CSX Transportation Historical Society

Freight Car Cornucopia - 05-05-2025

Here are some interesting pieces of rolling stock that I've run across since last summer and fall:

1. CSX honored us on 07-10-2024 with 302482, an extremely rare Triple Tubby! Who is this Tubby anyway? 90 percent of CSX's tubs have been so tagged! Even a few hoppers and private cars.

2. TRLX (Infinity Transportation)78205 is ex-SSIX. load limit 194,000, blt. 01-1979. Shelby KY. 08-25-2024.

3. Repaired by Rocky Mountain Railcar Inc., 12-1986.

4. Although I've been told, I can't remember what this hole in the side is for. These few cars were sent to Damron Fork mine for a test loading of coal. The operation has since shut down.

5. Southern 88952 served as a buffer car on an ethanol train at Shelby on 08-25-2024.

6. Sou 88952 is 222,300 and 4,750 cu ft. It was built by Pullman-Standard at their Butler PA plant 03-1981.

7. WOKX (Progress Rail Leasing, ex-Hampton Capital LLC) is parked at the Stella-Jones tie yard at Maidsville WV on 09-27-2024.

8. CMHX (Car Math Inc) 4023 waits empty at Prarie Transport in the NS, former Monongahela Ry., Maidsville (Morgantown) yard. 09-27-2024.

9. This ex-Sultran has 4,000 cu ft, 213,300 and was built by Hawker-Siddeley Inc. in 1985 at Trenton, Nova Scotia.

10. MWCX (Midwest Railcar Corp.) 101368 is 4,000 cu ft, 203,900 and built 05-1977. In its glory days it was a member of someone's coal fleet.

11. GABX (General American Marks) 441 was found in BNSF's Winslow AZ, yard on 10-22-2024. It is 226,000, 4,200 cu ft and built by Freight Car America 11-2006.

12. BNSF 46018 has a load limit of 227,100 and was built 02-1979 for one of the predecessors.

13. Pan Am Rail is now a part of CSX, so this former Boston & Maine boxcar showing up in Buckhannon WV, is not unusual. The A&O local will be taking it to Heaters this evening to be loaded with wood products. 09-26-2024.

Comment 1 --

The WOKX gondola in Maidsville WV gets loads of “green” ties from Stella-Jones in Maidville and are shipped to a Stella-Jones tie treating plant in Winslow IN on the old Algiers, Winslow & Western. The treated ties will then be used by NS in their track maintenance programs.

The CMHX-MWCX high side gons in Maidsville WV are used for synthetic gypsum loading. The gypsum comes from a nearby coal fired power plant with scrubber system. It is trucked to Maidsville Yard, dumped on the ground and loaded into the cars with a front end loader. The gypsum is sent by train about 70-90 cars worth, to Gypsum OH (west of Sandusky OH) to a US Gypsum wallboard plant there. These high side gons are favored as they have no interior braces which makes them good to have the gypsum unloaded with a back hoe/excavator at the US Gypsum plant.

Thanks Everett, good pics an info!

Eric

===================================================================================== Comment 2 --

I thought gypsum was what they loaded at Maidsville, but I didn't understand how it is a byproduct of the ash burned at the power plant we had passed a few minutes earlier. Steel gons hold up better than aluminum when being unloaded with a backhoe!

Decades ago, I was shooting the AW&W at their yard near Oakland City IN. A couple of their beautifully painted ex-Sou, nee-CofGa SD9s took a group of MoPac gons loaded with raw ties out toward Winslow. I didn't investigate any further at the time. "Now the rest of the story," as Paul Harvey would say.

Generations ago my late grandfather Clyde Young (Olympia, KY on Lexington SD) was in the lumber business. He sold raw ties to the C&O. One of the last sources of on-line business on the Lexington SD before it was abandoned (1985) was a raw tie yard at Enterprise KY near Olive Hill.

Stella-Jones has a good website.

Prairie Transport uses some of the remaining infrastructure of Consol's abandoned Humphrey Mine prep. plant. Humphrey loaded barges by a conveyor that spanned the yard. The rail loadout may be what is used now for the gypsum. We were following CSX R129 from Grays Landing to Grafton, so there wasn't much time to do any "checking out".

Ties, either raw, processed, or scrap, are rail-related commodities. CSX has a fleet of used steel gons used for scrap ties. I'm looking for the one that still has the "CN" logo on it.

BTW, I'm still struggling to get Webmail to do what I want when making emails. Bear with me. It is not user friendly for inserting images.

Everett
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