Re: (erielack) The EL Hot 100...honorable mention #2

[Patrick Moore <pat.moore_@_att.net>]

Rich,

I think the EL must have had the Gallo Wine account for the NY metro area.  Looking at the consists, it seems like every NY-98 in the 1972-73 time frame and every SF-100 in the 1975-76 time frame had a block of 4-6 cars loaded with wine.  Quite often they were the USLX 52' double-plug door boxes like the Atlas model (or Scale Trains, although they have yet to do the plain red USLX one).  However, let me also point out that the USLX cars were only about half the traffic.  The other half of the wine traffic was in ATSF insulated boxcars, such as the 62' double plug door model of the Bx-166 car done by BLMA and soon to be Atlas, and also the ATSF Bx-94 and Bx-97 insulated boxcars done a few years ago by Moloco.  On my model railroad, I have some of the Atlas cars and some of the Moloco ATSF boxes to protect the wine traffic.

The ATSF cars might have showed up in the EL Hot 100 if the ATSF hadn't kept updating and changing their designs and going to various builders for relatively small lots of new cars.  As a result, each lot was slightly different and no group had enough to score high enough.  Rest assured, though, ATSF insulated boxcars were well-represented in the database.

Say, this gives me an idea though.  I originally conceived of the EL Hot 100 countdown as a narrow focus on "common" but specific car types with an eye toward targeting freight car models that had not yet been done in HO.  The countdown could be done on more general terms to give modelers an idea of what the average EL freight train looked like, such as ATSF insulated boxcar, UP 50' combination door boxcar, Milwaukee Road 40' boxcar, and so forth.  For example, statistically speaking the typical EL piggyback train was approximately two-thirds 89' flats and one-third 85' flats, and about 90 percent Trailer Train and only 10 percent railroad-owned flats.

- -pat
 

    On Saturday, August 26, 2017 8:54 PM, Rich C <rhcdmc_@_yahoo.com> wrote:
 

 Pat and list, I remember the wine trains well in Modesto, California. I went through this area a couple of times a week on business. I would venture through the Modesto & Empire Traction switching district and see strings of these along with plenty of Santa Fe Bx-218's which were the 62' beer reefers. When camping at my favorite train hot spot, I would watch 100+ car unit trains traversing Tehachapi Loop, on an every other day basis. I believe LNAC was also involved in the wine train pool with their blue Evans Blue Island reefers.
As far as decals Herald King and others made numerous sets covering these cars.
Rich Christie

On Saturday, August 26, 2017, 7:23:41 PM CDT, Patrick Moore <pat.moore_@_att.net> wrote:


List...

United States Railway Equipment Company (reporting mark USLX) leased a large number of 52' double plug door insulated boxcars to the E&J Gallo Winery in Modesto, CA.  The cars were about as "plain jane" as could be, painted red with white lettering and no identifying marks to signify their lease to Gallo.  As a result, these cars probably just blended right in, even though they were a mainstay in train SF-100, usually with small groups of them hauling Gallo Wine to the New York metropolitan area.  Empty cars went back in train AF-97 or SF-99.  The cars themselves were constructed by Evans/USRE in the early 1970s.  Most of them fell within the number range 10573 - 11249.  The consist sheets had 58 examples, which would have been good enough to place at #43 in the Hot 100.

Picture...
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=2983300

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=2193728


Locations...
Hauling wine east from the ATSF connection in Chicago to the NY Metro area, usually in train SF-100, then heading back west to Chicago usually in train AF-97 or SF-99.

Model...
Atlas produced a suitable model announced in August 2013, although the Atlas car represents a somewhat more spartan paint scheme without the "Dual Air Pak" logo usually seen on the cars leased to Gallo.  To back-date the Atlas car, one would only need to locate a decal set with that particular logo in white.

http://www.atlasrr.com/Images/HOFreightCars/ho53evans/0813/20002465_TQ.jpg

- -pat


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