What decal sheet and paint do I need for the Jenks Blue SD40-2C units, and what colors of paint (modelflex or polly scale, please) are best?
Tim, I grew up in the area and thought I remembered seeing these unit coals coming south through Festus and Crystal. But on another site, they are adamant that Rush was served North from Cape. I know in the Frisco in Color book that there is a pic on the River Din in Afton of a MoPac/Frisco unit coal with UCEX hoppers in yellow and red heading South, but I haven't seen any other pictures. Patrick
Hey Patrick! All of the unit trains I've seen deliver at Rush have approached from the north, including a BNSF I was lucky to catch earlier this year. At the time most of the coal was coming from So. Illinois on Mopac, but since Rush was fed by Frisco it may have prompted the pooled power arrangement. So where did you go to high school? ha! Tim - Festus HS, '86. ~Tim
Yeah I think all of it is from the north now. The guys on a Frisco site said back in the late 70's it came from Cape and that Frisco built a engine service facility there just for that train. But I seem to remember the trains coming from the north. Yeah if you are who I think you are then I graduated with your brother in 89.
Interesting note about the Frisco engine facility there just for this plant. I wonder who met up with them in S.E. Missouri, assuming the coal was coming from So. IL...MP there too, or maybe IC? Yep, my brother graduated in '89 - you've got the right guy. Pat's not much of a train fan, spends his free time restoring a '69 Chevelle SS 396.
I went back and read the thread from the other site. I'd forgotten some of the information posted on it. (it's 11 years old) but I did see that I was wrong about the engine facility. It was temporary just to fuel them. It was MoPac bringing it over at Thebes and interchanged at Cape and then was Frisco up to Rush. An earlier post mentioned that in the late 1970s coal was sent in from out west, which would account for the trains coming in to Rush from the north. There is also some information regarding which hoppers was used. http://www.frisco.org/vb/showthread.php?1132-Rush-Island-Coal-Train&highlight=Coal+train is the link to the discussion. I don't run into Pat often. I did go with him and Jon down to a guns how at Farmington this past spring.
I spent some time in Cape Girardeau in 1981 and 1982, the last time in March 1982. During my visits, I observed the UEL trains several times. Power was overwhelmingly SD40/SD40-2/SD40-2c/U30C, but occasionally B-B GEs showed up as well. Sometimes the trains (loaded and empty) sat in the interchange track for several hours waiting for crews; other times they were recrewed and underway in a few minutes. This is my first TB post. When I am up to speed, I'll post some 1981-82 photos of UEL at Cape. On a somewhat related note, I also spent time around Ft Scott, KS about the same time. I could see the former SLSF main from my hotel room, and observed probably 140-150 trains during my weeks there, at all hours of the day and night. I never saw a coal train on the BN through Ft Scott, but saw lots of BN-powered trains on both the KCS main and the MP/UP Coffeyville line. I always assumed that pre-merger contracts must have still been in effect and running out their last months.
Here are a couple of shots of empty UEL trains taken August 1981. The power is at the south end of the connector, where the MP branch (former CG&N?) crossed the SLSF River Line. The cab is shown near the Mississippi Bridge on the south side of downtown.
Thanks for the pics! With the new Bluford cabooses, my Union Electric 5-bay Ortner RD unit train is complete!
Looks good! Is that an outside shot or did you make a backdrop with downtown STL in it? Also....does anyone know where I can find a Bluford MoPac caboose?????
