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The start of 2026 opens a new chapter in the Q 86' auto parts car saga! (Partly because today's day off gives me a chance to do a deep dive!)
As we have discussed before, the Chicago to Mpls/StP line was basically devoid of auto parts traffic and there is no proof of any of the 60' or 86' auto parts cars on the line. Traffic from Chicago went direct via the MILW to the Ford St. Paul plant. There was also a lot of Ford auto parts traffic, including lots of 60' and 86' auto parts cars, that actually came across on the ferries from Michigan to Kewaunee, WI to the GB&W. That traffic then ran from Kewaunee to Winona, MN crossing over the Q tracks at E. Winona, WI and interchanging to the MILW across the Mississippi at Winona, MN and on to the Ford plant. I have that GB&W traffic well documented from carferry reports from Craig Wilson from early 1970.
Back in 2020 the question also came up regarding 86' auto parts on other Q lines, including those through Galesburg to Omaha. That thread can be found by searching for "Autoparts Movement" in this group. Several interesting questions and points came up, including:
"The Ford Fast originated out of St. Louis, so it is unlikely the Q had a hand in delivering cars to the UP at Council bluffs/Omaha." from Jim Sandrin in message 60089. {Note, however, Jim's reference to the Ford FAST trains.)
"Ford had a very tight relationship with the Wabash. And the Wabash served their southeast Michigan plants. So this traffic was routed Wabash from Michigan to St. Louis." and "Trains or Classic Trains magazine had a article a few years ago that the Rock Island at one time had the leg from Chicago to Denver on the Ford Fast (I think in the 1970s)" from Bill Hirt in message 60090. (Note again, though, the reference to the Ford FAST trains.)
"Since I plan to model the Omaha area, it does not look like these would be cars that would have been regularly handled." from Rick Kiel in message 60094.
And finally, and very important:
"The Q did handle traffic for a two to four year period (1965-1968 model years) until the [Ford] FAST and [GM] ARRO trains were finally put on." from Fred Crissey in message 60208. Note Fred's mention of the 1965 to 1968 period and then the Ford FAST trains are introduced.
Why all of this history, and why this post? It's the photo in message 67947 of the Q derailment in West Burlington sometime in the late 1960's that clearly shows two N&W 86' auto parts cars in the derailment.
My research indicates that at these cars are Thrall cars in the N&W series 860319-860581 built by Thrall in the second half of 1968 in Class B116. These cars were delivered in the N&W blue scheme with the large hamburger herald. N&W also acquired P-S and Greenville cars during this time, in a brown scheme, also with the large N&W herald. The reason why I believe the wrecked cars are Thrall N&W 860319-860581 is because of the location of the capacity data reporting marks. On all the photos I have found of the brown P-S and Greenville 86' cars the capacity data lines up on the left with the N&W reporting mark and number. Per multiples photos, including this photo of N&W 860503 taken in in 1968 (https://www.rr-fallenflags.org/nw/nw860503u23.jpg), on the Thrall cars, this data was slightly offset to the right. There is also conspicuous stenciling just to the right of the car capacity data. Then take a look at this photo of N&W 860507 (https://www.rr-fallenflags.org/nw/nw860507o22.jpg) and note the location of the data under NORFOLK AND WESTERN. When you look at the photo of the Q derailment in message 67974 (and attached here as well), the 86' car on its side with the doors closed clearly shows the capacity data does not line up with the left edge of the reporting marks - it is offset to the right. There also is a light colored area to the right of the capacity data that could be the other stenciling seen on 860503. And all the data under the NORFOLK AND WESTERN in the photo of 860507 seems to line up as well to the car in the derailment photo. Hence my belief that these two cars are N&W blue Thrall cars from series 860319-860581 per the N&W color guide. A color photo of 860460 still in blue in 1978 can be found at: https://www.railcarphotos.com/PhotoDetails.php?PhotoID=45917 (although the railcarphotos site says the series ends with 860580, which I believe is incorrect).
Now to the auto parts traffic side of this. Since these cars have only two doors on each side (vs four doors) they are in Ford service, not GM. The photos of 860503 and 860507 are pool stenciled for CHP. I don't know what pool that code is for, but hopefully someone on one of the IO groups does. This may help us to track down better info on where these cars came from and were headed to.
Back to the derailment - If this derailment took place in late 1968 it would correspond to the 1965 to 1968 time period that Fred Crissey mentioned for Ford auto parts traffic. (BTW, do we have an actual date yet for the derailment?) Of course, the traffic may have even extended further out than 1968, into 1969 or even later. Since the derailment photo is at West Burlington, IA, this traffic would have definitely been headed to Council Bluffs and Omaha, not down to Kansas City or St. Louis, unless it was KC via Pacific Junction.
Conclusion: Unless this was a real fluke, and these 86' auto parts cars just happened to be routed due to some unknown reason on the Q that day (and on what would turn out to be a very bad day indeed!), it does appear that the Q handled auto parts traffic in 86' auto parts cars to Council Bluffs or Omaha, and maybe beyond. This opens up some new options for late 1960's Q modelers for 86' auto parts car traffic, possibly Chicago-Galesburg-Council Bluffs-Omaha.
Hopefully this will open up further discussion on this topic, and perhaps more photos, etc. I'm checking on some other sites to determine details on the CHP pool and this may also help to uncover some routing and when for the CHP pool, potentially involving the Q.
BTW, Class One Model Works does the Thrall N&W B-116 but in the later N&W brown repaint. Just no blue ones I could find.
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Tom Mack
Cincinnati, OH Modeling Chicago-Mpls/StP 1965-merger _._,_._,_
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