georgiaroad
Chairman
Purveryor of all things of the prototype freelance GEORGIA ROAD
Posts: 250
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Post by georgiaroad on Apr 2, 2009 22:23:20 GMT -5
The weather has been much colder down south than I can remember in many years. For most of you "Nawtherners", I would likely get a laugh at best and a sneer at worst at only a few days of snow and ice and temps hovering between the mid twenties at night and the low forties during the day. It is a trying time for us deep fried Southerners, who are used to a usually temperate winter that requires only a heavy jacket a few days out of the season. Since painting has been all but ruled out (I just gotta complete installation of a paint booth inside!)due to Stephens Railcar working in "outside conditions", I continue to start more kitbashing projects than I can ever finish. I figured I would share one that seems to be turning out better than I expected, since this might just require a little stretch from even a prototype freelance modeler like myself. One concept that has grown a life of its own is the Florida & Gulf Coast RR (FGC), a hypothetical spin-off of CSX Transportation consisting of much of the Bone Valley operations around Tampa, FL and the panhandle lines running from Tallahassee west toward Pensacola with rights into Mobile and a subsidiary into Birmingham, AL. Truth be known, CSX really has downgraded this line, and the BV could make for a great captive regional for a CSX looking to raise capital, especially since it sold off most of its Rockport ownership to foreign interests. The FGC makes a living hauling phosphate, coal, aggregate and paper/timber products between cities in Northern Florida and the Panhandle through Alabama to connections in Bimringham, AL. The railroad was eventually acquired by the Alabama Midland System, creating a rather large home grown regional. The FGC remains a subsidiary due to the original CSX divesture agreement, but the marriage of the two lines created a branded initiative to move various phosphate, sand and rock over the system to both on and off-line users known as "RockTrain". These trains use DPU power and unit open hopper and phosphate cars to move this buisiness, with units assigned to the service adorned with service specific logos. The same can be said of the new Hurricane Intermodal Service which was designed to act as a regional feeder for short and long haul origination shipping of domestic intermodal containers in and out of Florida. FGC runs its east-west railroad with an odd roster of ex SP tunnel motors, ex ARR GP49s and some ex- Canadian "snowbirds" that now call the Sunshine State home. Of particular interest are six Caterpillar rebuilt C30-7 units that represented a delving into rebuilding GE cores under the TGX Program "Revolution Series" EMD rebuilds. You might call the "Tampa Six" a prototype run, or maybe a stillborn attempt to access what was at the time a growing roster of lease returned GE units. While the EMD side of the Revolution Series proved strong sellers, the GE units became orphans as most GE cores were cut up or sold overseas and to various South American railroads. The program designers called these units SD44-9 units, mainly because they had up to this point only worried over EMD cores. With the prime mover no longer a FDL, it was deemed somewhat a misnomer to call the rebuild strictly by GE nomenclature. Truth is, the real reason for this model designation likely was lost due to a sleepless night working on the early Revolution testbed known as "Bettie" What follows is an overview of the FGC operations and roster, with a close look at how a modern freelanced CSX spin-off regional got modern freelanced rebuilder grade power... Here is the system map:
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georgiaroad
Chairman
Purveryor of all things of the prototype freelance GEORGIA ROAD
Posts: 250
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Post by georgiaroad on Apr 2, 2009 22:26:53 GMT -5
Here is a typical Hurricane Intermodal run. FGC owns a group of All Purpose Well cars and domestic containers with the double flag Hurricane Intermodal Service logo. (design note--does this fit or what considering the past few hurricane seasons???) These trains link Tampa, Orlando, Tallahassee and Pensacola to major intermodal hubs at Birmingham, AL. FGC also acquired all of the CSX Bone Valley Phosphate Operations. CSX sold the Rockport export facility to outside parties a few years ago, and with recent mergers and downsizing, the Bone Valley is much smaller than it used to be, what with all the legislation limiting phosphate in deterginers and such. CSX decided FGC could run the operation and forward trains to its own lines through Tampa. While Bone Valley operations fall under "RockTrain" branded service, typically these train are aggregate moves for quarry, mining, and distrubutors such as Conrad Yelvington, Martin Marrieta and Vulcan Materials. Moves usually see rock from North Alabama head to construction projects in the panhandle and west Florida, with sand moving from Florida to Alabama for cement and basic materials distributors.
