Up/sp

[Bob Collins]

You want to be really careful with comments like "ugly duckling" and the like. There are others on here who think more of them like homeless children who have somehow missed their time in the chow line!!

I don't get to see them often but once in awhile I see the BNSF, which has a mainline through here, run some pretty ugly ducklings of their own. Lots of rust.

I really did a double take a couple of days ago when I was back in the "industrial" part of our small city and where a really poorly maintaining siding exists to service a liquid gas dealer and a seed company. I was really surprised to see that the BNSF had taken two desiels in there to pick up or put out a car. I am surprised that the weight didn't cause the tracks to buckle.

Bob

 

[Rusted]

Here's the ex-SP now UP loco I mentioned earlier. I remembered, I took this at a yard in St. Paul Minnesota.

 

[Bob Collins]

Interesting to see a couple of heralds too. I assume there is one on the other side of the cab and also on the other end of the loco. I don't believe I've noticed those on any of the other pix posted. Are they common?

Bob

 

[CarlFidy]

Unpatched in Oklahoma

A buddy of mine has seen an unpatched SP #311(with speed lettering-I think) as one of three units on a coal train running through Clarmore, OK. Asked if he got any pics, haven't recieved a response yet. If I can nab a pic I'll post it as soon as I can.

 

[Bob Collins]

I think I mentioned it early on in this thread that I saw either four or five SP's on west bound empty coal trains between St. Louis and Kansas City and none of them had patches.

Bob

 

[Greg Elems]

Here is a CNW with the patch. Is the decal that is faded on the long hood for the Wyoming Centennial?

As for the Crud name, I have heard them called that since they showed up. "Oh Crud, another Alco killer!" After all, they replaced the Alco S-6's that were used around Modesto for the local switching. They are being sold and retired, and unfortunately there seems to be no replacement switcher type out there.

Greg Elems

 

[Bob Collins]

Thanks very much Greg. I always enjoy the pictures you come up with. Maybe one of these days I'll remember to take along the camera when I am going to be traveling along the UPRR mainline between St. Louis and Kansas City. Just kills me when I think that I grew up in Council Bluffs, Iowa ands used to see all the good stuff up close and personal. Things like FEF 4-8-4s and Challengers and Turbines and everything in between. I worked as a tinners helper one summer while I was going to school and I'm surprised I didn't get fired or killed for all the "sightseeing" I did

I just got hold of a book on the UPRR and am surprised to discover how many different types of steam engines they used. Would you believe camelbacks??

I plan to go back through the book and make a list for myself as something of a buying guide. I always just think about Big Boys, or Challengers or the FEFs and forget that they also ran lots of 4-8-2 Mountains and even some 2-10-2s and 2-10-0s and another, a 2-12-0

Anyway, when I get the list together I'll post it and maybe it will spark some conversation.

Thanks again

Bob

 

[trainworm]

Bob, I live just outside of Springfield MO, in Strafford.

microscale makes excellent patch sets. here is a shot of some of the units that i have patched.

 

[CarlFidy]

Two more SP unpatches in Tulsa

Just saw two more SP speed lettered units with no patches. Thought I was going color blind at first, because I saw them pulling an auto-rack train on the BNSF line through Tulsa. Also saw a UP powered unit coal train headed the same direction on the same line. Must be something wrong with both of UP's lines from Kansas south through Oklahoma...maybe the diamond in Wagoner, OK where the two UP lines cross??

 

[Rusted]

Trainworm, those look great! Do you have the product numbers for those decal sheets?

 

[Bob Collins]

This has become a both interesting a very confusing thread for me.

I am modeling, or think I am anyway, UPRR. I have old rolling stock and new rolling stock. I have Consolidations and Centennials and quite a bit in between, but what I don't have is a clear understanding of which former railroads that have been taken over by the UPRR am I likely to see the patches on? I think we have firm evidence that SP is certainly one of those railroads, but what about D&RG or MP, or MKT or any of a whole host of other, maybe smaller or less know lines might I think to put on my layout "patched up" to look up to date. And I suppose date is the key, isn't it. Soem of the earlier acquisitions, like MOPAC might have completely disappeared before the advent of the patching technique.

Does anyone know or suspect when the patching began and which former lines absorbed by the UPRR might sport the patches.

Bob

 

[trainworm]

Bob:

the only railroads that have recieved the patches are the Rio Grande, Southern Pacific, Cotton Belt (SSW), and the Chicago & Northwestern. all the others were repainted long ago, before the patch idea came along. the description on the instruction sheet that came with the decals says the renumbering program began in 1999.

Rusted: the item numbers are: HO scale: MC-4328 N scale: 60-4328

 

[Bob Collins]

Thanks very much Rusted. I had forgotten about Cotton Belt, but would have remembered CNW when I really began to think about it.

What it does, of course, is open some different ideas about buying power from these various roads to mix in with my UPRR motive power.

Thanks again

Bob

 

[Rusted]

I was in Mason City Iowa today - some neat railfan opportunities here - sugar distribution facility, two huge cement plants, Con-Agra complex, and, according to one hobby shop owner, an electric freight local that serves a few industries (couldn't find that one). Anyway, once I get my cable for my camera, I'll upload the shot I go of an ex-SP SD50 patched to UP that was in the yard. (Hey Trainworm, what's the ex SP on your bench numbered 8731, - is that a tunnel motor or an SD 50 or 60?)

Hard to get a good angle, there was a "Train Crew Transfer" minivan in the way with South Dakota plates. MMMMM?

Thanks for the numbers trainworm and consider Bob's thanks to me passed on to you.

 

[trainworm]

number 8731 is a Cotton Belt (SSW) SD40T-2 tunnel motor

I cant wait for the HO scale SD50's that are supposedly coming from Life Like Proto 2000. I have been wanting some of them for quite a while. There are rumors floating around that Athearn may be comng out with SD50's also. when i get them, i might patch them too.

 

[tomfassett]

A while back I promised to post a picture of the non-patched GP38-2s sitting in Tempe, AZ. They are still there and still not patched. Here is a picture taken the end of January, 2003.

Tom F

 

[Rusted]

As mentioned above, from Mason City, Iowa: