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Does anyone know what type of SP coal hoppers were used on SP unit coal trains out of Colorado besides DRGW 4-bay and UP 5-bay hoppers? I can find a single picture in all of my SP motive power books that shows other than the above mentioned cars. Any and all suggestions are appreciated.
Since Colorado coal country was all DRGW before 1988 it makes sense you would see their cars there. I just spent a few minutes looking at some of the online archives and couldn't even find a photo of an SP coal hopper.
Do you mean coal unit trains after the SP/D&RGW after the UP merger? The SP never ran in Colorado although SP motive power was used after the Rio Grande purchased the SP in 1988. At that time, probably 80% of the hoppers would be Rio Grande with the rest being UP and private owner. After the merger, ex-Rio Grande and UP hopper showed up in about equal proportions. Since about 2000, the number of railroad owned hopper has declined drastically as leased hopper fleets have displaced the railroad owned cars.
Thanks to Paul and Jim for your replies. I also wasn't able to find any prototype info on the web re SP 481000 series Ortner 5-bay coal hoppers produced in N scale by Red Caboose. Don't know where they used on the SP.
You'd never see a 481150 series hopper on a coal train since they were used exclusively for aggregate service on the SP. They were used for aggregate quarry service, mostly in Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, sometimes hauling aggregate back to California for concrete production. I don't know if that changed after the sale and merger but they were always used for aggregate service when I saw them running.