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Post by Randy Earle on Apr 2, 2009 22:34:28 GMT -5
Very nice setup.
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georgiaroad
Chairman
Purveryor of all things of the prototype freelance GEORGIA ROAD
Posts: 250
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Post by georgiaroad on Apr 2, 2009 22:45:42 GMT -5
As I mentioned earlier, the FGC roster is quite a show of eclectic power. The reason for this was the fact that the CSX spin-off did not garner any power from CSX at its start up, so its roster had to be assembled from scratch with whatever was out there in the second hand market at the time. The early days saw a lot of rent-a-wrecks and program lease units. Later, the railroad replaced this hodge-podge with units painted in the Sunburst colors of the new railroad. As with the Alabama Midland who owned it, painting was a priority since presenting a clean professional look for potential customers was a high priority. Here are some examples of power. Some interesting notes are the fact that there are two schemes. The Sunburst Scheme is the standard scheme, using a single dip Wisconsin Central type Maroon. There are RockTrain, VisitFlorida and OLS variants of this scheme The Hurricane Intermodal Service units sport the Sunburst II scheme, with the red accent zags and Hurricane Intermodal logos. The "Snowbirds" are all former Canadian and Alaskan units and make up the backbone of the fleet. All have had HVAC installed in the form of "RV" type units on the cab roof. The Hurricane Intermodal trains are lucrative business, and warrant their own scheme to make sure they remain in their directed service noted for fast turn around, low downtime and a penchant to stray offline on connecting Georgia Road QuickSilver Trains. Stephens Railcar created several cab and booster unit rebuilds for this service, assisting former Helm ex TM GP60s and ex ARR GP49 units. Some may wonder at the roof mounted air tanks on the booster units. High horse four axle units have a tendancy to slip under heavy load. As a result, builders and railroads have added software, dampening struts and heavy steel to increase weight transferred from wheel to rail. Any wheel slip tends to burn the railhead and prematurely wear wheels, so designers have to play with "bridge limits" or weight slung between the front and back trucks. Too much weight unevenly distributed creates uneven wheel and truck frame wear. On cab units, the larger fuel tank usually takes up all the space to the rear truck. The cab weight offsets this extra weight near the rear truck, allowing for a balanced "bridge weight" between trucks. Without the cab, the fuel tank has to offset accordingly making it smaller than the cab equipped units. The solution was to take the space of the airtanks under the walkway to increase fuel capacity since the tank could not be lengthened. This pushed these tanks to the roof, making for a very odd looking booster unit. These four axle racehorses carry the Hurricane Intermodal scheme, which consists of the added slashes of red against the WC Maroon. It is a visual clue to hostlers, and is also applied to some of the six axle units. These trains run from Tampa-Pensacola-Birmingham-Mobile. The service is mostly for regional domestic 53' trailers, but since the service links with the Georgia Road QuickSilver service in Birmingham, it is not unusual to see Georgia Road units mixing on longer trains. Managers on the FGC hope this service sees marked increase once Post-Panamax ships start coming into the Gulf of Mexico ports. FGC is a bargain hunter. It picked up two former TM GP60s from Helm after KCS release the units. These units were well suited for the Hurricane Intermodal Service trains across the Panhandle of Florida. General freight units consist of former Appalachicola Northern SW and GP15 units along with a group of GP40-2 and GP40-2/Road Slug combinations. A single ex CDAC F40M-2 mostly works frieght, but can be used if Amtrak has problems while on the FGC as it carries pass thorugh HEP cabling.
