Next Friday and Saturday is the November work session at the SRHA archives. Most of our shelving is up and we plan to empty as many packing boxes as possible. One project (of many) is to organize our freight and passenger car specifications, drawing indexes and correspondence files in F (Specification), NCP (New Car Program, ACP (Automobile Car Program, NEP (New Equipment Program) and SCP (Special Car program) order. That task, along with several others I'll describe later this weekend, will make it much easier to locate material and edit the indexes and lists we have.

Anyone that can attend and help will have the opportunity to understand what the different parts of the SRHA collections are and how they relate to each other.

We will begin around 10:00 Friday morning at the archives on Turntable road (just south of the entrance to TVRM off Cromwell Road in Chattanooga), go as late as anyone is interested and then begin again on Saturday morning at about 8:00 until 3:30 or so. (IF anyone wants to work on Sunday, you must let us know at archives@... and we will see if that can be arranged.) Any questions, send us an email as soon as possible.

The attached PDF document is the working copy of the Southern freight car to Card List index we will be using.

Ike

Scott,

Scott,

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Here is a picture of the near complete kit bash for this series FGE car:

Mike:

Hello, all. There is a photo on Elwood's Fallen Flags site of CG 4751, stenciled "Return to Krannert When Empty". Hope this helps.

Regards,

Tom Holley

All:

I trust it will be OK with NIck Molo if I forward his “Master Class” discussion to the group. I’ve posted it on the Southern Railway (not only “modeling”) group because of its business and operating information.

Nick always does the research needed to produce excellent models and background information to go along with them. His Southern leased FGE cars are superb models. As I have mentioned before, modelers need to support high quality manufacturers by purchasing their kits and RTR offerings while they are available.

I have always been interested in the large number of insulated box cars Fruit Growers built for the Southern. They include:

Southern 70-ton 52 ft. 6 in. Insulated Box Cars Built by Fruit Growers Express Co.
Southern 70-ton 52 ft. 6 in. SCUF Insulated Box Cars 650-899, NCP-177
SCUF Insulated Box Cars 201-299 and 585000-585199, NCP-188
CUF Insulated Box Cars 585200-585699, NCP-201
SCUF Insulated Box Cars 100-299 and 585000-585199, NCP-201-A
CUF Insulated Box Cars 584824-584999, NCP-211 and NCP-212
CUF Insulated Box Cars 585700-585923, NCP-211-A

I’ve suggested that Moloco might offer these but, unfortunately, they are unique to the Southern. As Nick pointed out, FGE was really in the car assembly business. They bought parts; roofs, ends, side and specialties fro multiple vendors and did final assembly at their plant in Alexandria, VA. The combination of parts used on the Southern’s orders were not used on other roads’ cars.

As Nick mentions, many of the Southern and CofG leases were for beer service from various breweries. The cars in the “New Car Programs” (NCPs) listed were almost all for cars to be used for a new Miller brewery under construction at Eden, NC. They have their own section in Book 2 of the upcoming SRHA 50’ box car book. (Photos or information about any Southern rolling stock are certainly welcome.)

A project at archives work sessions needs to be to review the NCP files to make sure the chapter includes all of the data we have. We’ll be at the archives at least twice in November and another two or three times in Dec. If you are interested in attending, send an email to archives@....

Ike



Begin forwarded message:

From: moloco <molocotrains.yahoo.com@...>
Subject: moloco Southern FGE = "The Beer Car"
Date: November 3, 2018 at 8:41:41 PM EDT
To: <geichelberger@...>
Reply-To: <molocotrains@...>


moloco Southern FGE master class
= "The" Beer Car
the numbers
Southern had 1179 insulated boxcars leased from FGE, that includes it's subsidiary lines, like Central Of Georgia or Norfolk Southern. Of those, 461 were of the 10-foot centered design with single rivet pattern like Moloco currently offers. Part of which there is a solid block of Southern cars that were assigned as BEER CARS. The beer companies serviced were Miller, Pabst and Falstaff.

the locations
During the era of these cars in service, Miller had several plant locations, firstly Milwaukee, then later Fort Worth in 1969, Albany, GA in 1979, Irwindale, CA in 1980, Elkton, VA in 1987. Pabst had a few plants itself, again in Milwaukee, Peoria, IL in 1934, Perry, GA in 1968 (railroad location was Pabst, GA). Falstaff was from St. Louis and other plants through acquisitions Omaha, NE (Krug, 1936), New Orleans, LA (National 1937), Fort Wayne, IN (Berghoff 1954), Galveston, TX (Galveston-Houston 1956), El Paso, TX (Mitchell 1956), Rhode Island (Narragansett 1965).

