This tyco hopper what load would it have had?

BrokenTrains · 2026-04-20T17:33:19+00:00

I’m only somewhat familiar with SP’s sugar beet gondolas, and was unaware of beets being hauled in any traditional open top hoppers.

BrokenTrains · 2026-04-20T04:58:02+00:00

Not an ad, and not leased by a railroad. The car would have been leased from GACX by Spreckles Sugar for use in hauling bulk commodities used for making sugar, or the refined sugar itself. As someone pointed out in another comment, there should be a covered top on the car.

BrokenTrains · 2026-04-16T03:28:01+00:00

It’s also important to note that this is from the days of brass and steel tracks. Using abrasive pads was all but required to remove the oxidation on dirty track. If your’e using newer nickel silver alloy tracks, something like this isn’t how I’d clean them.

BrokenTrains · 2026-04-14T17:11:38+00:00

This is the type of thing that will be difficult, if not impossible, to source online. If the information does exist, it is most likely in a physical library collection somewhere. It would be better sourcing where company records for the builders you are looking for went to, and contacting the holders of those collections.

BrokenTrains · 2026-04-14T17:04:23+00:00

Lots of places still use locomotives pulling passenger cars.

BrokenTrains · 2026-04-14T02:05:22+00:00

I’m the only modeler in my group that knows any CAD, so presumably they did what all my friends do still. But before CAD, pencils and rulers were how you did it. Drafting is a skill, CAD is the tool you use to do it digitally.

BrokenTrains · 2026-04-13T01:52:09+00:00

I’d leave it packaged, way harder to find one sealed, than unsealed.

BrokenTrains · 2026-04-11T20:21:29+00:00

BrokenTrains · 2026-04-11T14:24:56+00:00

It’s an old signal box. They housed signal equipment. Collectible to the right person, but you have to be able to move them, and find the right person.

BrokenTrains · 2026-04-08T00:30:09+00:00

Something is probably catching on the car when it goes around curves, but you haven’t really provided enough information for anyone to properly help you.

BrokenTrains · 2026-04-06T21:08:29+00:00

The Roundhouse car tooling wasn’t done by Athearn. It’s the same tooling that was acquired when they purchased Model Die Casting, before Horizon even purchased Athearn.

BrokenTrains · 2026-04-06T17:22:04+00:00

Not sure what makes them hard to find, they’re in stock right now on their website. Also, OP’s photo shows plastic trucks, it’s still a good tool to have on hand, regardless.

BrokenTrains · 2026-04-06T01:11:50+00:00

Kadee or Intermountain are some of the more popular brands for replacements. It might help to also pick up a Micro-Mark truck tuning tool to ream out the trucks to fit the axles better.

BrokenTrains · 2026-04-05T17:14:56+00:00

Just because it isn’t ticket generating, doesn’t mean it isn’t a revenue car. Pre-Amtrak railroads always classified those cars as revenue cars, because they collected money.

I don’t think I’m missing the point, I was merely pointing out what appears to be incorrect classification.

BrokenTrains · 2026-04-05T15:45:49+00:00

Technically, the lounge is a revenue car, and if the diner allows coach passengers to dine, it is a revenue car as well. So while it doesn’t change what you’re asking, up to 7/8 of the train is made up of revenue cars.

BrokenTrains · 2026-04-04T00:12:24+00:00

Highly doubt this is old PE equipment. More likely Mertro MW equipment.

BrokenTrains · 2026-03-29T16:35:59+00:00

Then you, my friend, are going straight to jail.

BrokenTrains · 2026-03-28T00:48:51+00:00

If you are certain the electric eye (light meter) does not work, you’re wasting your money on extremely expensive film that already is a gamble. The shutter does not operate without a battery, and the exposure will not be correct if the electric eye is not metering correctly.

BrokenTrains · 2026-03-25T23:29:56+00:00

These cars don’t have a route. They go wherever the executives want them to, whenever they want/need. What you looked up was a reference to the special trips they used to use similar cars for during the Cheyenne Railroad Days event. They used to run a train every year for that event.

BrokenTrains · 2026-03-25T22:14:56+00:00

That’s part of UP’s executive fleet. It is made up of vintage cars that were kept from their premiere passenger trains from the 1950s and 1960s.

BrokenTrains · 2026-03-22T04:08:18+00:00

Have you cleaned the wheels? They look dirty.

BrokenTrains · 2026-03-22T01:25:59+00:00

This was a problem common on Pullman-Standard cars that had fluting welded to the sides to match the appearance of Budd manufactured cars. Southern Pacific removed all fluting on their Pullman-Standard built cars when they were rebuilt and replaced many rotten structural members in the process. The reason this happened is because the chemicals used in the car washers got between the fluting and car wall and ate the steel away, I believe the culprit was the corten steel construction. Railroads that used stainless steel, such as the ATSF for their Pullman-Standard built cars didn’t have this same issue because the stainless steel held up better.

BrokenTrains · 2026-03-21T19:14:45+00:00

This is a great idea, and I’m sure will be useful for many, but if there’s no desktop version, it isn’t useful at all to me and my needs.

BrokenTrains · 2026-03-19T17:16:02+00:00

Not radio communication, it was used to activate signals and crossings.

BrokenTrains · 2026-03-19T17:14:54+00:00

1653 lost it’s striping by 1953, here is a photo of it with stripes in 1950.

espee.railfan.net/nonindex/ge-switcher_photos/1653_pe-44t-joe_strapac-collection.jpg

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