Western Railroad Discussion > CMO hoppers--again

A week or so ago I asked about the numbers of 360 new Auto-Flood hoppers acquired by UP for colorado coal service.

Today a train of them went east through Chicago's western suburbs. The series is CMO 503600-503959, built by Johnstown America beginning in October 2003. Classification is H-110-L03.
Sharp-looking, with yellow rotary-coupler end and UP "Building America" array on the shiny aluminum.

I'm sure glad I braved the single-digit temperatures and double-digit wind to get out of the house for this!

Did you see one car (according to number) out of place? :)

CShaveRR Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> A week or so ago I asked about the numbers of 360
> new Auto-Flood hoppers acquired by UP for colorado
> coal service.
>
> Today a train of them went east through Chicago's
> western suburbs. The series is CMO 503600-503959,
> built by Johnstown America beginning in October
> 2003. Classification is H-110-L03.
> Sharp-looking, with yellow rotary-coupler end and
> UP "Building America" array on the shiny
> aluminum.
>
> I'm sure glad I braved the single-digit
> temperatures and double-digit wind to get out of
> the house for this!

There is another series of GT gons in the CMO 288000 series. Not sure of top number. I saw them once in Grand Junction. They are possibly relettered UP cars. All are loading on the North Fork Sub SE of Grand Junction.

KK

What's a "CMO hopper ?" Here's one hauling coke on an e/b out of C&NW's Itaska Yard near Superior, WI, in early '73. Unfortunately, the negative is in poor shape. Gerry

---

What does CMO stand for ?

CMO Chicago, Minneapolis, Omaha. Full name; Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha, CStPM&O. Merged into C&NW, now part of UP.

I shot this in August. They were REALLY new then.

Nick

---

Replies to various people.

No, the numbers weren't quite in consecutive order, but everything I saw was in the 503600s, and there were plenty of strings of three, four, or five in a row.

The CMO GTs (gondolas) were also built by Johnstown America...the first 120 were originally lettered CTRN, then relettered CMO (evidence of that relettering is visible on the photo), but the other 120 came with CMO lettering.

I've speculated on this before, but perhaps Mr. Bromley can tell us the official reason that UP resuscitated these reporting marks.

And as for your photo, Mr. Putz...all I can do is drool!

Carl

Carl, Here's the head end of that train. Drool on ! I wish I had a better camera back then and taken better care of the negatives. I always thought that the "CMO" was the Omaha Road contracted; but didn't know for sure. Gerry

---

And, just to complete the set, here's the rear with caboose and helpers. Yes, the C&NW used helpers out of Superior, WI. Gerry

---