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georgiaroad
Chairman
Purveryor of all things of the prototype freelance GEORGIA ROAD
Posts: 250
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Post by georgiaroad on Apr 2, 2009 23:03:22 GMT -5
FGC employs a set of TGX Program rebuilds also. The first is a set of SD55ME-CAT and SD55MBE-CAT units set up for DPU and dedicated RockTrain service. The boosters have "hostler cabs", allowing road personel and terminal hostlers to move the units singly if needed. The booster unit was originally designed for the Utah Western RR of Mr Ogden. Georgia Road embraced the design form intermodal and general frieght moves and the variant became an option in the catalog soon after. Little wide knowledge abounds on the next rebuild, noted as a SD44-9. Stephens Railcar toyed with the idea of including GE cores in the TGX Program after Utah Western RR requested construction of upgraded GE U series units. Six units were created for evaluation, but were never repeated. For all the re-figuring that had to be done to drop the CAT engine in a GE core along with all the associated reworking of components, the six unit trial proved successful, though they quickly found themselves much like Tom Hanks' character in "The Terminal" as citizens without a country. GE introduced its own Evolution Series and sported an in-house rebuild specification around the same time, so the GE side of the TGX Program dissipated with little fuss. Utah Western opted for the GE Evolution kit installation, keeping its GE units in the GE parts family. The six units knocked around the shops for a time, and soon moved over to the new FGC soon after its start-up to provide ample power for new branded "RockTrain" basic materials and Bone Valley operations. Since these units sported internals nearly identical to the later EMD core TGX Program Revolution Series units, they melded into the DPU service typical of the RockTrain moves over the panhandle trackage, now the Cross Florida Subdivision of the FGC. Local railfans call them "Pugs" and even "Ughhs" (They carry other names, but I cannot maintain a G Rating and divulge them here). One well known railfan related the design as a denizen so ugly it made a CF7 appealingly "cute" and pleasing to the optical palette. FGC crews seem to like them as they are new units for practical purposes and Stephens Railcar continues to monitor them in service as it gathers operational data on the TGX Program simply because they are internally the same as the production run EMD units.
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Goingincirclez
Probationary Member
Saint Canard Midland - The Evergreen Route
Posts: 7
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Post by Goingincirclez on Apr 3, 2009 11:28:07 GMT -5
Wow, that's impressive stuff. I know it takes a lot of research and planning to make a freelance completely feasible. I like the business case you've created. It really does make the road seem completely believable.
Nice motive power and service branding schemes too! The motive power is perfectly understated and "bland sans clipart" for today's climate (that's not a knock at all - I seriously think it looks real). The Hurricane Intermodal stuff looks awesome.
I can appreciate your work because I've been working on the theme and backend for the Saint Canard for a couple years know. I have it more or less worked out, I just have to draw the route map and tie it all together. It is worth the effort. The challenge in my case is that the midwest was so well served, it's tough to carve a niche. Mine will be on branded, professional service, which would have been ahead of the curve in the timeframe I model.
Back to your stuff though: Awesome stuff. I can apply some of your concepts toward refining my own. I've got plenty of time for now though - it'll be a few years before I can build in earnest. Thanks for sharing!
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Post by icghogger on Apr 3, 2009 12:29:05 GMT -5
Hank, you have created one superb concept! Very impressive work, and I am sure you will stay busy for a long time bringing it all together. Thanks for sharing!
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georgiaroad
Chairman
Purveryor of all things of the prototype freelance GEORGIA ROAD
Posts: 250
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Post by georgiaroad on Feb 8, 2011 0:36:25 GMT -5
Florida & Gulf Coast Railroad Locomotive Roster (As of January 2011)
Road Number Type of Number of Units Unit [/i]
550-553 4 SD55ME Tier 3 compliant rebuild of ex UP SD50 cores; 550 originally demonstrator for TGX Revolution Series but received FGC “RockTrain” paint while testing on FGC.
554-557 4 SD55BME Former UP units upgraded in TGX Program; units have and no cabs and are used in DPU “RockTrain” service 430-433 4 SD40T-2 ex-UP units purchased from Helm; Assigned general service with some units in Hurricane Intermodal Service
331-336 6 SD44-9 Tier 2 compliant rebuild of ex GAMS C32-8 cores with CAT primemovers; Units assigned to “RockTrain” and helper pool;. Lettered for ACR
370-373 4 GP39M ex-IC GP40 units rebuilt and assigned to Hurricane Intermodal service 377-380 4 GP39MB ex-IC GP40 units rebuilt and assigned toHurricane Intermodal Service as booster units
470-473 4 GP40-2 ex- DT&I rebuilt as road slug mother units for road slugs; assigned to ACR and Cross Florida Divisions
475 1 F40M-2 ex-AMTK unit ; general freight service and as passenger protection power as needed 490-495 6 GP49 ex-ARR Assigned to Hurricane Intermodal Service; Lettered for ACR and FGC
498-499 2 GP60 ex TM units purchased through Helm Financial; assigned Hurricane Intermodal
112-119 8 SW1500 AN units used in yard service at Pensacola and Tampa
120-122 3 GP15-1 AN units assigned to general service
990-993 4 RDSLUG ex BN GP9 and GP40 cores converted to road slugs mated to GP40-2 mothers.
