unit train suggestions

[bbunge]

I could use more of these.   



I only ever saw them in unit trains of 40+.  Over the years, I've managed to scarf up about 25 of the prior Atlas run from many years ago.

Bob

[JoeD]

Great ideas here.  Thanks a bunch guys.

Joe

[prr7161]

Maybe a bit more specialized, but one of my favorites is the Detroit Edison unit train service from the Monongahela Railway up to Detroit that ran from about 1971 into the 1990's.  Big trains of Fruehauf 125-ton bathtub gons with mid-train helpers:

https://akronrrclub.wordpress.com/tag/detroit-edison-locomotives/
https://rpmelvin.com/de/
https://lionelllc.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/deexgon.jpg

[randgust]

Thread drift time! Why did Hammermill send chips, pulp rolls and logs back and forth between plants like this? I know in east/southeast TX ATSF, SP and MP all sent woodchips to a paper plant in Baytown (that's now a superfund site), but I didn't know that a plant that used chips or logs alsp wpuld need pulp rolls- I thought the pulp was the product of chips/logs?

You had two paper mills for Hammermill; one at Lock Haven, PA and one at Erie, PA.   The entire route was featuring significant log and chip reloads, those were all going to Erie - which was a problem since Erie was WAY out of the sourcing area for fiber - nominally 100 miles, so the railroad was always a good idea, just not that efficient until ALY was created.  Erie made too much pulp that they couldn't process, that went BACK to Lock Haven plant in the multiple boxcars.  So the train was part load, part empty, at any given time.

The entire concept was genius actually, until the paper market retracted and IP bought out Hammermill, sold the railroad, and G&W picked it up.  But for 15 years more or less, that was Americas last great unit log, chip and pulp train on a common carrier.   And it moved on FRA III track behind four units, right along thank you.

Kane, PA had a combination log and chip operation with a long passing siding just west of town - long gone now.  It's used by A&E most of the time for tank car storage for United in Warren.

Ironically, the Erie PA Hammermill plant site now is the home of a biodiesel facility and an under-construction plastics recycling plant - biggest in the US - and both very much rail served.

[ntex]

My vote for Ortner hoppers in rock service.

[Specter3]

Southern Railway initiated unit coal movements from tge Pride transloader outside Tuscumbia AL to multiple Georgia Power plants in the 70s.

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[thbguy]

One of my favorite unit trains is the so-called ‘Dane’ iron ore trains going from the Adams Mine near Dane Ontario Canada on the Ontario Northland Railway (ONR) to steel mills in Aliquippa, PA. At over 650 miles one-way, this was the world's longest all rail iron ore pellet haul. And a very rare international unit train.

They were operated from 1965-1971 in a joint effort by ONR-CN-NYC-P&LE, to the Jones & Laughlin steel mill at Aliquippa, PA. The Adams Mine opened in 1965, and this ore train service ended by 1971, shifting to barrel ore car service going to Dofasco (as with Sherman mine ore) in Hamilton, Ontario, until the mine closed in June of 1990.  Iron ore pellets were shipped from Dane, Ontario to Pittsburg (Aliquippa), PA and Cleveland, Ohio. Routing was through Fort Erie across the international bridge into Buffalo.



Bluford has done accurate Canada Southern, TH&B, ONR, and CNR hoppers that were stenciled for the service. I will eventually finish the train and write article with all of the details.

[lock4244]

The Gunderson Twin-Stack gets my vote. When these were new they could often be found in solid train sets, it is unlikely that the Deluxe Innovations model will be resurrected, and they're pretty dope.

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[sundowner]

There where also th blue LRS GATX cars and one Ferromex in this string.

[High Hood]

@JoeD Does Micro Trains still have the tooling for the Two Bay Offset Hopper with Peaked Ends and Notched Peaked Ends? It’s seems like it’s been ages since they were last run.

Earlier this year I was working on putting together some information to send MT about doing L&N offset two bays. L&N had 3,550 flat end offsets, 5,450 peaked ends, and 7,550 with notched peaked ends.

Of course I ended up running into the problem of trying to find good color roster shots of the different types and paint schemes they wore. 

[Ed Kapuscinski]

How about a unit train of V&O 100t hoppers (after I get a job).

[James Costello]

The Gunderson Twin-Stack gets my vote. When these were new they could often be found in solid train sets, it is unlikely that the Deluxe Innovations model will be resurrected, and they're pretty dope.

I didn't see that one coming, but yes! Another vote here for a MTL Twinstack. In service for 40 years and a great variety of new and secondhand owners. Simple well design, with each 5 car set only requiring two different well styles. Time to break free of the single-well intermodal fleet @JoeD ???

The Deluxe tooling wasn't part of the acquisition by FVM, so whilst I'm reluctant to use the word never, this tooling is sitting in a warehouse somewhere in China and will probably never see the light of day again... along with a few other nice models.