Yep, that was it! I had family that lived in Knoxville, so I thought it was interesting to see part of that yard. I sill remember the part where the oil was shot into the wheels/trucks. I had no idea they had to be oiled that frequently!
Yep, most definitely. Found GP-30 2542 at Attalla, AL in 04/1989 and GP-35 2677 at Montgomery, AL in 08/1985.
It's a cool car and I vote you should keep it. On the flip side, it's amazing how many fallen flag cars remained in circulation with their original reporting marks long after their original owners had been merged into history. I managed to find these in the southeast and others too. Prattville, AL September 1988 Montgomery, AL May 1989 Waycross, GA August 1983
Love it! Look at all those Seaboard Coastline boxcars in the 3rd pic. Did you get these from a search or are they your personal photos? I snapped this from a YouTube video.. this guy has lots of 1980s video footage from different areas. You can't make out the road # but can tell it's original. Second photo is one I picked up a month or so ago for $10.
I want an ACL boxcar, too. My hometown is west of Raleigh, in the vicinity of original Seaboard lines. I saw so many road names come through here back in the late 70s. I love the ad-style boxcars of the 50s-60s era with their company slogans and graphics. Love it, just love it. Here's another Microtrains car I bought. It looks white in the photo, but actually silver. Detail is incredible, it's got (freight pen?) markings I can only see with a magnifying glass. I don't see how they can mass produce stuff this small and accurate. It says made in U.S.A. on the box, idk.
Micro-trains are definitely made in the U.S.A. You should be able to find a few ACL cars. There are a few nice ones with the "Another Cushioned Load" slogan.
These are all my personal photos. The third shot (of the ACL chip hopper) was taken from the hump tower at Waycross. I worked for a large shipper and was a guest of the railroad that day.
I've always liked this one, but M-T has plenty of others, along with other manufacturers. Photo courtesy Trovestar.
As you know, the SAL was financially weaker than the princely ACL, but it fought with success and pride. As the story goes, SAL people joked that ACL stood for Always Coast Line. When the SCL merger was completed, it seemed to SAL people that ACL people continued to reign. SAL people then joked that SCL stood for Still Coast Line.
I've never thought about patched SBD cars, so looked at my pictures and found only one, in Montgomery, AL 08/19/1989. I'm guessing it might have been assigned to MofW service at this point. For what it's worth, the SBD was a good railroad from my viewpoint as a shipper during its brief history. They rebuilt and made available clean boxcars, kept good schedules and were represented by local people who cared about customer service. I still like their locomotive paint scheme and unlike CSX, Seaboard System even sounded like railroad.
Yeah, they are made in the US, I just always feel I need to have my guard up for the "made in America with parts sourced elsewhere" crowd. I own mostly Atlas boxcars with a few Microtrains. Most are 40'. Several have Rapido couplers that need upgrading. There's only so much Southern stock out there, new and vintage, and I think it's around 14 or 15 boxcars I've collected, three 90 ton hoppers and a couple of Intermodel covered hoppers. I started adding other railway names from memory and going thru video archives of Southern freight trains in the region. I can pretty much get away with pulling anything I want behind a Southern engine, at least boxcars, anyway. Maybe Western Maryland doesn't quite work, but I love the look of those old, flashy logos n slogans from bygone eras.
You have some great photos, friend. Looking at the date, I had just turned 21 and only cared about playing in bands and blowing what little money I made on guitars, amps and all things music. Alas, with time, we realize that life is so much more than being absorbed in one thing only. You know a lot of railroad history, forgive me that I don't lol. Those company logos and lettering show the real power of advertising, imo. I can say for a fact that I remember all these pre-80s coastal railway names from trips to Carolina Beach in the 70s. Before I85/40 opened in NC, we travelled NC87 which took us through Maco (famous for it's ghost light). Lots of chemical plants were around there and the rail lines connected Wilmington with points west. I believe that rail line followed what is now I74/76. You may know more about it, but I believe it may have been Seaboard rail. I think it's mostly defunct, now, parts were even then. I do remember those heavily-weathered rail cars, tho. You know everything that lives around the coast gets eat up. I'd tell you about the floorboards of my first car, but I'd rather not...
I had just bought this Microtrains GS tanker and captured the 2nd photo from the same video I got the RF&P boxcar (I think it was Spartanburg, 1990). I wasn't sure about the last digit and hoped I had by chance gotten a prototype photo.. but, rats, off by 2 digits.
You can definitely run Western Maryland boxcars behind Southern locomotives. I don't have the knowledge that some others contributing on this site have, but some of these roads are in my wheelhouse so to speak. My primary road is B&O, but Southern and Western Maryland follow right along, with C&O and N&W after that. WM boxcars on Southern freights? Absolutely! And vice versa. On this years WM historical society calendar, there is a picture of a Southern box car right there in a local being pulled by a WM GP9. That WM boxcar you have - it has been made by both Atlas and Micro-trains. It's the only boxcar WM had that used that fireball scheme. WM tested that out, but only used it on one car. They went to the speed lettering scheme pretty early. I always thought that had more of a 1960s look to it, but they were using it by the mid 1950s - I'd have to look up the exact date, but it was much earlier than I had always assumed.
I got that when I got these 3, mainly to have a few to experiment with weathering and all Atlas bases seem to be interchangeable, at least on 40' boxcars. I can't remember dates because of CRS syndrome, but recently read up on the history of WM and it was among so many other railroads that got consolidated or whatnot around the same time, or close. There's lots of great footage of WM freight and coal trains on YouTube from the 70s-80s with lots of Appalachian scenery
Just dropping these dates to help keep myself straight. I get SCL and SAL mixed up. It was SAL that came 1st. So, big merger years were of course 82/83, and 1967 for what would eventually become CSX and Norfolk Southern. Western Maryland (1852-1983) RF&P (1837-1983) Atlantic Coastline (1900-1967) Seaboard Airline (1900-1967) Seaboard Coastline (1967-1983) Seaboard System (1982-1986) Southern (1894-1982)
Company-owned tank cars like your SOU are generally used to carry diesel fuel or used engine oil. I found smaller, but similar cars such as SOU 950031 at Columbia, SC in June 1994, GM&O 66258 at Tuscaloosa, AL in April 1984 and SBD 986396 (another patch! ) at Dante, VA in March 1995.
I have more SBD patch pictures than I thought. Here's an ACL boxcar in MofW service at Camak, GA on 03/14/1996. The ACL's "Thanks For Using Coast Line" message on its boxcars was pleasing, an open appreciation to shippers and passengers alike.
I was looking at a 50' microtrains ACL car just like that (not a patch). These photos look incredible. I'm assuming these were 35mm film. I wish I could see those blue cars attached to the SBD car. Here's a MT boxcar that I just love, even though it's a post-'82. I don't own this one, but it makes my mouth water. It's still available on MT website, ebay. Photos of both sides:
Yes, they're mostly 35mm Kodachrome slides, with a few Ektachromes in places. Black and whites are mostly Plus-X film, with some Tri-X in places. I have just a few L&N boxcar pictures, only because they were so common when I lived in TN that I didn't shoot them. If I'd have only known! I have none in blue. LN 111458 at Barrington, IL about 1975 LN 7511 at Montgomery, AL 10/18/1987
