Nostalgia & History > Fallen Flag Covered Hoppers

With the recent addition of the Broadway Local working out of South San Francisco, due to Newhall Yard's impending closure, located in Santa Clara/San Jose, CA. There has been a vast variety of rolling stock making it's way up to South San Francisco, into UP's small yard up this way. The most noteable of rolling stock are the many covered hoppers, always a favorite type of car that I like because of the variety of paint schemes and car types.

This past weekend I recorded the following car at the yard in SSF, a former Rock Island covered hopper, with the Rock Island logo very visible, with CNW reporting marks. Under the faded reporting marks, bleeding thru the patch job that the CNW did to the car, you can still see the ROCK reporting marks. A two for one deal with this car, both now fallen flags.

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Another oldie but goodie.

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Here's another with the faded out logo on the side of the car.

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Another fallen flag, this was a favorite to catch, this time at Redwood City, CA.

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Another Gold Kist

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Yet another fallen flag, notice they are mostly cars of roads the UP took over ;-)

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No idea when they ceased to exist, but this is a former Erie Western car, heavily rusted and weather beaten.

Last one, time for bed.

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IT really is cool to see these old cars.

Just watching the Sand Patch cam here allows you to see so many old cars. In the last week or so, I can remember seeing cars on the cam from:

Chessie System
Western Pacific
Illinois Central Gulf
Missouri Pacific

I'm sure there were others. These cars were not as worn/faded as your photos and were really cool to see. Seeing all of the different logos and paint schemes was a big thing to what attracted me to watching freight trains go by. I guess there are still some gems out there.

I'm another fan who got started by looking at all the different railroad cars. In the era when the majority of the railroads had logos and slogans on their rolling stock.

I would walk to the local freight yard when the train would pull in to do it's daily duties. It usually arrived about 3:30 PM, right after school was dismissed ( many a time I caught heck for being late for supper!). They would work usually until about 7:00 - 8:00 PM. This was for the President St. Station at Fleet & Exeter Sts. The PRR had a pair of rubber tired switchers that would work the street jobs from there.

Sunday's were special, because a train (with a caboose) would come and work the Aliceanna St. portion of the President St. Station.

There was a track that came from Bay View Yard. It would diverge from the coal pier trackage and go along Boston St. Where Boston St. ended, the tracks would split (where the Capt. James Landing Restaurant is located). One going West on Aliceanna St. the other going West on Fleet St. (the Fleet St. trackage led to the PW&B passenger President St. Station.

I became friends with many of the crew members and was invited more than once to ride in the cab. That was a mighty big thrill for 10-11 year old kid!! Also, sometimes the freight handlers would slip me stuff that came from boxes that had been damaged in transit. Once, I got a slew of fireworks right before the 4th of July.:)

I will never forget the kindness that those folks showed to a kid with a love for the railroad!!!

BaltoJoey<--getting a little misty-eyed :)

Those CNW (ex Rock) hoppers and the pink COOP hoppers used to be common all over the midwest. Now they are getting pretty hard to find.

By the way, I caught sight of a GM&O airslide hopper in down town Cedar Rapids, Iowa last weekend. It had CC (Chicago Central) reporting mark. IC bought the CC. Now IC is part of CN. So this car escaped being repainted by at least three owners.


Bob Perkins
Cedar Rapids, IA

fjc Wrote:
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> No idea when they ceased to exist, but this is a
> former Erie Western car, heavily rusted and
> weather beaten.
>
> Last one, time for bed.

I think they only lasted a couple years. They took over the Erie Lackawanna
line in Indiana/Ohio after the Conrail merger (the trackage wasn't included
in the Conrail merger). I think they had some ambitious plans, they bought
a bunch of new covered hoppers and trailers. Almost all of that trackage is
now gone. Incidently, Athearn makes that car, although I don't know if the
real one is a 4740 cu ft or 4750 (Athearn's is a 4740)

Caught this earlier this year...

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On a somewhat related note, if anyone happens to see any ex GTW covered hoppers that now have NAHX reporting marks, can you please grab a photo and post it on Trainorders? These cars are painted GTW blue and use the original 138XXX number series, but with NAHX marks. Thanks......

CSX_ENG Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> On a somewhat related note, if anyone happens to
> see any ex GTW covered hoppers that now have NAHX
> reporting marks, can you please grab a photo and
> post it on Trainorders? These cars are painted GTW
> blue and use the original 138XXX number series,
> but with NAHX marks. Thanks......

what kind of car are they? Just curious :) I see alot of 3-bay ACF GTW cars
that are now marked AEX (most of them have the GT logo painted out)

what kind of car are they? Just curious :) I see alot of 3-bay ACF GTW cars
that are now marked AEX (most of them have the GT logo painted out)

The particular car I'm looking for are PS (4750?), are painted in the GTW blue scheme but are now lettered NAHX. I believe these cars were acquired from the Rock Island....