IM "Value Line" 50' High Cubes

[tehachapifan]

I'm not sure it's been mentioned here or not, but the cars feature dreadnought ends rather than box corrugations. Not an expert on all things SP or MILW, but they are close enough that I bought close to a dozen (UP, MILW, Golden West, SP, SSW).

I really like these cars and like that IM took the time to do these right. Body mount couplers. Correct 100T trucks. New ends and roof to match prototype. Metal wheels.

Basically they did everything that Atlas didn't with their Walthers stuff.

Did/do/would these cars have 100T trucks? If I'm figuring it right, and I might not be, the weight stencils seem to be around 70T and, looking at proto pics, the wheels appear to be 33".

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Did/do/would these cars have 100T trucks? If I'm figuring it right, and I might not be, the weight stencils seem to be around 70T and, looking at proto pics, the wheels appear to be 33".

99% sure these are 100T trucks. They are very beefy looking.
The dimi data on my UP car is 187900 LD WT and 75100 LT WT = 263000 isn't that 100T?

[jagged ben]

263000 is 132 tons which may be below the capacity of two 70-ton trucks.   Moreover the UP car has a U-1 inspection dot which applies only to 33" wheels, and I found the same on a pic of the DRGW series.  So allowing for the fact that those are somewhat fooby and the actual prototypes may vary, I'm pretty sure that these have 33" wheels.

[tehachapifan]

I've been doing a little more digging and it looks like maybe some of these cars have 33" wheels and some have 36". Additionally, the weight limits are quite different. The SP and SSW cars seem to have the lower weight limits and what appear to possibly be 33" wheels. Perhaps this is why the SP and SSW cars have "paper loading only" stickers all over them?

263000 is 132 tons which may be below the capacity of two 70-ton trucks.   Moreover the UP car has a U-1 inspection dot which applies only to 33" wheels, and I found the same on a pic of the DRGW series.  So allowing for the fact that those are somewhat fooby and the actual prototypes may vary, I'm pretty sure that these have 33" wheels.

Is that how that's calculated? Do they divide the weight by two because there's two trucks? Always wondered about that.

[jagged ben]

I've been doing a little more digging and it looks like maybe some of these cars have 33" wheels and some have 36".

Additionally, the weight limits are quite different. The SP and SSW cars seem to have the lower weight limits and what appear to possibly be 33" wheels. Perhaps this is why the SP and SSW cars have "paper loading only" stickers all over them?

I continued digging after my last post and I agree with you.  In fact it seems that mostly the flat-roof models would have 100-ton trucks and the peaked roof would have 70-ton, with a couple exceptions.

With the SP and SSW cars IM actually called out the B-70-42R and B70-43R classes in their information, which makes those cars definitively 70ton cars.  However Railgoat mentions that the SP cars were upgraded when rebuilt in the Golden West program, and it appears IM also put higher load markings on the GVSR version.

The UP car is a bit of an mish-mash oddity because IM put the U-1 inspection dot which dates the car's painting to 1978 when it was purportedly new, as well as a B-70-17 marking which appears to be a class marking for a 70-ton class.  But they also left off the CAPY marking which was required until 1985, and the numbers appear to be appropriate for a 100-ton class.   Maybe the were looking at a proto photo for a re-wieghed car that had the capy markings patched out, as appears to be seen here. 

Is that how that's calculated? Do they divide the weight by two? Always wondered about that.

I don't think it's as simple as dividing by two as there has to be some safety factor for an unbalanced load.  I don't really know, but it seems that the total car rating can be about 150% of the rating of one truck.    That seems to be the case for the 70-ton cars here, where the light weight and load limit add to about 105-tons.

[jagged ben]

By virtue of Soo lines acquisition of the Milw, and CP's taking over the Soo, CP would also have acquired some of these. I have seen Milw 86' auto boxes with Milw billboard lettering, and CP stencils

The thing is, IMs CP artwork features a CAPY marking (pre 1985) and a 1970s style COTS stencil, so those don't make sense as post-SOO repaints. 

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Does anyone have any actual photos of these things?

