Western Railroad Discussion > New boxcars and a 100-year handshake

Last week Union Pacific's Chino Local LOB29 brought in a half dozen month-old, double-door boxcars built by Trinity Rail and lettered for NKCR (Nebraska Kansas Colorado Ry, an Omnitrax line).  Sorry to say I couldn't stick around to see which customer recieved them, but it was nice to see some new, clean, mineral brown boxcars in town for a change.

I also finally noticed something mildly interesting that I had blindly walked past countless times before.  UP rebuilt a lot of their California branch lines in the early 2000's, replacing ancient stick rail with new, heavier, welded stock.  The Chino Branch got the treatment around 2005, or at least the "main line" did.  Customer-owned spur tracks were naturally excluded, such as the 762 lead that used to serve Trinidad Benham at 5th St. and Chino Ave.  UP did replace the 5th St. grade crossing panels, rails and all, that were just inside their maintenance limit, resulting in the situation depicted in the third photo: 80lb rail from RSW (Republic Steel Works?) rolled in 1905 fishplated to 136lb rail from Rocky Mountain Steel Mills rolled in 2003 with some 1901 Carnegie stock acting as guardrail for the split-point derail. 

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Very cool finds Evan!

Very nice catch on that comp joint.

That is an extreme joint, its even bonded, I'm guessing for a road crossing circuit.
Go

Look at the dates! And the lbs for pounds is in script! I've never seen that before....

Get the spray paint cans out ASAP!  We can't allow this new car to exist without the degrading graffiti.  The low-life dingos are probably already at it, but at least it's nice to see the cars in their new coats without all the crap to come.

In the first photo .
Just below the excessed height lettereing, in the white painted area.

I see a new type of low-jack device?

Jerry Martin
Los Angeles, CA
Central Coast Railroad Festival

GUYS.....Get your shots of the arrival boxe cars before the rats in thre areas began tagging them..Don't hesoitate...

Please, someone tell us the full, known number range of those NCKR high-cubes?  May we presume that they're identical to TBOX fleet? 

OF NOTE: Railroad Picture Archives shows images of the NKCR 66600-series fleet, and the highest # of that fleet shown as of 6-20-2022, on that website, is 66671 - but IT IS A SINGLE-DOOR boxcar.  Car 66679, shown above, is a DOUBLE door boxcar, like TBOX cars have.  I've seen differences in other fleets within a single series, and that will make tracking where this specific car-type's # series begins and ends, difficult, as far as numbers go.

Thanks.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/20/22 16:06 by rbx551985.

NKCR 66679 was built in Mexico (like all the new UP cars seen recently in other posts). It first crossed into the US on May 23, bounced around South Texas, and then was back in Mexico by May 29. June 1 saw it interchanged back to the UP, this time loaded with its first load. In this case it was beer heading to Crown Imports in Chino, CA. For some reason on this trip it detoured from West Colton up to Roseville, and then back to West Colton, before making it to Chino on June 15. Currently the car is empty heading back east and is the approach to Gila Bend, AZ. Looks like it is heading back to Mexico again. Wonder when it will ever see the NKCR?

As for the rail picture, I'd never heard the term fishplate before. An online search reveals that it is very much a proper term. An alternate term is joint bar. Learn something everyday. I personally had always heard the them called angle bars. Is that a proper term as well? One does have to wonder how many 80lb to 136lb fishplates are out there. It can't be a very common one with that wide of a range of the rail weights involved.

And...
The guard rail is Carnegie 1901!
...Lorenzo

May I jump in and ask you smart fellers to explain again what the symbols on the rail mean?

Thanks!

Chuck

ble692 Wrote:

> NKCR 66679 was built in Mexico (like all the new
> UP cars seen recently in other posts). It first
> crossed into the US on May 23, bounced around
> South Texas, and then was back in Mexico by May
> 29. June 1 saw it interchanged back to the UP,
> this time loaded with its first load. In this case
> it was beer heading to Crown Imports in Chino, CA.

Thanks for the info.  Makes sense that they were heading to the beer distributor.  For what it's worth, the five new double-door boxcars (not quite a half-dozen) I saw last week in Chino were NKCR 66678, 66679, 66680, 66683, and 66684.

RailDawg Wrote:

> May I jump in and ask you smart fellers to explain again what the symbols on the rail mean?

The "branding" on the modern rails is explained in this document (the tenth page of the PDF, but the page physically numbered 5 in the document):

https://railroads.dot.gov/sites/fra.dot.gov/files/fra_net/19052/Final%20FRA%20Rail%20Manual%20July%2029%202015_031716.pdf

and also here:

http://ogdenbrotherstrains.blogspot.com/p/rail-identification.html
http://ogdenbrotherstrains.blogspot.com/2014/05/identifying-rail.html

We're only seeing a portion of the branding on the 2003 rail in the foreground, but the one in the background has the full branding visible:

136 RE VT RMSM 2003 IIIIIIIII

• 136 is the weight of the rail in pounds per yard
• RE is the "section," which refers to the organization that set the design specifications for the rail, in this case the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association (AREMA)
• VT is the method of hydrogen elimination from the steel during cooling, in this case "Vacuum Treated"
• RMSM is the manufacturer, Rocky Mountain Steel Mill in Pueblo, CO (the old Colorado Fuel & Iron facility)
• 2003 is the year the rail was rolled
• The number of hash marks indicate the month the rail was rolled.  Nine marks means September, the ninth month

For the older rails, I don't have a good reference.  Carnegie and RSW are the manufacturers, though I can't find a reference that lists the manufacturer represented by RSW, or what "ET" means on the Carnegie rail.  The year is straightforward, and the hash marks on the Carnegie rail are probably the month, the same as on the RMSM rail, while the RSW rail uses a regular numeral before the year (3 for March).

Thanks Evan for the info!

Chuck