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The operation was interesting. Coal trains were sent east from two places - Colstrip, MT and from one of the mines in the Powder River Basin to Columbia, WI (5 miles south of Portage). As I recall, there were 10 trainsets in the pool, and were Thrall 50-foot hoppers. Some had red ends and some had yellow ends. As I understood it, the Yellow ended cars ran to the Powder River Basin, while the red ends were Colstrip trains. There were five sets in each pool. Central corridor trains ran from the mine on BN and were interchanged to MILW at Council Bluffs. They'd run east over MILW to Tama, IA after 1978, and then over the C&NW to Clinton, Iowa and then back to home rails (The D&I). for a while the trains ran over the R&SW from Kittredge, through Beloit, and then back to the mainline at Sturtevant. After a major derailment west of Beloit, the trains then ran over D&I to Tower A5 and then up to Milwaukee and on to Portage (reverse move required at Portage to get to the plant 5 miles south of Portage). The Southern corridor trains ran this way until March, 1980.The northern corridor trains ran from Colstrip to either Miles City then to St Paul via MILW, or to St Paul over the BN ex-NP via Dilworth. In the late 1970s, power on these trains was predominantly BN, either SD40-2s, U30Cs, C30-7s or on occasion U25C/U28C. MILW kicked in their eight U30Cs, some Sd40-2s and also a few U33C and U36C on occasion. With the closure of the MILW's Iowa Division, all Columbia trains from the Powder River Basin (Black Thunder???) then ran up the Q to Billings and then east on the NP to Miles City, joining their MILW Northern corridor trains in the route swaps. The direction the trains took at Miles City then became an issue of which line (MILW or NP) had rested crews available. In 1982, after State of SD took over the MILW route and contracted BN to run it. The whole route was revamped and in 1983 ALL coal trains (by this time also including the Weston coal trains) went on to former MILW rails at Terry MT for the trip to Portage/Columbia.Post-1980 power was either BN SD40-2s or U30/C30-7. MILW kicked in 17 SD40-2s that were equipped with more weights and equipment for coal service. The two MILW International Wide Vision Cabooses were on the route as well as many BN versions.The Columiba trains still used the red and yellow end Thrall gons while the Weston trains used Bethlehem Coalveyor bathtip gons.Fred Hyde
Great video Rick, I've been following your channel for a while and it's always a great inspiration. Looks like I need to start collecting, a BN waycar and many (many!) gondolas. Also Fred's book sounds good, will have to see if I can find a copy in the UK.
On the Subject of Fred's books here's links to the two that are the most interesting. (just to give a reference)- The Milwaukee Road, by Fred Hyde - The Milwaukee Road - Diesel Power, by Fred Hyde and Dale Sanders
You have about 60-80 cars of power there Bryn, be careful what you wish for! Just looked at ebay and can't believe what the Athearn Thrall cars sell for. I think I have 18 of the MDC's and didn't pay more than $9 apiece for them, and some were $5! Are you comfortable with stripping paint and repainting/lettering? PM me if yes.Thanks for the complement on youtube channel, I occasionally hang around a bunch of guys who originated the slogan "Better modeling thru peer pressure". It is both fun and challenging, and sometimes intimidating all at the same time!Rick
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Topic: Help with Milw Coal Gondola Identification (Read 3796 times)
