Western Railroad Discussion > Freight Car Friday, courtesy of UP PSR monster 217 car freight

I've been on a freight car kick, and went to Lombard Hobbies in Lombard, IL to buy a few cars that I'd researched. On my way back to Chicago, I drove next to the UP Geneva Sub in case anything was around. Just east of the Geneva platform, I saw a mixed freight stopped. (Now, in retrospect, I'm wondering if it was doubling out of Proviso or something.) It slowely began to head west, and I soon realized that it was a massive train - maybe MPRNP? In the time it took to pass, an inbound Metra, outbound Metra, and eastbound intermodal all came through. I counted 245 cars, but user ble692 corrected that to 217 cars.  If anyone happens to know the length on this I'd be really curious. I know these huge trains have been running, but I think it's the first time I've seen one and it might be the largest freight train I've ever seen. It blocked all the crossings in Elmhurst for about 20 minutes as it slowly departed (and it had blocked some of them for a while before that.) To me, there were a lot of interesting cars on it, so what follows is a lot of freight car photos.

1. Departing
2/3. UPY 685 looked pretty fresh.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/13/19 17:02 by inCHI.

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There were lots of big blocks of car types...

4. Cargill tank car with paint blanked out. I've got an Atlas model of this; the patches would be a neat project.
5. There were about 10 UP bulkflats with this load - aluminum ignots?
6. A new looking UP mill gon.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/13/19 16:12 by inCHI.

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7. The best looking ex-SP mill gon in a group of 10+, in terms of not being graffiti covered
8. MULX 200113 looks new
9. CSX ex-Conrail coil shield.
 

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10. Aluminium CITX 200218
11. UP Thrall 2743 gon (I think) with cover
12. The lone autorack in the train, SOO 516376, and it was loaded.

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13. CSS ex-NS coil car. Another one was farther back.
14. Next up, a string of 12+ UP hoppers. UP ghost lettering on this one
15. Intact lettering on this one.

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16. CNW
17. MP with ghost logo
18. MP with larger eroded logo



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/13/19 16:18 by inCHI.

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19. SSW (heritage?) hopper
20. A new Procor tank in a string of 15~ sulfuric acid tanks
21. DPU at 110 cars, UP 8600

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22. The other CSS coil car, with a nice South Shore scheme.
23. Next, a block of UP high cube boxes I've never noticed these 50' high cubes before with giant, off-center doors. Any idea what they carry?
24. Smoothside off center doors

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25. 60' High cube MP box
26. UP 355048, another of those curious looking boxes
27. SSW/Golden West

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28. Can't recall who the previous owner was of these coil cars
29. An outbound metra passes a long string of lumber loads
30. GACX CH with peeling paint

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31. Eastbound intermodal train
32. New HRTX 541110 seen through the spine cars passing by
33. Eleven of those new HRTX CH's.

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34. MWCX insulated box
35. MWCX 500882 repatch, haven't seen these new-ish 60' boxes as MWCX before
36. Covered PTTX load

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37. DJTX aluminum CH
38. The last car! AOK 60' box with some anti-graffiti reporting mark placement

I found 32 individual freight cars interesting enough to post photos of, which seems like a lot ... but that shows only 14% of the cars on this train.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/14/19 07:18 by inCHI.

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inCHI Wrote:
> 4. Cargill tank car with paint blanked out. I've
> got an Atlas model of this; the patches would be a
> neat project.

Great freight car photos! Indeed, for the past ten years or so Cargill has been removing their name and logo from their cars....
 

You got UP 685, which is one of only four ex-SP units left on the UP that still retain their L-shaped windshields.

As for the train itself, it is the MPRNP as guessed. It shows as having 217 cars.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/14/19 17:39 by ble692.

Oh, thanks for the correction, I was way off. Interesting note about 685, I didn't notice that until you explained it.

       Seeing these dogs every day now. The one today was roaring wide open making 38 mph. With PSR it makes less sense to maintain track to 70+ mph standards and run such dogs on it that can't make terminals and clog up the works for every thing behind them too.

MPRNP-13 (Proviso, IL - North Platte, NE)
217 cars (80 loads, 137 empties)
14,934 tons
13,684 ft.

Andrew


 

Thanks for those details! And wow, 38mph... mixed in with hot intermodals somehow.

What ever happened at Proviso after UP shut the hump down? Have they ripped that part of the yard out and enlarged the intermodal facilities?