Can anyone tell me if it was common for coal trains in the early 1970's to mix car types, such as 3 bay hoppers with Quad hoppers, or, 100 ton cars with 70 ton cars, or even 2 bay hoppers with 3 bay hoppers. I know the GN had a fleet of Quad hoppers and I was wondering if they were in captive service or just used anywhere once the BN took over. I have seen a few pictures of early coal trains using old 70 ton cars with U25C's as power and I think these would make neat trains to model - of course it will be a lot easier when there a more U25C models available. I should mention I model in N scale.
I wish I had the answer to that. I'll have to let our experts answer that. GN only had like 100 quads, IIRC. BN had hundreds of 90T and 100T triples. The Atlas model is prolly a close-enough representation. I would start with that.
This is commonly found today--at least on the CSX line that I model--so I would think that it was done back in the "old days" as well. Jamie
Coal Unit Trains Besides my Espee I also model BN in the late 1970's. For a coal unit train I used MDC kit number 1498. These will be difficult to find now since Athearn bought up MDC/Roundhouse. I recommend Walthers 932-7851 six pack and get as many as needed for your train. There are also severl six packs in this series 932-7858, 932-7867 & 932-7873. My train is 40 cars and I use U30C's (3) to pull it. SD40-2's could also be used or mix the U30's and SD40's. A wide vision caboose would also be needed on the end.
I model mid 80's. I have had the pleasure of fanning the PRB since may of 82 and the first couple of trips the thing I noticed is the cars were all the same on every train. If the train was 90t quads they all were. If they were Thralls they all were. Now days anything goes to get the tonnage.
