ROLLING STOCK
Colorado & Western Railroad Co.
INTRODUCTION
In general my C&W freight car roster is mostly newer ready to run freight cars, although I do have some cars from the 1970s & 1990s. Most have metal wheelsets and all are equipped with Kadee couplers. Some pieces are weathered and some are not. Nothing special here so I’m not going to show photos.
I have been a student of modern intermodal since the late-1980s and love it. I have a very large collection of intermodal rolling stock, and along with this many containers and vans. But nothing newer than 1994 because that’s the timeline of my railroad. It was during this time when intermodal was rapidly advancing and changing constantly.
I liked BN America a lot, for one thing I lived in Denver and could do a lot of photo work on BNA. BN America was a pioneer in domestic container shipping. In the mid-1990s I wrote a huge multi-part magazine article on BN America, and that was a lot of work but a fun project, and I’m glad I did it.
J. B. Hunt was another favorite of mine. Hunt was also a pioneer in intermodal shipping inasmuch that Hunt was the first trucking company, other than UPS which is a package delivery company, to move into intermodal in a big way. Like BNA, I also did a huge multi-part magazine article on J.B. Hunt, and again, a lot of work but a fun project, and I’m glad I did it. Today J. B. Hunt is still a leader in trucking companies using intermodal. However, today there are other trucking companies moving into intermodal container shipping, primarily Schneider National and Swift, although many other trucking companies are now looking to intermodal as an alternative to over the road operations.
In addition to this I always liked piggers. TOFC was neat back in the 80s and 90s. Today the move is to eliminate trailers in exchange for containers, which are more economical to move. So as time moves forward we are going to see fewer and fewer trailers on trains. Some of my favorite pig vans were Xtra, Availco Preferred series of vans, and Strick Intermodal, plus others. Burlington Northern also used vans in a big way, having numerous lettering schemes.
I build an intermodal train and leave it that way as I simply like to watch my trains run. So I don’t need to load and unload the trains, but I do change the power on a train now and then. I’m not going to show all of my intermodal trains, but enough so you see the variety I have.
C&W Photos 050, 051, 052, 053, and 054
This pigger is comprised of an articulated all-purpose spine car with a mix of vans.
C&W Photos 055, 056, 057, 058, and 059
This pigger is comprised of an articulated Impack car. I always liked this car, both prototype and model. Notice that the last van in the train is a RGTZ Rio Grande without the graphics.
C&W Photos 060 and 061
This train is an all-purpose spine car with a mix of vans and containers. The two photos I’m showing are the special vans in the train. The first photo is a 48’ Strict Lease Intermodal van. This van is highly detailed per a prototype unit. The second photo is an ex-Availco van re-lettered for XTRA, per a prototype unit. The second van in the photo is a repaired Availco Preferred Pool van.
C&W Photos 062, 063, 064, 065, 066, and 067
This is a Burlington Northern 6-unit spine car loaded with a mix of BN vans. BN had numerous paint and lettering schemes for their vans. Photos 2, 5, and 6 was the most predominant scheme.
C&W Photos 071, 072, 073, 074, and 075
This is one of several BN stack trains I have. There were numerous variations with BNA containers, mostly with the color used in the lettering, and also some had black rear doors. There was always controversy if these doors were black or very dark blue. I came to the conclusion they were black. BN America also had numerous lettering schemes inasmuch as special lettering besides the BNA normal graphics. The bottom container in the first photo is a Genstar with BNAU reporting marks. These were reasonably common with BNA.
The car on this train is a 125-Ton 5-unit articulated Thrall well car, Trailer Train (DTTX 72154) with BN Innovative Intermodal Services graphics.
C&W Photos 095, 096, 097, 098, and 099
This is a Gunderson Twin Stack articulated 5-unit well car. It’s Trailer Train (DTTX 63286) with sub-lettering BN Twin-Pack and BN Innovative Intermodal Services. This is one of the earliest well cars lettered for BN.
