DeLuxe December Announcements

[Dave Ferrari]

Robbman, just repeating what I read...   Could there be something special about the slurry or whatever is collected from the Red Dog Mine?  Ie. very powdery?

People were pretty specific about it -  as saying that the fans in the Cascade tunnel had to be slowed down when trains handling the ore in these cars go through because of dust being blown around.

Also supposedly it's only the ex-NP cars with the modified floors.

I doubt it's coal, since BN/BNSF has a massive fleet of cars for that commodity. Also, don't these cars dump from the ends?

Whatever the heck the real story is, the ex-NP cars had these lines and a lot of people noticed/photographed them - and it's safe to say they are now in chip service.

- Lou

All very interesting points. We did find a large number of cars with the white stripe. I was going the route of finding out what the story is then maybe putting one in the 2-pack. We can always add a 3-pack of them if demand warrants. Lou, they can be rotary or end dumped, and of course they can be emptied with a vacuum system too but that would only work for some commodities.
Dave

[nkalanaga]

I have also seen references to ore (or concentrate) from Alaska being hauled in these, and all say that there was a very thin layer, or a small pile over each truck.  The cars I've seen didn't have, or I didn't notice, the white lines, but most of them were BN or GN cars, and all were still in BN service.  Also, I wasn't looking for white lines on  them, but that one is rather noticeable...

That white line is far too high for any type of ore loading, and probably for any type of rock at all.  Maybe it has something to do with somebody's loading/unloading system, or it might just be to distinguish the GBRX cars from other owners at a glance.

[ljudice]

Interesting - the mystery deepens!!

One small point - the lines were done quite some time ago, before the cars went to Greenbriar.

In fact, you can tell this since the paintover of NP is over the lines themselves.

Maybe the guy on T.O. who claims he did this as a joke while working at a sawmill is telling the truth?  I doubt it...
Perhaps instead of load lines, they were just a warning that the cars were loaded and not empty and needed special handling?

[nkalanaga]

Now THAT could be.  It would be a lot more noticeable than the usual small stenciling for special handling instructions.  I doubt that it was done as a joke.  If I ran a mill, and my employees had time to vandalize railroad cars, I'd be cutting my payroll.

And you're right, the line was painted before the car was reinitialed.  That also explains why only the ribs have the line in the center portion - the side sheet portions were painted over when the name was painted out.

[ljudice]

Incidentally, the other cars used for red dog ore were  apparently covered gondolas with *white* covers.  So perhaps this was a mark to show these cars were in the ore service and "matching" the other gons...

- Lou