Western Railroad Discussion > History question for freight car experts...

I photographed these two hoppers on Cajon Pass a couple months back. I've been trying to determine (based on the patchwork) the previous owners for these two hoppers. Anyone recognize the patterns of the patchwork, other than the areas covering old graffiti? I'm half convinced the lighter one was a UNION PACIFIC, and the darker one was a SOO LINE car? is that possible?

Mr. MRL

1. CMHX 247520 - Cajon pass, CA (6/15/13)
2. CMHX 247525 - Cajon Pass, CA (6/15/13)

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well, the light one I doubt was UP. The reporting marks are not patched, and the patches don;t fit UP lettering.
Probably the patched lettering was from the last leasee.

The dark one has the appropriate patches for SOO LINE, and the wheat sheath, but all of the SOO wheat cars I have see
have been white.

I agree about the darker one being SOO.

Brian_P Wrote:
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> I agree about the darker one being SOO.

It's an ex-SOO Magor 4750. These cars were unpainted aluminum, hence the grinding marks where they removed the old lettering. For the modelers out there, ExactRail makes this car in HO, albeit in what appears to be a slightly different paint scheme....

https://www.exactrail.com/magor-4750-covered-hopper-soo

No clue on the other car.

-Rick

Rick Selby
Redmond, WA
Pacific Northwest RPM

pdt Wrote:
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> well, the light one I doubt was UP. The reporting
> marks are not patched, and the patches don;t fit
> UP lettering.
> Probably the patched lettering was from the last
> leasee.
>


I think you're right about it not being UP. But I think the darker gray patches are tricking your eyes just like they tricked mine. The top car actually has more "dark gray patchwork" than original light gray paint. It almost looks like the reporting marks were patched before the most recent patch, "double patched"...

Mr. MRL

>the patches don;t fit
> UP lettering.

Lettering, schmettering. The "X" in the CMHX reporting marks means "not railroad owned". Last time I checked, the UP is still a railroad, some would say unfortunately so.

The second one is SOO LINE for sure, you can still read the "SOO" right through the patch.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

I will see what I can dig up about both of these cars.

A Soo Line origin is absolutely correct for the second car, though it probably has gone through another owner or two since then. If the ACI label could be "blown up" to the point where the colors could be determined, it would be possible to obtain the original SOO LINE number.

Whoever posted that the darker gray on the first car is the "patch" is also correct.

There is no reason that the car couldn't have come from UP--CarMath (CMHX) already is known to have a bunch of ex-UP (and ex-MP and ex-SSW) covered hoppers in its fleet.

Carl Shaver
Lombard, IL

The difference between the CMHX pic and the ExactRail model, is that the SOO/CMHX car has short ladders and low brakewheel whereas the model has the high brakewheel.

I plan on stealing some Evans 4780 parts to get a close-enough model as I want to do a pair of UP cars.


RAS Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Brian_P Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I agree about the darker one being SOO.
>
> It's an ex-SOO Magor 4750. These cars were
> unpainted aluminum, hence the grinding marks where
> they removed the old lettering. For the modelers
> out there, ExactRail makes this car in HO, albeit
> in what appears to be a slightly different paint
> scheme....
>
> https://www.exactrail.com/magor-4750-covered-hoppe
> r-soo
>
> No clue on the other car.
>
> -Rick

Soo Line got these aluminum cars over several years, and in several orders, so both hand-brake heights might be possible.

This car, by the way, was previously lettered NRI 1001 (that's Nebkota Rail). I couldn't tell you whether or not it came directly from the Soo Line before then.

And now (with a dramatic pause),

the previous identity of CMHX 247520....


....is....

(drum roll, please)


.....


UP 73893!

Now, as to the paint jobs: this car would originally have been dark gray, with black lettering. It was once fully repainted by UP to the lighter gray that you see in the picture, and probably had a small logo somewhere (note that the obsolete ACI tag had been painted over in this light gray). Evidently this car was involved in the early-1990s lease program in which it got relettered to a private-company reporting mark (one of several possibilities) without being renumbered for a time, after which it was restored to UP lettering. That would explain the darker paint again under the reporting mark. Finally, when CarMath got the car it painted out whatever it needed to (graffiti, or whatever) to make the car presentable (that company has been good about such things, in my experience), which accounts for the darker gray covering most of the side.

Carl Shaver
Lombard, IL



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/20/13 17:41 by CShaveRR.

To Carl & everyone else who contributed to this thread, I thank you. So the past identities have been unearthed. Now I gotta see about acquiring suitable models. Thanks again folks!

Mr. MRL