Steve,
As late as 1965/1966, the Blackhawk providing overnight service between
Chicago and the Twin Cities was often equipped with heavyweight
equipment. I rode in 6100 series coaches, but I believe there were
diners and Pullman cars in the consists. There was also considerable
head end equipment as the Blackhawk stopped at almost every significant
town to handle mail and express. A lot of the head end cars were still
heavyweights, too.
It was also possible to see heavyweight equipment on secondary trains
on the Chicago - Denver line. The Galesburg local is an example. I
have a photo of that train at Downers Grove with a single GP7 or 9 and
three or four heavyweight cars behind it. Some of the all mail trains
also carried a coach on the rear end that was usually a heavyweight.
The trains between Lincoln - Alliance and Billings as well as Denver -
Alliance - Billings also frequently carried some heavyweight equipment.
M
Many specials, (non railfan) also were made up with heavyweight
equipment. In the early '50s, Husker football specials between Omaha
and Lincoln were often pulled by oil burning hudsons nos. 4002 or 4003
with long heavyweight trains behind them. A number of photos are
available that show such trains. I suspect that such trains continued
on with diesels in the later '50s and early '60s.
As the years took their toll, some of the heavyweights were withdrawn
from revenue service and used as maintenance of way equipment. In such
service, they were often gutted and refitted for other uses and, of
course, painted orange and give 6 digit numbers. Some also became
commuter cars. A few were even given shadow line silver paint jobs that
mimicked the fluted lightweight equipment.
Keep in mind that even on trains that included significant heavyweight
equipment, some lightweight streamlined cars might be included in the
consist. So a lightweight coach or two and maybe a diner might be found
in the train.
Bill Barber
On Saturday, September 24, 2005, at 05:46 AM, CBQ@yahoogroups.com
wrote:
> Date: Fri, 23 Sep 2005 16:53:39 -0000
> From: "up4479" <up4479@hotmail.com>
> Subject: Q heavy weight cars
>
> Hi, Gang.
> If one used the Branchline coaches and Walthers diners as stand-ins
> and used various head end cars and perhaps some heavy weight sleepers,
> what mostly non streamlined trains could one model from say 1958 to the
> merger? All the Zeyphers are well covered as well as Chicago commuter
> service but the secondary trains seem to be overlooked. The Q still
> had lots of heavy weight cars in the '60s, how were they used in egular
> revenue service?
> Steve Solombrino
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