A friend of mine who grew up in Ohio recently sent a photo to me showing what appears to be a 50-foot P-S (?) riveted construction C&O boxcar in 1970's Chessie System paint. He recalls the car as having been there as long as he can remember, sio I would guess it's been there 20+ years. The car has solid bearing trucks. I don't have any resources for C&O equipment and hope someone here has a quick answer.

The question is, what is the heritage of the car...who built it, what year, what class of car, etc.

Here is what you can make out from the photo (link below):

C&O 19335
DF-9 (Class designation?)
CAPY 110000
LD LMT 125000
LT WT 42000
These numbers are all rusted over and may not be exactly correct.

It appears the car was modified in 1974 with roof walk removed and A-end ladder cut down, but the B-end side ladder is still full-height, indicating the break wheel was not lowered.

The car is reported in the old C&O Market Street yard in Zanesville, OH.

Any information on this car would be appreciated. It is presumably still owned by CSX, but was never relettered for CSXT.

Here's the link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/railphotos/263213732/

Thanks.

Hey, can anyone say, when did friction bearings go out of service? I know some lines kept them in service for captive traffic fairly late. The SP still had beet traffic gondolas with friction bearings into the 1980's.

Plain bearings were prohibited in AAR interchange as of January 1, 1994. Many railroads have them in service on some MOW cars to this time; I've seen Amtrak and Metro-North work cars so equipped.

It is my understanding that plain bearings are not prohibited by the FRA for equipment other than revenue, UMLER-listed, AAR-unrestricted interchange freight cars.

Howard P.

Without reading my CFR, I believe FRA has no restrictions on plain bearings per se, other than if you have them, you have to maintain them (repacks, proper lubrication, etc.).

There is a tendency by lower and middle management at most railroads to declare certain equipment, appliances, etc., as "illegal" when in fact it may only be restricted by the AAR interchange rules. As Howard points out, just about every railroad still has some plain bearing cars around and they can, and do, move such cars on their own lines; they can be interchanged as long as the receiving road agrees to waive the AAR interchange restrictions. These arguments tend to be lost on new hire car inspectors who have no experience with older appliances as well as trainmasters and superintendents who - justifiably - fear an antique causing a delay or accident on the road, especially when there is nobody left who knows how to inspect, repack or lube a journal.

I moved a ninety year old wood passenger car on plain bearings in interchange service a few years back by going directly to the local "old head" general foreman who understood what he was looking at and put reasonable restrictions on the movement (local trains only). I'd be hard pressed today to find anyone who has the combination of experience and authority to do the same.

Alan Maples

All very good information, especially since I am attempting to move some solid bearing equipment in interchange, and so far have not been able to make it happen. BUT, all that aside, does anyone have the information requested in the post?

In the past I've not had any luck getting information from the C&OHS, so please don't refer me there.

Thanks.

I have a 1974 copyright Burlington Northern brakemen training manual and it has a sketch of a hand checking a friction bearing for a hot box, but it was not discussed in the text.

Another interesting sketch shows the "right" way to uncouple cars if the cut lever will not stay in the released position. It shows the crewman riding the car and using his foot to lift the cut lever, presumeably while the train is moving!

We have a good deal of C&O 40' boxcars still in C&O paint and a few other boxcars in Chessie. The 40' boxcars still have journal bearings but have had their runningboards removed. These boxcars are used for storage.

This picture I found on Flickr illustrates what I speak of.