A contract railroad car repair shop nearby gets lots of odd and unusual, long idled MofW equipment from the all over the UP system delivered to them to perform work on.

This particular flat is on their property at the moment, awaiting it's turn at a new life in the MofW fleet.

It's D&RGW AX 21056. The number 2 is nearly invisible.



I've seen maybe 1 other piece of Rio Grande with that 2 letter suffix applied to the initials.

What do you reckon AX connotes?

The picture is from 50 yards away on a cellphone... so sorry for the poor quality.

Others may be able to add more detail but I believe the AX indicated that it was dedicated to MofW service.

The Rio Grande most often simply added the AX to the previous number when a car was assigned to company service.

There is a D&RGW historical Society: Rio Grande Modeling & Historical Society

According to this roster AX was used for MW equipment, including Jordan spreaders, flat cars, etc.: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/rslist.aspx?id=DRGW

Here is another flat car in the same series as your car, the photographer has it as AX 2101 but it looks to actually be AX 21015: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=2891770

Well, the above explanations will have to suffice unless something else comes to light.

SPMW initials are self explanatory, so that's why I was curious what AX could have stood for.

I think the D&RGW "AX" represents "auxiliary."

For years the D&RGW put a "0" in front of car numbers that were used in MOW or Company service. Later the put "X" in front of the numbers.

I was told by some old D&RGW heads that "AX" meant the car to be handled on the rear end of the train only.

Well, their ancient rotary snowplows were, what, OX and OY.... that's kinda what got me curious what the A and X had to do with anything.

The major narrow-gauge work cars were OA, OB, OC .... etc
Narrow-gauge living cars and supply cars, like the standard gauge, received the "O" in front of their prior numbers.

My understanding is similar. The narrow gauge work equipment was identified with letters "OA to OZ" and a "0" preceding the car number for most outfit and some other cars in company service.

The standard gauge work equipment was identified by an "X" preceding the car number. As Earl explained, the "A" added to some equipment in later years indicated some kind of train placement restriction for that car.

I have the specifics somewhere...but can't lay my hands on them right now....

Mike Ramsey