--- In CBQ@yahoogroups.com, Aeolus3@... wrote:
>
> Greg,
>
> Yes I believe that's the number. Those containers were known as
Flexi Vans.
> Which I believe were a NYC system of containers on flat cars. Also
the
> Burlington did have the flat cars for the Flexi Van service. Also
if memory serves all
> the Q Flexi Van flats were piped for steam. IC, Milwaukee, and of
course New
> York Central. Many were used on passenger train and mail trains.
>
> Loren Johnson
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
Loren, Greg and all,
While I agree that the CB&Q had 40-ft containers which were equipped
for carriage on Flexi-Van flat cars (I remember seeing two of them
on a flat in a background shot at CUS), I can find no evidence of
the railroad owning the passenger-equipped flat cars themselves.
I've looked through all issues of the ORPTE from January, 1960 to
the final of March, 1971, and can find no listing for Class BLF cars
(the mechanical designation for passenger-equipped Flexi-Van flats)
in any of the CB&Q pages.
The picture(s) I saw showed two forty-foot aluminum-painted boxes
with huge red "Burlington" billboard lettering sitting on an
aluminum-painted Flexi-Van flat--coupled to other passenger-equipped
cars.
Now, a couple of possibilities exist:
1. The flat was a Burlington car, but was not passenger-equipped
(that is, had no steam or signal lines and high-speed brakes). That
would explain the lack of a CB&Q Class BLF listing in the ORPTE. Or,
2. The Burlington boxes were riding on someone else's passenger-
equipped Class BLF car. The NYC, MILW and IC Class BLF cars were all
painted an aluminum color. The NYC would "lend" their Class BLF cars
for other folks' boxes on occasion.
I vote for possibility two.
Loren, I'm here not to criticize, but to learn. Do you have some
other evidence that the CB&Q's Flexi-Van flats (or, at least, some
of them)were passenger-equipped?
Best regards,
Dave Lambert
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