SP Mug Unit Train?

Dampfloko Apr 6, 2015

  1. pdx1955

    pdx1955 TrainBoard Member

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    I thought these were called "XMUG" trains in general. They would have had flatcars but would had the yellow-door 50' boxcars and the yellow striped door 40' boxcars in finished lumber service as well in the 1960's into the 70's. I probably would have just as many boxcars as flatcars if I was modeling one of these trains.

    Peter
     
  2. umtrr-author

    umtrr-author TrainBoard Member

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    I'm compiling some more information for the forthcoming UMTRR. (Shameless plug.)
     
  3. Joe D'Amato

    Joe D'Amato TrainBoard Member

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    Most of the photo's I've seen show mostly flats and bulkheads in the XMUG trains, but that's not to say there were no Boxes, especially the shop modified 40's with the 10' door you refer to. BTW several years ago an injection molded model of that car was shown in HO scale. I believe it was done by the folks in Northern Cali...John Signor and several of the usual SP Suspects were able to get shots of them, but it has yet been mass produced. I've done a few bash ups using our 20K box with the 10' doors added to the sides, extended the rails for the slide and some additions to the sill. We are lucky to have one of them at the Railroad Park here in Medford Oregon...being used for storage at the minute.

    Joe
    MTL
     
  4. Joe D'Amato

    Joe D'Amato TrainBoard Member

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    I am working on the patterns and hope they will be more "inspiring" in 3-D than the pasted up illustrations. :)

    Joe
     
  5. bremner

    bremner Staff Member

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    Mid month release Joe?
     
  6. umtrr-author

    umtrr-author TrainBoard Member

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    No, it's a pre-order in the month of April for a scheduled August 2015 release.
     
  7. JMaurer1

    JMaurer1 TrainBoard Member

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    More info:

    XMUG is much easier to look up and has a lot more information. XMUG stood for [FONT=&quot]eXtra eMpties eUGene - XMUG. [/FONT]While I haven't checked my library yet, but RMC had an article about the boxcars in the May 1989 issue. It was an article about XMUG boxcars which is what the SP classifed the boxcars in that particular service with the yellow stripe or yellow doors. The Southern Pacific modified those cars by changing the 6 or 8 foot door to a 10-foot door to carry lumber. That’s what the yellow strip signifies. Also there was an article in N Scale Railroading, March/April 2013 about modeling the 40' SP XMUG boxcars in N.

    Wheels of Time will also be offering the bulkhead flats in N (reserve now) and have this information on their website:

    Since the post war period in U.S., there was a remarkable housing boom especially in Southern California. Getting lumber from the lumber mills in the Pacific Northwest* to the lumber yards across the nation became a little bit of a challenge due to a shortage of usable equipment. Solid trains of lumber and large cuts of lumber-carrying flat cars were the norm. A common sight in the west were witnessing solid Southern Pacific (SP) trains of lumber crawling up the Tehachapi grade at a snails pace with engines whining at run 8 - or just empty strings of flat cars returning from southern California winding through the mountain passes on their way back to the Willamette Valley. These solid empty trains were designated by SP as 'XMUG' for the abbreviation for Empty Eugene (Eugene, OR). Further, solid cuts of lumber cars from the Willamette Valley headed east with SP partner roads like Northern Pacific - Great Northern - Burlington Northern and Union Pacific to name a few.


    The Prototypes


    The Southern Pacific Equipment Co. in 1953 and 1954 build over 1000 70-ton all-welded fish-belly flatcars for SP based on their previous successful riveted 70-ton flat car design.** They were classified as F-70-10. We will bring you both the original as-built car numbers as well when SP renumbered their fleet sometime in the late '50's. A decade later, Gunderson Brothers Engineering Corp. (GBEC) build over 1100 cars of similar design as SP class F-70-12. In 1964, SP purchased another 400 cars from Gunderson with "stepped" bulkheads as class F-70-26. These bulkhead flats were the first in the series to have bulkheads originally installed by the builder and not retrofitted later. They were built to carry plaster board needed in housing construction, but were also used widely in carrying lumber.

    [FONT=&quot]
    The Alaska Railroad (ARR) also ordered copies of "SP" Gunderson cars for loads such as: ocean cargo containers, vehicles & tractors, military equipment and log & lumber loads. The ARR purchased both the standard flat as well as the "stepped" bulkhead flat cars for their operations. [/FONT]
     
  8. bremner

    bremner Staff Member

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    I meant the 10ft door boxcar
     
  9. sp4009

    sp4009 TrainBoard Member

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    XMUG is correct, they ran them both out of LA and Ogden. I'm sure boxcars assigned to Eugene were mixed in, but mostly flats and bulkheads from what I have read. I did some yellow stripe boxes several years ago using Intermountain parts, modified PS-1 side, scratchbuilt door and the roof, ends and frame from the 12 panel car.[​IMG]
     
    bremner likes this.
  10. umtrr-author

    umtrr-author TrainBoard Member

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    Nice work Joe!

    Sorry, Bremmer, didn't catch the change in direction there. I was thinking of the SP flat car 8-pack from MTL.

    I suspect the SP 10 foot door boxcar is more of a 3D printing opportunity, or at least the door for it. MTL does have and offer as a spare part a 10 foot wide door, but it's for the 25000/025 series x-post boxcar; without looking I think it's too tall.
     
  11. Dampfloko

    Dampfloko TrainBoard Member

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    Still waiting for MT response to this thread. One car, two loads in an 8 car set is not very creative. Maybe if I buy the Area 51 set someone will listen.
     
  12. bremner

    bremner Staff Member

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    Um, they did


     
  13. umtrr-author

    umtrr-author TrainBoard Member

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    And based on the MTL online store, the Area 51 set is sold out at the factory... [ducking]
     

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