With the recent releases of FGE RBLs I wanted to continued the series of master classes and specifically it's relationship with Beer traffic. Southern was involved with many national car pools and therefore no stranger when soliciting beer loadings understanding the lucrative nature and year round revenues. These pools would involve multiple railroads that would serve these listed plants and then many distributors across the nation.

For this instalment of master class the focus will be for the two pairs of Southern FGE cars produced by Moloco. Two for Miller and two for Pabst. The Southern return route rectangle so common on FGE boxcars had return locations of Milwaukee, WISC on the Milwaukee Road for Miller Brewing and Pabst, GA on the Southern for the Pabst Brewing cars. The other cars produced by Moloco in the past that were in beer service were Rock Island General American RBLs for Pabst Brewing in Peoria, IL, which may also translate to the ROCK cars as well at later dates. Moloco RI #6508 was a specific car number of many that we know were in Pabst service. The EL GA RBLs assigned car numbers #68301, #68305, #68319 and #68351 to Miller Brewing, even though we didn't make those specific numbers in that run. The hometown road of Milwaukee Road most likely served one or all of the brewers in town, see the available Moloco examples below. We also believe but could not confirm Wabash, MODX, MP and WADX RBLs being in Anheuser-Busch service. We also believe the SOO General American RBLs we produce a few years back also were in beer service, but not sure out of which of the many upper Midwest brewers that they could have served.

We can speculate from the above information that these national brands were being delivered by these Southern cars to all parts of the country before more localized beer plants were set-up. Meaning that even the west coast and mountain time zones received Miller High Life and Pabst Blue Ribbon!


SKU #33054 SOUTHERN repaint AX 4-65 (2 car numbers) - re-weighed/repainted at the FGE Alexandria, VA shop in 1965. It has the brown end double stripe scheme typical of that era. Note how the rivet strip on the ends is prototypically painted yellow. It has it's typical application of Morton tread roofwalk, Moloco is the only manufacturer to produce this a roofwalk accurately with up and over roof rib profile. FGE cars of this era had their full roof painted silver as well, presumably for heat protection/reflection from the sun. Being a 1965 repaint it still has it's full height ladders.

SKU #33024 SOUTHERN repaint AX 1-75 (2 car numbers) - re-weighed/repainted at the FGE Alexandria, VA shop in 1975. Note at this period of FGE practice the cars were painted all yellow and the A end ladders were cut down and roofwalk removed. However, roofwalk brackets remained on the roofs, accurately produced. Note the diagonally stacked For Greatest Efficiency logo starts directly under the FRUIT for the all yellow scheme. It also has an ACI label and COTS.


SOUTHERN 791508 - Represents the 1965 cars in this case. SOUTHERN 791500 - Represents the 1975 cars. This close-up shows the return route railroad CMSTP&P RR for the earlier cars whereas the later car has SOU RWY instead. Look at the differences in the rectangular return route boxes; 791508 has a 5 line return route, whereas 791500 has a 4 line one typical found on later era cars. The Lading Band Anchor symbol on the door is present on the older car and has been removed on the all yellow car. This also highlights changing stenciling practices on the door data and positions. Even though the reporting marks and numbers seem to be in the same position on the car sides, the CAPY block and Insulated -Cushioned lettering have moved around slightly which is to be expected with a ten year gap. Ironically, the 1975 repainted cars has floor loading (25K) and L and R stenciling applied to the left side of the door opening. Paint data in the top left also matches the repaint date and type of paint used, a common FGE practice.

Surely some one drinks beer on your model railroad...Cheers!





POOL CARS - Above 4 examples of 3 schemes that we have produced that were to our knowledge were in beer service. Specific Rock Island General American RBLs were in the Pabst nationwide pool. Four specific car numbers mentioned above were in Miller Brewing service, our example shows how they looked. The other 2 cars represent most likely beer service cars in the Milwaukee area. These cars represent 1979 repaints of the distinctive yellow doored cars. Note the differences between these almost identical schemes. They still have the LRD lettering on the doors, albeit a lot smaller. See our previous master class on Milwaukee cars for the specifics.

I hope you've learnt something about Southern FGE boxcars and the partnership with beer service. We are glad to give an insight of what we go through to bring you the best products in the industry. We hope to produce additional runs of the RI and EL cars in the future, so one can fill out their beer fleet if they missed out the first time - Nick Molo, owner moloco
Remember that shipping is only $9.99 for 1-5 cars and FREE SHIPPING for 6 cars and over, for USA customers.
Copyright © 2018 moloco, All rights reserved.

molocotrains@...

