Hello, I have been doing more research on SP, and who owns Golden West Service?? I have seen several of the big blue GWS boxcars with the following reporting marks: GWS (Golden West Service) VCY (Ventura County Railway?) GRBR (Greenbrier Leasing??) I've seen some with SP and even SSW marks. Any help is greatly appreciated.
With the exception of VCY, I haven't seen any of the reporting marks you listed on any Golden West cars here in the great state of Oregon. The most common one I've seen is GVSR. I believe I heard somewhere that this was connected to Texas' Galveston Railway. That might be a good place to start looking for more information. And just so you know, boxcars are the vast majority of Golden West cars (at least around here), but I have also seen flatcars, bulkhead flats, covered hoppers, wood chip gons, and standard gons. All of these cars are rare, but they are out there. Mike Smith Eugene, Oregon
Welcome to TrainBoard, Mike. We saw lots of Boxcars in Golden West colours when we were over in Southern California, also several covered hoppers. So I now have some on my N scale model railroad ------------------ Alan The perfect combination - BNSF and N Scale! www.ac-models.com http://Andersley.homestead.com http://galleryusarail_tehcaj.homestead.com
I'm not sure how the ownership agreement worked out with those cars - basically SP sold a bunch of old freight cars to Greenbrier Railcar (which owns Gunderson), who refurbished them and repainted them. Greenbrier used the reporting marks of several railroads (including those that you mentioned) - but SP did not have any link to those railroads. I've seen on the 'net images of brochures that SP put out to advertise this new car fleet; but I don't know if SP was just leasing these cars back or had an ownership interest. - erik
The reporting I remember in my head (fuzzy at best) is that the Golden West cars were built using old SP cars. SP sold the cars to the rebuilder (Gunderson?) which in turn rebuilt them and through other agents (the railroad companies whose reporting marks appear on them) leased them back for use on the SP. By doing this, it gave SP guaranteed availability without ownership. I also believe that through some loophole, all parties involved in the transactions received some monetary gain/tax breaks. Not a definitive answer, but the best recollections from my mediocre memory. Kevin Stevens http://www.trainweb.org/KernJunction
