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I don’t know what the situation was in 1997, but in recent years the main use of this type of car has been hauling large oil and gas pipe. Wind turbines too, though they don’t seem to move on railroad-owned cars.
The shaft and wheel of the ‘stemwinder’ handbrakes that a lot of these cars still have can be raised and lowered. When lowered the horizontal wheel is flush with the deck, and is not visible from a distance. When left in the raised position they tend to get hit and damaged whenever the car is loaded or unloaded, and then cannot be lowered or do not work at all.
CN also has a fleet of these, and they are the worst cars I have ever had to switch, and at 93 feet long are also the largest. The handbrakes barely work, you can’t ride them (legally), you can’t cross over them (legally), they have lots of slack, and the drawbars get shifted over to all sorts of weird angles in curves or whenever the slack bunches up.
End of rant. Great shot like always!
Thanks for this info. I noted that the only one readable, #315514, is not on the rolling stock roster any more; got me wondering if these cars were on their way to a new owner….odd to see so many heading down to Niagara. Can’t all be going to pipe manufacturers at the same time. Could they?
Rant continued.
Definitley one of the worst cars to try and ride on (if using the foot stirup and handholds – thus, just better to sit on the deck somewhere). Another classic from back in the day were the trilevels. Clinging onto a ladder with one arm as you appiled the ratchet action brake with the other, hoping you get the loaded car slowed down in time. It always seemed you had a ton of chain to ratchet in before the brakes started grabbing. Give me a 40 foot box with platform and wheel brake everytime, even if you did have to climb a ladder to get there.
If this was ’67 rather than ’97 I’d suggest the TH&B was going to take them to Massey Ferguson. The only other thought I had was staging for a military move, but there isn’t a base in the area. Whatever it was, it is certainly interesting to see, and now we all know it was obnoxious for the crew.