The car is an A-Line kit and very nice, but it was a booger to build. Working together my friend Bill and I spent an entire day building this car. I then spent another week (part time) detailing, painting, and lettering it. Our efforts were worth it as it’s a very nice car. The car is designed to carry 45’ containers in the top position, but I have this one loaded with all 40’ cans. We built another one after this one, but my friend Gary now has it in his collection of intermodal cars.
C&W Photos 107, 108, 109, 110, and 111
This BN America stack train is comprised of Gunderson stand-alone well cars. The first three is a 3-unit BN drawbar car. The fourth car is a BN Husky Stack and the last unit is a TTX Husky Stack.
Several BNA variations are represented in this train; the container with reporting marks only and no BNA graphics, and the Itel with BNAU reporting marks. The fourth car has a 53’ J.B. Hunt can on top of a Genstar 40’ unit. Since I took this photo I have replaced these containers with two BNA units.
C&W Photos 117, 118, 119, 120, and 121
This is a new car on my railroad, purchased in 2011. It’s ready to run made by Intermountain/A-Line, and they did a fine job with it. It’s Trailer Train (DTTX 63185) sub-lettered Santa Fe Econo-Stack. When I built the first two of these in the 90s I wanted to build another one lettered for Santa Fe, but due to the work involved I never got around to it. Fortunately Intermountain now offers it ready to run. In this train, three of the units have 45’ cans in the top position.
C&W Photos 125, 126, 127, 128a, and 128b
This train is primarily J.B. Hunt and comprised of various Gunderson stand-alone Husky Stack cars. J.B. Hunt is another one of my favorite intermodal carriers.
C&W Photos 134, 135, 136, 137, 138, and 139
This pigger is loaded with NW and CF freight pus, Conrail Trailvan (CRZ) and a Conrail Mercury (CRMZ) vans. The first car is a 5-unit articulated FMC-built Impack car, and the trailing car is a Gunderson All-Purpose well car. I always liked the all-purpose well car, and Atlas released it ready to run, so I bought some.
C&W Photos 156, 157, 158, 159, and 160
I like this train. It’s a Santa Fe 5-unit articulated 125-Ton Thrall well car loaded with mostly Santa Fe containers.
C&W Photos 163, 164, 165, 166, and 167
I like this pigger. It’s comprised of all-purpose well cars and two converted 50’ boxcars and is loaded with Roadway and CF freight pups and two vans.
The converted 50’ boxcars for intermodal service was something that was done by the railroads in the mid-1990s. These were relatively short lived but indeed served their purpose very well.
C&W Photos 168, 169, 170, 171, and 172
This stacker is made up of Gunderson and Thrall stand-alone cars loaded with a variety of containers. The last car has an operating EOT device, and by “operating” I mean yes, it does flash just like the prototype.
C&W Photo 173
This is one of several cars I have with an operating EOT device. They’re pretty neat.
C&W Photos 174, 175, 176, 177, and 178
These are some of the BN America containers I built.
COAL
Be sure to check my “Operation” section to see my coal train in operation.
Coal Photos 01 and 02
First, I love unit coal trains. I have been a student of coal trains for a very long time, and I have watched the evolution of coal cars take place. Like intermodal, much of this evolution took place in the 1990s. Much of that evolution was changing from building steel cars to building aluminum cars. A leader in aluminum cars is Bethlehem Steel, Johnstown, Pennsylvania plant building the Bethgon Coalporter, and this car quickly became my all-time favorite coal car. The Coalporter is a rotary dump only car. One unique design of the car is the double trough bottom, which adds capacity to the car.
Today in model form three manufacturers produce the Bethgon Coalporter; Athearn, Atlas, and Walthers. Being a student of these cars I knew that I wanted as accurate of a car body that I could find, so I did my research between the three producers. There are some minor discrepancies with the Athearn and Atlas cars, but Walthers nailed it dead on accurate. The Walthers cars have cast-on grab irons, but I was more interested in the accuracy of the car body as opposed to cast-on grab irons. The Walthers Coalporter cars are simply excellent!