851-858 8 SD40-2W ex-CN units with Canadian type full cab; Assigned to general freight service; lettered for ACR; two in Hurricane Intermodal pool
860-861 2 SD40-2F ex-CP units with Canadian type full cowl; Assigned to general freight service; one features “VISIT FLORIDA” logos.
390-393 4 SD38-2 ex-DMIR units assigned to Bone Valley operations
350-357 8 GP38-2 Former IC units upgraded at MPI for general service some units have dynamic braking
Grand Total of units: 76
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deez
Chairman
Midland Belt Railway
Posts: 949
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Post by deez on Feb 9, 2011 0:08:56 GMT -5
Great name, the Slogan is fantastic "Route Of The Hurricanes", I love it. Great story and paint too! I've been working on my freelance story lately also. Thanks for more inspiration
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georgiaroad
Chairman
Purveryor of all things of the prototype freelance GEORGIA ROAD
Posts: 250
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Post by georgiaroad on Feb 11, 2011 21:24:20 GMT -5
Tonight I will add a few rolling stock drawings. The first is the Hurricane Intermodal Service. FGC purchased some new NSC well cars from a cancelled order at the height of the recession. These cars were painted and unlettered, with cars already constructed being stored pending a buyer after the contract was abruptly killed by the customer. These were a steal, and it allowed FGC to get a set of new cars with colors that look a mite familiar to the informed railfan, though part of the agreement in the sale was not to divulge the original buyer. Somehow, I think the colors give it away! Just don't mention it outloud as the original customer was a little touchy over this.
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georgiaroad
Chairman
Purveryor of all things of the prototype freelance GEORGIA ROAD
Posts: 250
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Post by georgiaroad on Feb 11, 2011 21:35:58 GMT -5
Along with intermodal, basic materials is by far the largest cut of FGC revenue, particularly due to the Bone Valley phosphate operations. In recent years, movements of gravel and sand have extended the "RockTrain" branded service into its own revenue stream. FGC regularly moves sand from Florida toward north Alabama and into Tampa and Orlando, and moves rock mined in Alabama to city centers for construction and road building around the penisula. To keep a handle on car availability, FGC found it could mass carloads into unit trains and move cars loaded in both direction between Florida and Alabama. To do this, DPU was introduced to move the long heavy trains efficiently, thereby reducing the fleet of cars needed compared to single car and short cut movements. Cars had to be standardized also. Here are rebuilt Ortner and Greenville aggregate cars used in the service. Stephens Railcar is a principle rebuilder of the fleet, and adds its own lease cars to the mix to deal with shortfalls and spikes in carloadings. Ortner car--- Johnstown America Greenville type rapid discharge---
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georgiaroad
Chairman
Purveryor of all things of the prototype freelance GEORGIA ROAD
Posts: 250
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Post by georgiaroad on Feb 11, 2011 21:54:27 GMT -5
The third major commodity shipped deals in pulp, timber and paper. Much of this business centers on the Alabama Central leg of the railroad moving from Pensacola, FL north toward Birmingham. The FGC purchased the ailing Appalachicola Northern after it lost its paper mill and coal contracts, mainly focusing on potential bulk port operations at Port St. Joe and a woochip loader located on the line. The prize of this purchase was the rolling stock, including woodchip and paper boxcars that could be used on the ACR lines to service paper mills at Cantonement, Prattville and Demopolis. The former AN woodchip cars now in FGC Sunburst red. There is still a pretty good mix of the old AN yellow cars in the fleet, but all retain AN reporting marks and numbers regardless of FGC paint or not. The boxcar fleet consists of old Railbox cars owned by AN and new high cube cars purchased new (more cancelled contracts). The high cubes are "Big Box" cars and carry the logo. Cars with yellow doors denote recycled paper service and allow personnel to easily distingish between the rougher recycle cars and the clean paper roll and pulp cars. Raw wood handling is a necessity for any pulp, paper, dimensional lumber and veneer operations. Like most railroads in the Deep South, the days of short stick pulpwood is a memory. FGC through its ACR subsidiary has refitted dozens of old V-deck pulpwood cars and bulkhead flats with log bunkers in such a way that these cars can handled tree-length logs for paper and pulp mills and 14ft logs for veneer and saw mill operations. It is not uncommon to see these cars mixing with Georgia Road and parent Alabama Midland RR cars on and off the FGC system. The idea is to get log trucks off the road by providing regional loadouts and chipper mills so loggers do not have to haul statewide to get product to market. They are able to turn more loads with less fuel, and the railroad moves the logs and chips as a commodity on the open market, opening a business that has been increasingly dominated by trucking and ignored by class one operations as marginally profitable.
