WelcomeToCatcliffeDemon

IF THERE IS a theme to today’s update it is fallen flags (defunct rail companies). All three of the images below show equipment originally owned by railroad companies (and are still in those railroad’s colours) that are no longer in business for various reasons.

No. CR368193, a X58 box car of Pennsylvania Railroad heritage, seen here at Park Street Yard in Roanoke, Virginia, is the oldest of the three vehicles on show here, being built in the mid-1960s. Its age is clearly apparent when you notice the remains of this vehicles full height ladders and roofwalks which were removed in the early 1970s! This vehicle became part of the Penn Central fleet in 1968, transferring to Conrail in 1976, before coming under Norfolk Southern ownership in 1999. A kit for these excellent boxcars is available in ‘HO’ scale from Rail Yard Models, which also produces a number of other freight vehicles which are all well deserving of a place on any model railroad.

There is no guessing the traffic which vehicle No. CSXT227082 is employed in, nor will it tax the brain to work out which famous railroad used to operate this 2-bay covered cement hopper. Chessie System was formed in 1972 by a merger of the Baltimore & Ohio (B&O), Chesapeake & Ohio (C&O) and the Western Maryland (WM). It took the popular sleeping kitten (Chessie) logo from a much-loved C&O advertising campaign, while the vermillion, yellow and blue livery was a striking departure from the one-colour dip schemes that started to appear on many railroads in the investment starved 1970s. Chessie was merged with the Seaboard System in 1985 and became CSX Transportation.

Finally, we have New England Central Railroad GP40 No. NECR4047, still wearing its attractive Burlington Northern ‘whiteface’ livery of cascade green, white and black. You can just make out this engine’s previous number (BN3078) on the long hood and the faded remains of the US flag (applied during the first Gulf War in 1991). Ironically, considering that this loco is still wearing BN colours, it only actually spent the period 1989-92 working for BN, being a short term lease deal painted in these colours by owner GATX. The ten machines (3075-84) were rebuilt in the mid-1980s from former Baltimore & Ohio GP40s (this was B&O3714) and BN classed them unofficially as GP40G (standing for GP40 rebuilt by GATX).