Model Railroading > D&RGW Modern Coal Trains

I am embarking on a project to model a D&RGW coal train in the Southern Pacific era (early 90's). I have been searching the net, and haven't been able to find too much information on this topic. A few questions I would appreciate some help on:

1. Where is a good source of prototype, information on D&RGW coal cars? (Books, net, anywhere!)

2. What were some of the reporting marks of privately owned unit coal trains (utilities, leasing companies, etc) that operated on the D&RGW? I have seen many pictures of such trains, but they always seem to be shot in a way as to obscure all details of the rolling stock.

3. I recall seen the SP running trains consisting of former UP and BN coal hoppers here in California with "CTRN" reporting marks. Any idea who "CTRN" is??

Thanks in advance.

Unit,

As a modern-day CSX modeler, I can't help you out with the first two questions, but as far as the third question, I can. CTRN is the
Central of Tennessee Railway and Navigation Co., according to the list of AAR reporting marks at TrainsCan.

Chris

ans.#3 central of tennessee railway and navigation company, that s all the info I have, ED

Railroad Modeler had an issue a few years back with all the D&RGW coal hoppers and gondolas featured. Wish I could remember the issue, it is in storage. Perhaps some other modeler recalls that issue.

What scale are you modeling?

N-code40 is releasing n-scale models of the DRGW Quad
Hoppers in Jan/Feb.

As for the rest of your question - it depends, are you
talking about trains on the SP (ie. in Calif) which orginated
from DRGW, or on the DRGW itself. And then, are you
interested in the Moffat or Tennessee Pass lines, because
the answers will be different.

There is a ton of info out there on this, as well as a lot
of videotapes (ie. Machines of Iron: Tennessee Pass Vol 1, 2);
the ICON (Todd's old company) video on Donner pass shows some
SP coal trains in this era.

Be more specific and I'd be happy to help,

Lou

I am looking to do this project in HO scale. The coal hoppers I have seen of acceptable quality are the Bowser 3 bay 100t, Walthers 4 bay 100T, Walthers Bethgon, and all of the hoppers E&C / LBF have or will do. Does anyone know of anything else out on the market in HO?

As for the location, I didn't have specific location in mind (i.e. Moffat, California etc). My intention was to find a coal train that could be modeled accuratly with one of the available coal car kits, as I do not wish to kit bash 60-70 coal cars. I can deal with painting and small details, but time constraints would prevent any serious alterations.

From my research and experiences, it seems that the trains that ran on the former D&RGW tended to consist more of newer unit trains that were owned by utilities and leasing companies. The trains that made their way into California for export tended to consist of the older CTRN hoppers. I would be happy to model either type, but the deciding factor will have to be the availability of a prototypical kit.

Thanks again for your help.

A lot of info about DRGW hoppers can be found at this site:

http://www.drgw.org/drgw/freight/frt6093a.htm

It's a complete roster of DRGW freight cars from 1960-1993. The main page for that web site is here:

http://www.drgw.org/

From the modeling notes on the roster, it looks like the Walthers hopper should do you well. I think Walthers released a six-pack in DRGW not long ago (and an earlier one with different numbers a few years before that) so you shouldn't have too much trouble building a sizable fleet with little effort. BTW, Stewart and Bachmann Silver Series also offer hoppers painted for DRGW, although I don't know how prototypically correct they are.

As for coal trains in CA, it's my recollection that most of the trains I saw in Northern California had a mix of older cars with the bulk of the hoppers being from DRGW and some of the other cars being from UP, CTRN, and WC (some lettered "Clinchfield"). I also saw a few unit trains consisting of newer cars similar to the Bethgons and Coalporters and carrying private owner marks.

I think the export trains did indeed tend to include
the 4 bay DRGW cars (the great steel fleet), and a mix of
ex-BN, UP and other cars. Some were reinitialed for CTRN and
some for DRGW.

Note that a fleet of brand new quads lettered for CTRN were
also in use on coal/ore trains in the eastern part of the system.
These cars were purchased by SP (for the Geneva Steel contract)
and leased to/thru/whatever the CTRN. The Moffat Line hosted
some solid unit trains like Colorado Springs Public Utilities
(these cars are available in N - sorry I do not know about HO).
Also Public Service of Colorado (probably avail from LBF).

The Tennessee Pass line also hosted some utility unit trains like
the aluminum and yellow Indiana (I forget the utility name, the
cars with the sunburst on the reporting mark/number panel).

SFIX cars were also commonly seen.

/Lou

Most of the cars for a DRGW-UP export coal trains (and the California cement plant trains) would be DRGW 4-bays with UP, MP, CNW, CTRN cars thrown in for good measure. Also, DRGW had second-hand gons and hoppers - Thrall bathtub gons with blue and orange ends, and ex-Upper Merion & Plymouth RR 3-bays.

For a time also, CR and NS cars were leased so one could see even a Reading or Penn Central hopper car carrying Utah coal into Los Angeles. (Have pics of same...)

I think the most common utility hopper on DRGW was the CSDPU trains - 5 bay Ortners with the yellow graphics. CSDX, I think.

To model a DRGW-UP export coal train:
Walthers 4-bay hoppers: DRGW, some MP and CNW
Bowser 3-bay hopper: DRGW (second hand), UP, CNW, CTRN ex-BN, a couple CR,PC or RDG hoppers.
MDC Thrall gon for DRGW second-hand cars

Would look pretty slick! And remember, if you are modeling a joint DRGW-SP coal train destined for one of the cement plants in California, you will need 5 units on the head end, 6-unit mid-train helper, and 1 unit on the rear for moving over Donner Pass. :)

Model Railroading magazine ran an article by David G Casdorph about D&RGW Coal Cars, April 1996. Good article- he breaks the fleet down by number series with a little bit of history to enclude leased cars. Sorry no private owned fleets like Public Service of Colorado (PSCX) or Colorado Springs Department of Utilities (CSUX).

I can tell you that Publis Service's trains (there are eight full sets still in use with the same cars used in the late eighties and early ninties; two sets are found on the Moffet and six sets run on the BN Powder River Basin) were made up of three differant types of cars, sorry only one type is avalible in HO; MDC's Thrall rotory gon, though not lettered for PSCX. The other two types of cars are another rotory gon built by Darby Corp. and a Johnstown Coalporter of the early steel type. (looks like a aluminum car, models by E&C and Walthers, but is about two feet shorter, steel car weighs more empty, can't haul as much.

If you are not too picky... the MDC car comes decorated for Edison Power, by changing the reporting marks it's a reasonable match.

As far as Grande cars:

The Walthers 4 bay hopper #4900 is perfect match.

The Bachman Silver Series car is very close but has the wrong lettering.

The Bowser and Stewart cars are also close also, though I'm not sure about the lettering.

My last words... Pick up a copy of Jim Eager's book "Rio Grande Color Guide to Frieght and Passenger Equipment" from Morning Sun Books Inc. It's a stocked item @ Caboose Hobbies.

Hope this helps a little,

Rick Bacon 3
Greeley, CO

Photos of all three types of PSCX coal cars (both sides) and D&RGW coal cars can be found at my web site. http://rgzephyr.homestead.com
The photos are in the "Coal Car" section.
Marlin Cox