[nkalanaga]

For the 1960s, and today, the "Gross Rail Weight", or total of LD LMT and LT WT, for a 70-ton car is 220,000 pounds.  For a 100-ton car, it was 263,000.  There are cars heavier than that today, with 286,000 pounds for 110-ton cars.

Back when it was stenciled, the nominal capacity for a 70-ton car was 154,000 pounds, and for a 100-ton car 200,000.  In many cases, that was the "billing weight", and the shipper paid for that, even if the cargo weighed less.  On the other hand, the car could legally be loaded to the load limit, so, for a dense cargo, the payload could exceed the stenciled CAPY.

In the 50s, and earlier, a 70-ton car had a nominal capacity of 70 tons, or 140,000 pounds.  Capacities for 40, 50, and 70 ton cars were increased by 10% in the early 60s, but I don't know why.  Better bearings, maybe?  Capacities are determined by the journal (bearing) size, not by the wheel size.  So, the same car can be either a 70-ton or a 100-ton, depending on the trucks, and the intended use, as long as the car's structure can safely carry the higher weight.  No point putting 100-ton trucks under a car loaded with styrofoam peanuts!

[mu26aeh]

Does anyone have any actual photos of these things?

See second post 

[nscalbitz]

Go fish :

- http://www.railgoat.railfan.net/0_fmc_gbec/
- https://groups.io/g/bbfcl/search?ev=false&q=Gunderson
- https://groups.io/g/MFCL/search?q=Gunderson

cheers

[James Costello]

More proto photos etc when we first discussed these cars, on pages 1-3:

https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=40049.0

[jagged ben]

NScaleSupply also has model pictures.

Here's the proto links I've had open for the relevant car series, all collected in one post:

BN:
http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/bn/bn376426afm.jpg
http://freight.railfan.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=bn376490&o=bn
http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/bn/bn376415amh.jpg

BNSF Herald:
https://www.railcarphotos.com/PhotoDetails.php?PhotoID=65120
BNSF Swoosh
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=240000

DRGW:
http://rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=2866468
https://www.railcarphotos.com/PhotoDetails.php?PhotoID=109895

GVSR:
http://shastaroute.railfan.net/Photos/Golden_West/GVSR_743069_b.jpg

MILW:
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1183378
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1183379

MDW ex MILW:
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1345504

SP:
earlier: http://www.railgoat.railfan.net/spcars/byclass/box/b070-43.htm
later: http://www.railgoat.railfan.net/spcars/byclass/box/b070-43r.htm
Golden West: http://shastaroute.railfan.net/Photos/Golden_West/SP_228185_b.jpg

SSW:
earlier: http://www.railgoat.railfan.net/spcars/byclass/box/b070-42.htm
later: http://www.railgoat.railfan.net/spcars/byclass/box/b070-42r.htm

UP:  (PCF car, wrong # of ribs)
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=4330226
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=4357243

Santa Fe:  (pretty fooby)
https://www.railcarphotos.com/PhotoDetails.php?PhotoID=68113

[tehachapifan]

I had no idea that the cars in the older SP scheme were from so far back. I haven't found a picture of one that made it past 1975 yet. Kind of wish I got one in the newer scheme instead now. Anyone know of pics of any that made it at least into the late 80's, if not the 90's?

[James Costello]

I had no idea that the cars in the older SP scheme were from so far back. I haven't found a picture of one that made it past 1975 yet. Kind of wish I got one in the newer scheme instead now. Anyone know of pics of any that made it at least into the late 80's, if not the 90's?

Fairly confident this SSW photo is from the '90-ish period:

http://www.railgoat.railfan.net/photos/sp/ssw/ssw061579_derek_waggoner.jpg

[SD452XR]

Used to see the Milw cars down here on the transcon in AZ up until around 2007 or 08. Last picture I have of the MDW ex Milw cars was around 09. They were common in the H-BARGAL’s for awhile

I kind of like that they didn’t include the draft gears. I like closer coupling cars in N scale. But I do understand while some people do like them. I’ve been waiting for these cars for quite sometime.