Got a couple of Interstate cars on the layout right now running behind my Southern F units.I must confess that my interest in the Interstate is primarily post Southern take over.
Since I'm a fan of any railroad anywhere, but especially in the South - guess that makes me a fan as well. Aside to Southernman - Has anyone ever produced cars marked for the Interstate, or did you decal them yourself? I'd love to have a coupla five of those brown 2-bay Interstae hoppers.
Hello Dave Jones, if you are an N-scaler then Micro-Trains did three versions of two-bay hoppers.Two origional Interstate schemes and one post Southern scheme on an offset side hopper.These still show up on ebay often.I know someone also made these in HO but I can't remember who at the moment. Check out www.appalachianrailroadmodeling.com and click on the Interstate models page.
Southernman - Thanks for the info. I'm in HO scale and worked at a concrete plant for a number of years and about 1963 or so a lot of the 2-bay Interstate hoppers were apparently put into sand service locally. Since I model that era and this general locale, some hoppers would be very nice. Also, does anyone know if the Interstate had any cars other than hoppers?
As far as I know, they only had the 55 ton hoppers many of which Interstate built themselves. They mainly hauled coal and coke for interchange with other railroads. TLC publishes a couple of books by Hugh and Ed Wolfe on the Interstate. I don't have the first, only the second called Appalachian Coal Hauler. Many first hand accounts of the operations. Ed Wolfe just did another book which may be self published.(Not 100%). It is also supposed to be very good and on my list. Attached is a model I decorated a few years ago. It was a fun project. Micro Trains also has a runner pack which is real nice. I think great decals has some decals for Interstate in HO scale. http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/500/Interstate9524.JPG
Thanks guys! Hey Lynn, not custom decals. I used letters from a set of Microscale HO "greenlight" boxcar decals. I made the "A" from a "V" and a trimmed down "I". A fun project.
The Interstate did own some boxcars and flatcars back in the 20's, but were scraped in the early 50's. They also owned some MofW cars, a steam power crane and a flat bed tender for the crane. Both of these, lasted into the Southern era. At one time, the Interstate owned one of the largest coal hopper fleets in the United States. These were mostly 50 - 55 ton 2 bay hoppers. They also had a few 3 bay hoppers in the early 1900's. I haven't seen any good pictures of these. One of Ed's books has a picture of one but it's a long way off. The Interstate was victim of there own success. The hopper fleet was getting so old and all were needing to be replaced. It was better to let Southern buy them then replace the fleet. The cars empty and full on other railroad's tracks is where their cash came from. Most of the time, 75% of fleet was somewhere else.
