Ok, I'm looking to run some CSX on my layout and I want to do coal...imagine that!!!! Anyway I'm NOT up to snuff on anything past 1985 so I have what might be a silly question... CSX runs different Twin Tub cars that are different schemes, Black, Gray, Silver, Aluminum. Is there a specific load for each color type ??? can these cars be mixed in coal drags????? Again have at me if this is silly, but I'm just trying to be prototypical.... Thanks, let the beating begin!!!!!!!:question:
I see the different colors mixed in trains. No rhyme or reason I can see. As an engineer, they all pull the same...
Thanks, I would not ask but I'm trying to stay as prototypical as possible. And I'm NOT a big fan of CSX...But there they are......
Just saw this thread and here's my two cents worth: about the only thing to avoid is mixing hopper (HT/HTS) with gondolas (GT/GTS). Way back in 1993 Dad arranged (ahem) for me to ride with a local crew that spent hours, literally, working a rail-to-river transloading facility. There were several tracks where there was a hopper, gon, hopper, gon, and the crew just about went ballistic. Anyway, they took the strings and tried to make similar batches. In the Huntington, WV yards, I've seen mixed black and aluminum cars in strings of several cars each. If you haven't had the chance, sometime take a look at George Elwood's "Fallen Flags" site (https://www.rr-fallenflags.org/) and browse the CSX hoppers/gons listing. Might have some good ideas there.
While this is a 13 year old thread - the only time the type of car comes into question is when the destination is a continuous dumping facility that relies on the train being dumped to be nothing but rotary dump cars with a swivel coupling on one end of the car. That form of coupling allows for the rotary dumping of the car's load and the car stays coupled to its neighbors and the air trainline doesn't get broken. Swivel couplings are denoted by the end of the car with it being painted a solid, different color than is the rest of the car. Trains of these cars are correct when ALL the cars in the train have the painted end on the same ends of all the cars.
