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Trains Magazine 1959 November Duplex drives
Trains Magazine 1959 November
November 1959Volume 20 Number 1
NEWS - -5
NEWS PHOTOS -- -8
DUPLEX-DRIVES -16
ORE EXTRA- 26
WOULD YOU BELIEVE IT? -35
FIREMAN - -36
PHOTO SECTION40
Railway post office 52
Running extra58
Second section56
Interchange58
COVER: Head-on closeup of Baldwin-built Pennsylvania 4-4-4-4 duplex-drive locomotive 6110.
FREIGHT TRAIN-WATCHING
WHAT a difference a decade has made in the freight train! For the past few evenings we've been taking a long, long look at the westbound Milwaukee Road hotshot that clears our corner of suburbia about 8 p.m. The longer we look, the less resemblance the train has to its counterpart of 10 years ago. The locomotive is a diesel instead of the S-2 4-8-4, but only last summer the diesel itself changed. Instead of F7 cab units we've been spotting the brand-new 1750 h.p. GP9 hood units for which the Milwaukee traded in old 1350 h.p. FT "covered wagon" cab units.
It is in the consist, though, that we've discovered the widest variety of change. More and more cars are mounted on trucks incorporating either roller bearings or special solid-bearing lubricator devices. Only yesterday a roller-bearing freight car was a genuine novelty and invariably restricted to on-line service. Not today. We see B&M and Burlington box cars, ACL pulpwood racks, NP reefers on rollers. In fact, 30,538 freight-train cars were on roller bearings in 1957. In that year 9406 new cars were so equipped vs. only 57 in 1947.
There are many more specialized cars today. On an average-age basis, for example, the youngest cars in the land are covered hoppers, a breed which has enjoyed a phenomenal growth since the war. In fact, there are just as many covered hoppers as there are flat cars now. Covered hoppers are toting malt, phosphate, cement, flour; they boost payload, eliminate paper sacking, and cut damage claims. Their axle loadings exceed those of certain diesels, and trestles of certain branches or secondary main lines have actually been strengthened specifically to accommodate such cars. Mechanical refrigerator cars (a cause championed by Robert R. Young years ago - remember?) are now commonplace on the evening hotshot west. So are DF (for "damage free") box cars fitted with special load-holding devices (and usually cushion underframes) to protect high-rated lading from motion shock.
Quite a few old friends are missing, unfortunately. The pipeline was the undoing of the tank car; and the truckers have sliced the heart out of the livestock movement. Happily, General American Transportation and Union have recently developed drastically larger or different tanks - jumbo cars with capacities ranging up to 22,000 gallons and "hot dog" cars with no underframes or domes. What's more, both Northern Pacific and Pennsy have begun producing improved stock cars which may presage more ani
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