GTW P-S Covered Hoppers

CN former subsidiary Grand Trunk Western rostered 150 Pullman-Standard covered hoppers with reporting marks GTW 138200-138349, such as GTW 138262 westbound through Kingston on April 6, 1997 with a weathered fleetmate (above). The first fully P-S- (not Trinity-) built lot 9866 of 4740 cu ft cars, were built 10-11/76. GTW 138350-138449, built 1979 by P-S were 100 cars with a capacity of 4750 cu ft. with larger Grand Trunk Western lettering. P-S builder's photo:

GTW 138433 and a string of fleetmates near the P-S plant:

Earlier, GTW 315222, built 1972 by Pullman-Standard was one of a series of fifty cars, GTW 315180-315229 with a capacity of 4750 cu ft. - notice the tiny 'Grand Trunk Western' between the ribs:

Interestingly, some of the cars have been repainted into CN's brown website scheme, retaining their GTW reporting marks, with some receiving the IC-style reporting marks font. Most have received yellow conspicuity markings, and have rusted to the extent that their blue paint appears brown, and received various-coloured lettering patches to make their reporting marks legible.

It would seem that most of the GTW fleet has made its way into grain service in the twilight of its career. Joe Stover posted this 2009 photo to Facebook, showing a Hudson Bay Railway grain consist at Churchill, MB. Spot the GTW car? I knew that you could!

My 21st-century GTW sightings, when the paint and lettering was fading (like the number-unreadable car westbound at Kingston on CN No 309 in May, 2008) and spotting them became more of a rarity:

September 26, 2009 GTW 13832x on CN No 305 at Shannonville:

Some GTW covered hopper sightings with date, car number, CN train on and remarks:

Mar 23/97 GTW 138281-138421

Apr 27/97 GTW 138429

May 18/97 GTW 138286-138329

Jun 7/97 GTW 138360-138412-138365

Sep 13/97 GTW 138306 on No 308

Oct 5/97 GTW 139399 dest Bay City MI ety on No 395

Oct 26/97 GTW 138212-138414 on headend of No 395 dest Flint, MI empty

Nov 29/97 GTW 138443 near headend of No 395

Dec 6/97 GTW 138276 near headend of No 395

Apr 4/10 GTW 138207

Oct 13/11 GTW 138208

Jan 15/12 GTW 138394 noticeably faded!

Apr 6/12 GTW 138430 with yellow conspicuity stripes on CN train No 308 (below)

Nov 25/16 GTW 138422-138345 among a cut of grain cars and GTW 138201 on No 369. Although GTW 138422 had one good side of paint, the other two were almost brown.

In grain service, faded-lettering GTW 138x60 (above) and rusty 138399 (below) were through Kingston on April 1 and 2 respectively.

May 4, 2018: CN 138214 westbound - so brown they have to patch the reporting marks in blue:

Some 21st-century sightings:

• January 9/21 GTW 138438
• January 24/21 GTW 138331 repainted in CN 'website' scheme. Not as delivered, but still running.
• February 14/21 GTW 138448 on CN No 306, (image courtesy Railstream, LLC):

• March 22/21 GTW 138266 on CN No 305 (above), also with GTW 138439 in good paint (image courtesy Railstream, LLC)
• Jan 3/23 GTW 138423 eastbound at Belleville in the CN 'website' scheme, returned westbound on January 6 (image courtesy Railstream, LLC):
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Meanwhile, in HO scale, GTW 138240 has been painted and decalled and will always retain its nice, bright blue: 

 In 'N' yard on my Vancouver Wharves layout, sandwiched between BN and CP wooden ETU's:

Running extra...

This is one underrated book - Canadian Sunset by Adolf Hungry Wolf. A plethora of varied-era photos of this venerable streamliner. Beautiful reproduction and nice, large format. My only difficulty is with the "America's Last Great Train" cutline. I understand that some Americans think Canada is part of the US. Not after we build our wall they won't!

Speaking of fading into the sunset, American Idol's fifteenth and final season ended last night. Thank goodness. Though early idols like siren Kelly Clarkson and Checotah, OK's own Carrie Underwood shone, recent idols like whatshisname, ohyouknowher and thatidoldude have failed to inspire much idolatry. Once Simon Cowell left, the veracity dropped and the treacle flowed.

Check out this all-season folio of north of Superior photos by Earl Minnis - what CP now lacks in motive power diversity, it has always had scenery in spades!