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Post by manny on Feb 12, 2011 6:29:30 GMT -5
WOW!!! ;D My God Hank, you've accomplished what I could only ever dream of doing. Your research and planning have resulted in a very real sounding/looking railroad. Very well thought out!!! I've thought about establishing a rebuild program for my proto freelance railroad, the Pacific Southwestern, only in my case using ex. Alco Century series rebuilt with GE dash 7 components.
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georgiaroad
Chairman
Purveryor of all things of the prototype freelance GEORGIA ROAD
Posts: 250
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Post by georgiaroad on Feb 12, 2011 15:14:26 GMT -5
All you have to do for a prototype to your ALCO rebuild is look to Australia. They rebuilt some for BHP. They basically changed out everything above the walkway. Personally, I love the high ad trucks on those units! Thanks to all of you for the good words of encouragement. This is really the first time I have tried to completely flesh out a concept and this one just seems to "click". I hope to be able to post some pictures of models soon. Painting has resumed due to warmer weather at Stephens Railcar (we are in the 60s next week!) I do have one car I can show you that I did a couple years ago. Note that the models are not always exact in logo size and placement. I am using an existing set made several years ago so I am adapting them for now. FGC will appear on the layout as conection trains, though I am tempted to center on it in a different focus all together.
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georgiaroad
Chairman
Purveryor of all things of the prototype freelance GEORGIA ROAD
Posts: 250
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Post by georgiaroad on Feb 12, 2011 15:20:28 GMT -5
FGC operates a small fleet of centerbeam lumber cars headed to places like Tampa, Pensacola and Orlando. These along with the boxcars are likely to travel over North America and western Canada moving between loads. FGC started with mainly Thrall type bulkhead flats, but soon found these could have log bunkers added and be better used for pulp and timber operations. With the recession of 2009, many ex TTX centerbeams were stored with little hope of moving again for hire. FGC bought several groups and touched up paint for in much the same way the well cars were done. FGC cars work for several online sawmill and veneer plywood operations in Alabama on the ACR side.
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Post by railfan1354 on Feb 12, 2011 20:43:19 GMT -5
I lived in the Tampa Bay area for 12 years and ran all over Tampa, Mulberry and though out Bone Valley chasing the CSX so I really can appreciate what you have accomplished here with your railroad. I love the concept and the paint sachems on all your motive power and rolling stock. Very well researched and planned out.
Fantastic job!
Paulie
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Post by manny on Feb 13, 2011 7:07:18 GMT -5
CORRECT!! Australia's iron ore railways are where I got my ideas for ALCO rebuilds. I guess the old adage is true, Great minds do think alike
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Post by poweredby251 on Feb 13, 2011 20:27:09 GMT -5
Don't forget the ones GE rebuilt here. GE rebuilt a few MLWs to demonstrate and guage acceptance of a rebuilding program. GE tried the same concept with old GE units as well (some ex-Milwaukee units were in the program). The MLW rebuild concept recieved no orders and the demos were either sold or kept as research units.
Only a few of the GE Super-7 rebuilds were ordered.
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Post by manny on Feb 15, 2011 4:29:06 GMT -5
Are there any pictures of those rebuilds???
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Post by poweredby251 on Feb 15, 2011 10:23:46 GMT -5
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