Canadian Railroads > Freight Car Friday - National Steel Car, CN Inspection, Auto Rack

While shooting on the Wainwright Sub east of Edmonton, on Saturday, September 9, I shot various pieces of rolling stock. There are eight photos in the post.
1. At the Parrish & Heimbecker terminal at Torlea, on the west side of Viking, a clean Potash Corp covered hopper was on the spur. The spur comes off the Torlea siding at Poundmaker. POTX 3986 was built by National Steel Car in Hamilton, with a Ld Lmt of 230,000 lbs, and capacity of 4300 cuft. It's a great corporate colour; I've always liked it. I'm not sure why this car is at this location, to be honest, unless it's not in dedicated potash service.
2. I finally got to photograph the NSC logo, which celebrates a century of activity by NSC in 2012. Builder's date is 05-16.
3. Sticking with a National Steel Car theme, this is scrap gondola AIMX 23028 (American Iron and Metal), with a Ld Lmt of 212,300 lbs, and capacity of 6400 cuft. I can't quite make out the build date; it seems to be 06-20 (I'm pretty confident of the 06 part, the rest not so much). I noticed the trucks are lettered, and the side panels have information, that they are Q4 Quadri-steer trucks, by Q4 Technologies, Inc. I couldn't track down exactly how this works, but I see a post by Evan_Werkema on 12/27/20 wrestled with this same question; the subject car was a black AIMX gon. See https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,5164422,5164514#msg-5164514. The present car is in train 312 near Uncas, at 1805. Except for the trucks, it seems the same design as a set of scrap gons I shot earlier this year, posted at https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?15,5606854,5606854#msg-5606854.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 09/15/23 18:43 by feclark.

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4. Geoff Doane has posted photos of these CN Inspection cars, if you want to search a bit. This was in the consist of CN stack train 102, a bit east of Viking at 0823. There's a list of eight of these in the TSG, page 10-2, which is evidently incomplete. This one is CNIS 412062, and is stenciled as being built in 11-89. This matches the rebuild date for CNIS 412091, rebuilt as are the others from 1974-vintage boxcars. The other seven in the list are reported as being rebuilt in 2019. Whatever gear is inside these, the car is heavy (ballasted heavy for stability, too?). The tare weight of the car is 218,200 lbs.
5. I hadn't seen these in revenue trains before, but this was my day. In the consist of #199, through Lindbrook at 1215, was CNIS 412000. Its build date is 10-89 (a rebuild date?), and tare weight is 216,800 lbs (a tad lighter than the previous one). On both cars you see MW lettering (Maintenance of Way?), and also SR 13140, whose meaning I don't know. The trailing axle of the lead truck has some sort of fitting over the journal box (track speed measurement?). I presume there's another one diagonally opposite, to that it doesn't matter which way the car faces. This one is also not in the TSG.
6. Just east of Holden, I shot stack train 114 at 1504; a nice opportunity to shoot these common containers. Green looks good. Hub Group 53' container HGIU 646925 rides atop Orient Overseas [?] Container Lines 45G1 container OOCU 673133_8, riding DDTX 751355D, a 40' well car.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/17/23 14:08 by feclark.

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7. The car isn't extraordinary, but the lack of tagging sets it apart, so I shot it. Auto rack TTGX 983426 is lettered for CN, in the consist of #356 at Bruce, Alberta, at 1435. It's also an excuse to see if someone can weigh in on a subject, which depends on the next car.
8. BTTX 880136 is an articulated auto rack, in the same train. I wonder about the success, or lack of it, for this design. Hypothetically, I would guess its supposed advantage is lower tare weight and lower unsprung weight, using only three trucks instead of four. But with a length on the order of 145', did they give up capacity for this change? I know some of the length of an 86' car is wasted at the ends.  Articulated cars offer less flexibility of use, of course. Any insights are welcome.
Fred



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/15/23 18:44 by feclark.

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One major difference is that the rack is integral
to the car. Which is why there are no railroad 
markings on the car. 

SOO6617 Wrote:
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> One major difference is that the rack is integral
> to the car. Which is why there are no railroad 
> markings on the car. 

Does this have structural implications, allowing it to be lighter?
Fred