Rock Island at Athens GA in August 1994. RUSX 800374 is owned by @r_i_straw's car leasing enterprise.
N&W 27648 three bay hopper, pancake herald and all. Oakdale TN, March 1990. I can't read the build date.
Looking at the bent up side sill area, I would believe this car has had a few stuck/frozen loads beaten loose. Seeing the doors hanging open, I wonder if it is going to be bad ordered.
Looks like a Class H-16, N&W series 27000 to 27999 according to the Norfolk and Western Color Guide to Freight and Passenger Equipment, Page 67. Build date not given, though the caption suggests that it used trucks from scrapped H2a class hoppers. A photo of the end (!) of N&W 27000 from the same series is listed with the date March 31, 1965, but I can't be sure if it's a "Builder's Photo." https://digitalsc.lib.vt.edu/items/show/29001 (Well, that's no help, George...) EDIT: There's a lettering diagram on the N&W HS website for the H16s dated 12/14/1964, but that doesn't mean that's the build date: https://www.nwhs.org/archivesdb/detail.php?ID=92895 (That's still not that much help, George...)
That Allentown Yard shot is fascinating. Some unusual freight cars, not least of which is the New York Central x-post boxcar with offset plug door, on the right in the fourth track in from the front (the same track that has the two Maine Central boxcars). The 1980 date is spot on, as seen by the Route Rock boxcar with CNW reporting marks on the left of the sixth track from the front (a bit behind the Maine Central cars). That didn't take long! Also of note: I see only two forty foot boxcars. The times they were a-changing...
Also, near the center of the photo (behind the tankcar behind the row of autoracks), is a Raritan River RR boxcar.
SOU's John Sevier Yard at Knoxville, TN as viewed from the hump tower, January 1980. NS closed the hump a several years ago, but I think I read somewhere that there was talk of reopening it. I don't know the status of Sevier today.
I looked around and in 2022 RJ Corman (Harvey's kin ) acquired two former NS branches to form the Knoxville and Cumberland Gap Railroad (KXCG). Back then they planned to interchange cars with Norfolk Southern at Sevier.
Brass journal bearings, often found in older freight cars, are called "friction bearings" not because they inherently cause excessive friction, but due to a marketing term used by the roller bearing industry. They are technically "solid bearings" or "plain bearings," operating on the principle of sliding friction. The term "friction bearing" was used to make them seem less desirable compared to roller bearings.