I think about the only way to do this reasonably is with photo-etched metal. They'll all be the same size and the holes will be centered. Hunt around for someplace that does custom photo-etching. You may be able to get the fins and spacers both in one part. Be warned that the fins won't be thin enough (unless you change to #1 scale) and there will be fewer fins, but it should capture the effect your looking for.

And Ike isn't nuts. He's not trying to do this in N scale (unlike some of us). :)

Tim Rumph
Lancaster, SC

I have always liked how the Southern's modified E-6s looked.. As soon as I saw the Proto 2000 E-6s I have wanted to modify one in the same style.

The pier panels on the body castings Athern uses in their Fs are almost precisely the same (correct) dimension as the panels on the E-6s. After quite a bit of very careful cutting and filing, I am reasonably happy (see photo) with the result. In addition to the modified sides, the roof mounted aftercooler pipes are one of the "signature" parts of the units.

BUT, there is a problem. All other piping on Es and Fs is just piping, the E-6s have 4x4" cooling fins. I can cut dozens of fins from plastic or brass, then drill and mount them on pipes but I am not certain that can be done with the accuracy and appearance anything mounted on a diesel's roof needs. Any ideas?

Ike

Yes, Mask Island offers the plug doos for these cars. If we have them in stock, you can order them through the SRHA company store www.srha.net.

It's still on the work bench without a road number but I've attached a photo of a CG version of the car. (I prefer to use a photo to finish decals but even with 392 40' SR box car photos in the SRHA archives, there are none of the CofG brick cars. Might someone have a photo they can share? I'll include it in the new version of the SR 40' box car book if possible.)

Ike

O Fenton Wells <srrfan1401@...> wrote:

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--

I realize thirty pages of meeting notes from 1904 will not interest everyone but to see for yourself use the link to Google Drive to view or download the notes of a meeting at Southern headquarters in Washington, DC between the Southern and Washington Southern. (There are literally thousands of similar files in the SRHA archives.)

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1tP9b7J9ssHArQCeduUE3_8YwAZjDgIgw?usp=sharing

In early 1904, the Washington Southern approached the Southern about building a fly-over junction at Cameron Run. The meeting was a planning session for the future of the two lines into Alexandria and the land purchases, swaps, etc. necessary to construct the new "Arlington  (e.g. Potomac) Yard".

This work with the construction of the new Long Bridge over the river leads to the development of the trackage and yards leading into Washington Union Station. All subjects included in the Southern Railway Presidents' files collection in the SRHA archives at TVRM.

If anyone has any information on any of those subjects, or would like to assist with research for several future TIES articles, please contact us at archives@....

Ike

Fenton:

All of the Southern and CofG "brick" cars need a detailed article in TIES as they have quite a history.

A "short" answer to your question.....working backwards....

The Southern 505700-505848 double plug door 40' box cars were renumbered from CofG 47 and 4800 series cars in May and June, 1976 (most CG cars were renumbered and re-stenciled Southern at that same time. I've attached a nice Oscar Kimsey photo of Sou 505703 taken at Nixon, GA in 1973 and Sou 32161.)

When they were rebuilt from standard 40' box cars to CofG brick cars is a bit more complicated. The first version of Southern/CofG cars for brick service were done "on the cheep". They had double sliding doors and cushion underframes but the underframes were not modified to deal with the width of the double doors. Typically door side posts connect to the side sill at a crossmember to carry the load from the door sills to the underframe. Because the rebuilt door sills were at a different location, their load was transferred to only side sill then the side sill carried the load to a crossmember. The problem was the vertical load at both the bottom of the door sill and at the crossmembers caused cracks in the side sills. Note the reinforcements on the side sill below the door sill on Sou 32151 to try to correct the problem. (I'm sure a mechanical engineer could provide a better explanation.)

As some portion (?) of the sliding door cars were rebuilt to plug door cars, their underframes were modified to correct that problem. The plug doors helped carry the load across the door opening to the door sills.

The idea was that the CG brick cars were to be rebuilt from CG box cars to keep the accounts straight bt I don't believe that was always the case. During the rebuild programs of the 1960s, if a CofG car was not available, a Southern car would be swapped in the accounts and a Central car used for a Southern rebuild. I expect we can dig into the SCP files in the archives to show all/most of the brick car renumberings but that take someone to help with the research.

Ike