All of the large railroads have their own cars, but I wanted power company cars as these are the most prolific cars used in coal train service, especially in the Powder River Basin coal fields.
Real coal trains operate with 100-120 cars in a train. One would have to have a huge model railroad to operate with this many cars. I have 18 cars in my coal train, and on my railroad this gives the illusion of a really long train.
Coal Photo 03
Call me weird, but I always liked the look of the last Coalporter in a train. By the mid-1990s one would be hard pressed to find a caboose on the rear of a coal train, so I equipped my last car with a non-operating EOT device—so cool.
Coal Photo 04
Another thing that I really like about the Walthers cars is the dummy couplers. Walthers realizes that there is no point in having operating couplers on a unit coal train. In each set of six cars the two end cars have an operating coupler at one end. I only wish that Walthers offered the dummy coupler as a part so I could replace the operating couplers. The Walthers couplers look very real.
CABOOSES
I have always had an attraction to the caboose, and I really love short cabooses. My favorites are the standard cupola with the cupola at one end, and wide vision cabooses, so that is what I have always modeled. I have a large collection of cabooses, so I won’t show all of them, just the ones I use on the new C&W. Per Timetable No. 4, most trains on the C&W operate with a caboose, although some intermodal trains and all coal trains operate with an EOT device.
Caboose Photos 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09, and 10
C&W caboose No. 500 is my all-time favorite caboose that I ever built. It also is the most involved caboose project that I ever built. It’s totally scratchbuilt and took me six months to build. Even though one can’t see it, the undercarriage is detailed as well as the rest of it. When looking at the photos be sure to notice Dandy Dave in the cupola holding a crystal ball. When you bring up enlargements most photos have a caption explaining the details in the photo. The caboose will operate, but due to the fragility of it, I don’t operate it very much.
Caboose Photos 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20
C&W caboose No. 06 is another one of my all-time favorite cabooses. This one is highly modified Kadee shorty caboose. This too took a long time to complete, but it worth every hour spent on it. Again, be sure to notice the conductor at one end holding a crystal ball. When you bring up enlargements most photos have a caption explaining the details in the photo. The caboose will operate, but like No. 500, due to the fragility of it I don’t operate it very much.
Caboose Photo 21 - As the caption states, “What a pair!”
Caboose Photos 22, 23, and 24
C&W caboose No. 560 is another favorite of mine. It’s made from a highly modified Athearn kit, with new trucks and partially scratchbuilt cupola. This was built for every day operation and I use it on my new C&W.
Caboose Photos 25, 26, and 27
This caboose was built from a highly modified Athearn kit. The reporting marks and number are completely worn off. This caboose was built for every day operation and I use it on my new C&W.
Caboose Photos 28, 29, 30, and 31
C&W caboose No. 582 is another one of my favorites. This was built from a highly modified Athearn wide vision caboose kit, and it’s a sweetheart. It was built for every day operation and I use it on my new C&W.
Caboose Photos 32, 33, and 34
C&W caboose No. 5409 was built from a highly modified Silver Streak kit. This caboose was inherited from the SCLN&TC.
Caboose Photos 35 and 36
While AT&SF caboose No. 1957 isn’t one of my favorites, there are many fond memories attached to it. Today I use it on a Santa Fe stacker. I built this caboose back in the 1970s and used it on my C&W Cuchara switching railroad. It was one of my early weathering projects and it still looks good today.
Caboose Photo 37
C&W caboose No. 19 has quite a history. I acquired it when I was a boy back in the 1950s from a guy who scratchbuilt it. By today’s standards it’s crude, but is still a neat piece to look at. It doesn’t operate very well so I have never used it in operation, but I still have it just for the memories.
The Rolling Stock Dept. is an ongoing work in progress. I have many more cars to build and will put them here as I get them finished.