may have been built to replace these. Out of curiosity, do you know what service these cars would have been used in?

RG7

[princessclyne69]

Here are a couple of decent photos showing the elevator visible behind the MoPac yard.

[attachment=2:32os0z9c]68-19 Jan 71.jpg[/attachment:32os0z9c] [attachment=1:32os0z9c]68-20 Jan 71.jpg[/attachment:32os0z9c]

These also happen to show a rare bird, one of two CEI FP7s that stayed on the property after the L&N split. The other one also came to Wichita once. But in the first photo, you can see the two headhouses side by side.

Here’s a view of the other elevator, from the Rock Island side, showing the south end of the two elevators.

[attachment=0:32os0z9c]132-22 Jan 73.jpg[/attachment:32os0z9c]

These are from the early 70s, when the paint was actually white.

As for a photo in their demolished state, watch this space for a couple weeks.

RG7

[princessclyne69]

I’ll post a couple of photos shortly.

RG7

[princessclyne69]

The instruction car 20(1st) had been built from one of the parlor cars bought by MP from Pullman. I believe in 1970 it was retired, and I have a photo of it out back at Sedalia, or a car that I believe to be this one. Its equipment was transferred to a new 20(2nd) which was modified from one of the three Budd flattop coaches that had been bought for the Colorado Eagle. These cars were referenced recently om the Passenger Car List on a discussion about the California Zephyr early planning. Of these three cars, 465-467, I can say that the 466 was in regular operation on the Kansas City trains, and I have at least a couple of pictures of it. I believe the 467 was occasionally operated, or was at least a reserve car, in 1970-71, and it was the 465 that was converted to the 2nd 20. That may be the difference.

RG7

[princessclyne69]

From the house to the layout is ten minutes, about six to seven miles. I will at least get to watch trains when I’m not working on the layout, since I’m conveniently located.

And the only full time maintenance employee will be me.

The outside is about 98% complete, and the inside is rapidly catching up. Only wrinkle in this is that I’ve got a side deal that might keep me tied up for a couple weeks, just when I’d otherwise be ready to move. Oh well, it’s always something.

RG7

[princessclyne69]

I have photos of the 39 and, I think, the 40 during the week before Christmas 1971 on the National. Don’t have photos to show it, but I believe the MP units took over at St. Louis from PC power. The 41 also shows up in photos that have been published. I don’t recall seeing any of the other units.

By the end of MP operations on May 1, 1971, I believe only the 37 through 43 were still on the roster. Some of those units could have been out of service, though, because the only ones that seem to show up in photos are the three mentioned above.

RG7

[princessclyne69]

I picked up a couple, but I’ll have to update the lettering to make it suitable for a late-fifties car.

Too bad we couldn’t have had that door on the “MP 18000” car also done recently by I-M.

RG7

[princessclyne69]

That burned motorcar, which is apparently still connected to steam, might be a clue. I’m aware of at least a couple of the wooden roundhouses burning down, but this looks more like a coach yard. Not to say there wasn’t a roundhouse out of view of the photographer that could have caught fire and the fire spread to here.

Th motorcar destroyed by fire is one of the older ones. There was an Eagle article on the motorcar fleet a number of years ago.

RG7

[princessclyne69]

Ryan:

If you don’t get anything by this weekend, please send me a direct email. My Eagle collection has moved to my other house and I can look then.

I visited Jim Bennett in Stuttgart, Arkansas once many years ago, probably around 1980, and he was very knowledgeable about railroad history there.

RG7

[princessclyne69]

Mine came today in Houston.

I knew the page count, but I was actually surprised to realize this was twice the size of the typical ‘railroad book’. The insider’s view of the operations and the rationale behind the changes is something rarely written about, since even a very knowledgeable railfan isn’t normally privy to this. There must have been an unusually large number of the employees who cared enough about the railroad to keep so much information, and an unusually tight-knit group who knew about these collections.

I’ll offer a side note: I worked for Fluor for 45 years, and near the end of the period of time when the company was a relatively undiversified engineering and construction company of process plants, with its relatively cyclical nature, the management decided to buy a more stable business with more steady cash flow, so they bought St. Joe Lead, which had itself just bought Massey Coal. That was in 1981. Shortly after that, the prices of many metals collapsed and this asset turned into a very large liability. Took them years to unwind all those ownerships.

RG7

[princessclyne69]

The train, 411-412, between Wichita and Geneseo, by the 50s consisted of a baggage-mail, one or two coaches and a Wichita-Denver sleeper, often a 6-6-4. At Wichita, the train boarded at the station which had stub tracks. The train backed out, completely crossing over 1st St. The turnouts were located across from the team track yard. It then proceeded forward, across the river and on to Geneseo. The trackage at Geneseo, which still exists, curved to the east toward the station. In passenger days there was a depot built about 1886, according to the condensed profiles. Only the sleeper was interchanged between the two trains. I do not know exactly what the switching moves were.

The same consist, with a different sleeper, returned to Wichita. It came across the river and turned north, then backed into the station. The sleeper, which allowed passengers to stay on board the car until 7 am or so, was cut off and the balance of the train went to 25th St, based on some photos I’ve seen with the sleeper sitting by itself. I do not know for sure where it was serviced.

At 25th St. there were two or three (I forget which) yard tracks which ran east-west, as part of the south leg of the wye. This was the passenger yard, and had steam connections. Later work equipment was spotted there, sometimes for weeks at a time.

Ron Merrick

[princessclyne69]

My best guess was they knew this had been done during WWII for aircraft loads or similar. What I’m wondering is which mill(s) these cars served. But the cube of these cars wasn’t matched by a hopper for a number of years. I don’t immediately see the wood chip open hoppers (three-bay open hopper with height extension) before about 1968, and they’re still not quite the same nominal cube capacity as these cars.

My guess is that the mill(s) already had the unloader that could pick up these cars and get the chips out, and they were in no hurry to adapt to a different type of car.

What I would like to know is where exactly the loading facilities were, and where the mill(s) were that received these chips.

RG7

[princessclyne69]

That’s good news.

RG7

[princessclyne69]

For the limestone ballast, I once used the Highball Products limestone but an equivalent is the Arizona Rock & Minerals 1392. It’s not often listed on their website but I’ve been able to get it from them.

Ballast has changed a lot in recent years. Now there’s a lot of 2″ crushed granite, but in the 50s-60s it was a lot smaller. I harvested some from the Wichita Sub, maybe from around Eureka, thirty years ago and it was more like what I would call chat, mostly 1/4″ to 3/8″ size.

RG7

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