Western Railroad Discussion > NWP Ballast Cars on the Move

As previously reported here on TO a group of empty ballast hoppers have been on the move along the southern end of the Northwestern Pacific. They have moved one and two at a time from Windsor to the small yard south of the depot in Petaluma directly opposite the Shamrock Materials facility. These cars are not NCRA's but are owned by Shamrock. With the railroad still isolated from outside connections the cars could be filled with ballast by front end loaders out of the Shamrock yard during the early stages of the line's rebuilding. Longer term, Shamrock, which has multiple plants along the NWP, has the potential to be a major rail customer of the line upon reopening.
http://www.shamrockmat.com

The trains are powered by a John Deere 180CW excavator equipped with a 120 h.p. 4 cyl. Isuzu engine. A portable air compressor tags along to provide for air braking. Eleven cars have been moved--they are numbered in the low HLMX100000-series stenciled with 1957 build dates. All photos taken Friday afternoon in Petaluma upon arrival of a two car train and the switching that followed.

The NCRA website has been recently updated with a number of new reports available for downloading. They seem to have cast their hopes on aggregates and containerized municipal solid waste to make up the majority of the new traffic base. Lumber projections remain low.
http://northcoastrailroad.org

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Observers in Petaluma Friday afternoon got to witness actual switching of AAR reporting-marked rolling stock. With crossing signals inoperative all grade crossings had to be flagged.

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Awesome.

Thank you for posting pictures - so I guess this would be considered the first cars to roll on the NWP in god knows how long....

Dang the little burger place on D st is gone.....

That was a great little burger place. I liked the onion rings, they were giant!

What's the word on those ballast cars. They look like old covered hoppers with the roof removed and M-K ballast gates added.

TCnR Wrote:
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> What's the word on those ballast cars. They look
> like old covered hoppers with the roof removed and
> M-K ballast gates added.

It can't be made out in the photos but the cars have a six inch wide or so band crosswise across the top strongly suggesting they were once covered hoppers. They are numbered HLMX 100001 to 100012--can anyone with a current Equipment Register verify that they are still listed?

The pictures speak for themselves--they look terrible with bent ladders, grabirons, etc. Hard to believe they could pass an FRA inspection.

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shed47 Wrote:
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> The pictures speak for themselves--they look
> terrible with bent ladders, grabirons, etc. Hard
> to believe they could pass an FRA inspection.

Perhaps that is why the "switchman" is riding inside the end sill of the car? Unbelieveable. Is this what the NWP has been reduced to? All I can say is, "good luck"!

SW1200

HLMX is Helm Leasing out of San Francisco.
shed47 Wrote:
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> TCnR Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > What's the word on those ballast cars. They
> look
> > like old covered hoppers with the roof removed
> and
> > M-K ballast gates added.
>
> It can't be made out in the photos but the cars
> have a six inch wide or so band crosswise across
> the top strongly suggesting they were once covered
> hoppers. They are numbered HLMX 100001 to
> 100012--can anyone with a current Equipment
> Register verify that they are still listed?
>
> The pictures speak for themselves--they look
> terrible with bent ladders, grabirons, etc. Hard
> to believe they could pass an FRA inspection.

Jfranziniberger Wrote:
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> That was a great little burger place. I liked the
> onion rings, they were giant!

JB..... We were always grabbing a bag full of burgers and watching the night local switch there....

Yep George, that was a good place to hang on a hot night. Think I had too many of those chocolate shakes and thus my diabetes now! Used to hop the empty boxes north on off nights to Healdsburg. It was a blast going through Santa Rosa.

They should take a weed wacker to all that brush before spark off the wheels sets the NWP on fire