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It's 1979. Conrail is only a couple of years old, and is busy shedding unprofitable trackage. The Laurel Valley is formed to operate the old Ligonier Valley line from Latrobe down to its namesake town, to keep stone and other commodities moving up and down the valley in the shadow of Laurel Hill in southwestern Pennsylvania. Like many short lines of the day, it generates extra revenue through the antiquated "per diem" charges accrued to the owners of rolling stock that is operating over foreign lines. Tens of thousands of modern, and not so modern 50' boxcars are added to the fleets of these short lines, used in pool service and regularly sending money home, even if they rarely go there themselves. But it will all come to an end soon, when the Staggers Act of 1980 radically changes how the railroads are regulated, and how they can do business. Per diem charges go the way of the link and pin coupler and steam power, and suddenly all of these cars started showing up on home rails. Some short lines had more miles of boxcars than they did miles of track, causing comical, if expensive, storage situations until those cars could be dispensed with, either by sale or with the scrapper's torch.Until then, this freshly built Laurel Valley boxcar will wander the nation's rails in search of the next load.
Kinda like a hooker working the convention circuit. 😜
Anyone up for another custom car run? I think this one might have legs...Plus it's been awhile since I soaked you guys for a couple of grand... Lee
A hooker that looks like a yellow boxcar with a brown door? I would find that be hard to pass up!Kind of reminds me of the old song: "She's a brick house", except it would be "She's a box - car".
You can’t pass up the “brown door”?Dude! SMH.
Tens of thousands of modern, and not so modern 50' boxcars are added to the fleets of these short lines, used in pool service and regularly sending money home,.
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Topic: Weekend Update 2021/05/16 (Read 9907 times)
