That new MT car is pretty cool looking, but I don't recall ever seeing one out in California - that I can remember anyway. . . . Did they use these for Maintenance of Way work? Would I be prototypically correct to have one in a work train on Tehachapi? Thanks
I don't know much about that car in particular. I have a list of all SP MOW cars as of January 31, 1956. They really don't say much about what kind of car they assigned to ballast work. They list some as Rdy Ballast Air Dump All Steel Blt. 4-1-29, Rdy Ballast Dump All Steel Kilbourn&Jacobs 10-31-12, Rdy Ballast Air Dump All Steel 12-22-53 and a bunch more Air Dump for 1956. It does not say if they were hoppers or gons but it does list the car numbers.
Those cars were mostly assigned to the Southwest (Texas, Arizona, etc.) for aggregate service. They were SP class H-100-42, and were built by Ortner in 1981; IIRC, these were the last new open hoppers SP purchased new. The SP Freightcars site has a page devoted to them here: http://www.railgoat.railfan.net/spcars/byclass/hopper/h100-42.htm While it seems they stayed pretty much in that area, I'm sure they wandered offline.
Oh, those cars. Yes, I still see them on rock trains around here. I think they have different reporting marks but I recognize them. A little too modern for my 1956 list.
they sure look like they could be used for MofW - maybe I'll make an assumption that one of them wandered out to CA and found it's way into work train service. . . . thanks for the help Russ & TunnelMotor-man!
