Weekend Update 11/6/16

[craigolio1]

Nice work, Wolf, I've always had a thing for the black widow scheme. Classy.
Where did you get he plow?
Otto K.

Is this the correct plow?

http://miniatures-by-eric.myshopify.com/collections/n-scale-parts-l-to-w/products/np16-plow-gn-sp-plow

Or this?

http://miniatures-by-eric.myshopify.com/collections/n-scale-parts-l-to-w/products/np13-wp-f-unit

[Rich_S]

Not really. UP used ore jennies for their Atlantic City (WY)-to-SLC taconite pellet trains. Notice the loads in that picture are only about half full, so it was apparently a non-optimal use of standard hopper cars.

Correct, The Union Railroad and many others figured why maintain two different car types (Ore Jennies and Hoppers). Now everyone just loads Taconite pellets into standard hopper cars. Note the load you see in the cars, is 100 tons of Taconite, to fill the cars with Taconite pellets would over load the cars.

[SP-Wolf]

Is this the correct plow?

http://miniatures-by-eric.myshopify.com/collections/n-scale-parts-l-to-w/products/np16-plow-gn-sp-plow

Or this?

http://miniatures-by-eric.myshopify.com/collections/n-scale-parts-l-to-w/products/np13-wp-f-unit

Actually neither. PM me if you are interested in a couple of correct plows.

Regards,
Wolf

[Cajonpassfan]

Well, I'm actually looking for this serious looking snow plow, unique to the UP I think:
Otto K.

[craigolio1]

Thay looks like someone welded the front of an SD## onto it! Awesome.

[C855B]

Well, I'm actually looking for this serious looking snow plow, unique to the UP I think:
Otto K.

Wow - that's ugly. Where was that picture taken? I can't quite make out the name on the tower, but it sorta kinda looks like a Santa Fe tower. I see an upper quad semaphore. With the exception of the LA&SL, UP's semaphores were Harriman practice (lower quad), and all were mostly gone by the time the Fs were running.

[Roger Holmes]

Regarding my Chicago "W" photos--The lady in the street fainted during the 10th inning of Game 7--but Dave Vollmer's answer was great!

The "W" flag actually has a railroad related history. One of the Chicago CTA L lines runs a block east of Wrigley Field.  The still existing manual scoreboard above the bleachers at Wrigley has a ship's mast on top.  Prior to the late 80's Wrigley had no lights so only hosted day games.  On those rare winning game days of yore, the Cubs W flag would fly high on the mast so that the CTA L train commuters would know the outcome of the game as their train passed Wrigley on the commute home.

The buildings in the photos are Sears Tower (I refuse to call it by it's current Willis name), The John Hancock Building, the old Traffic Court building where I worked a few weeks a year (the one with the clock tower), The Standard Oil sign that reigned over South Michigan Avenue for decades, Holy Name Cathedral and Marshall Field's (now Macy's).

In 1999 Chicago was the first city to host the Cows on Parade art installation.  300 cows around the city one of which was Harry Caray's "Holy Cow" which was displayed outside the WGN radio studio on North Michigan Ave across from the Wrigley (gum) Building.

[Cajonpassfan]

Wow - that's ugly. Where was that picture taken? I can't quite make out the name on the tower, but it sorta kinda looks like a Santa Fe tower. I see an upper quad semaphore. With the exception of the LA&SL, UP's semaphores were Harriman practice (lower quad), and all were mostly gone by the time the Fs were running.

Hey, ugly can be beautiful 

It was taken in 1950 at San Bernardino West Yard Tower, where the Second and Third Districts split. The F's just entered Third District approaching the B yard. the semaphore was gone in a year, replaced by a target...see a rare later photo below taken from the tower, looking east toward the depot. Also a pic of the more or less standard ATSF tower. Sorry about the low quality, but photos like this are invaluable for modeling purposes.
Otto K.

[C855B]

Thanks, Otto. That was obviously before my time hanging around Berdoo. Tower was gone by then, IIRC the operator was moved into one of the yard offices. I can maybe guess the tower was razed around the time the Mt. Vernon overpass was built?

[up1950s]

Well, I'm actually looking for this serious looking snow plow, unique to the UP I think:
Otto K.

https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/53_08_11_16_3_34_48.jpeg

[Cajonpassfan]

Thanks, Otto. That was obviously before my time hanging around Berdoo. Tower was gone by then, IIRC the operator was moved into one of the yard offices. I can maybe guess the tower was razed around the time the Mt. Vernon overpass was built?

Oh gosh no Mike, the West Yard tower lasted well into the seventies and the original Mt.Vernon viaduct was built in the late teens. I don't have my building records handy, but the color tower pic I posted earlier was taken in 1971. An interesting bit of trivia, the concrete West Yard tower replaced an earlier wooden tower when the 3rd district line was double tracked to accommodate the new interlocking. The top floor of the old wooden tower was unceremoniously cut off and plopped on the ground at the west end of the A yard, to serve as a yard office, see below. This around 1941.
One could almost use the top of the Atlas Hillside Jct. tower to model this....
Fun stuff!
Otto K.

[Cajonpassfan]

https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/53_08_11_16_3_34_48.jpeg

Lord, that's a PLOW! Thanks Richie!
Otto

[C855B]

Oh gosh no Mike, the West Yard tower lasted well into the seventies and the original Mt.Vernon viaduct was built in the late teens. ...

Goes to show how observant I was as a teen, I guess.   Opportunities to hang around the station were rare for me until the mid-'70s, and then when we were 'fanning in the area, we usually made a beeline for either Colton Tower, or around Cajon or Blue Cut with a mandatory stop at the burger stand next to the tracks in Devore. Thanks for straightening me out about Berdoo.

[nkalanaga]

I have read, but can't swear, that the PRR started hauling iron ore, then taconite, in hoppers as back-haul in Lakes-bound coal cars.  Rather than pull the empties back, and pull loaded ore cars, they just put the ore in the coal cars.

[Chris333]

I got a few cars weathered tonight. Nothing amazing, but everything on the layout gets weathered sooner or later. Here are a few.