My Cattle Car arrived today from Menards

At least the trucks work. I would rather have defective couplers (which never open, or need to be permanently glued closed) as opposed to defective trucks that drag, wobble, or shed parts.

I am curious as to why what looks like a Symington 100-ton roller bearing truck is being used on an early 1900's car.

@PRRMP54 posted:

I am curious as to why what looks like a Symington 100-ton roller bearing truck is being used on an early 1900's car.

Cripple Creek & Western built its stock cars in-house from 1903 until the stock market crash of 1929, using their 54' flat cars as a platform. The CC&W was a relatively early adopter of roller-bearing trucks and by the early '50s, virtually all of their rolling stock had been converted over to roller-bearing trucks. Whether or not the switch from plain to roller-bearing trucks was cost effective is debatable. What isn't debatable is the pressure to make the switch for PR reasons after five blocks of South Cripple Creek burned down in the tragic fire in June of '46 started by a journal box fire. The CC&W cattle cars were used in interchange service as late as 1979 and a few remained in captive service into the late-'80s and early-'90s. The last car, #9746 was retired and scrapped in 1993.

Thanks for the history info, Matt. I didn't know CC&W was even a real railroad! Was it narrow gauge? Your history explains the old-time look of these cars. When I first saw them in the Menards ad, I thought they looked like early 20th century model.

@breezinup posted:

Thanks for the history info, Matt. I didn't know CC&W was even a real railroad! Was it narrow gauge? Your history explains the old-time look of these cars. When I first saw them in the Menards ad, I thought they looked like early 20th century model.

I belive Matt is being facetious

@breezinup posted:

Thanks for the history info, Matt. I didn't know CC&W was even a real railroad! Was it narrow gauge? Your history explains the old-time look of these cars. When I first saw them in the Menards ad, I thought they looked like early 20th century model.

As far as I know, the CC&W is a fictious road invented by Menard's. Any relation to actual events in my "history" above is entirely coincidental. There is, however, a Cripple Creek & Victor Narrow Gauge Railroad, which is a tourist train in Cripple Creek, CO.

@Matt_GNo27 posted:

Cripple Creek & Western built its stock cars in-house from 1903 until the stock market crash of 1929, using their 54' flat cars as a platform. The CC&W was a relatively early adopter of roller-bearing trucks and by the early '50s, virtually all of their rolling stock had been converted over to roller-bearing trucks. Whether or not the switch from plain to roller-bearing trucks was cost effective is debatable. What isn't debatable is the pressure to make the switch for PR reasons after five blocks of South Cripple Creek burned down in the tragic fire in June of '46 started by a journal box fire. The CC&W cattle cars were used in interchange service as late as 1979 and a few remained in captive service into the late-'80s and early-'90s. The last car, #9746 was retired and scrapped in 1993.

You forgot their early Chief Mechanical Officer, Sigismund Doppelganger, an immigrant from Central Europe, who designed the CCW rolling stock. This explains why this stock car, above the frame, looks pretty much unlike a piece of N. American rolling stock.

Here's some real history. Actually, there were multiple actual Cripple Creek railroads. The CC&W name wasn't used, but Cripple Creek railroads were not fictional. The Colorado Springs and Cripple Creek District Railway was in operation, which was then leased to (and controlled by) the Colorado & Southern, which lease was then transferred to the Cripple Creek Central Railway. Subsequently much of the freight was transferred to the Midland Terminal Railway. There was also a Florence and Cripple Creek Railroad that served Cripple Creek.

All railroad operations ceased in 1920. So indeed there were railway operations serving Cripple Creek until then. These were standard gauge lines, incidentally. In fact, the Cripple Creek tourist train in operation now, that was mentioned by Matt, operates on a revitalized portion of the original Midland Terminal (Cripple Creek Central) and the Florence and Cripple Creek Railroad.

So it's entirely likely that early 20th century type stock cars were actually in operation on the Cripple Creek Central Railroad and other actual railroads that served Cripple Creek.

@Matt_GNo27 posted:

Cripple Creek & Western built its stock cars in-house from 1903 until the stock market crash of 1929, using their 54' flat cars as a platform. The CC&W was a relatively early adopter of roller-bearing trucks and by the early '50s, virtually all of their rolling stock had been converted over to roller-bearing trucks. Whether or not the switch from plain to roller-bearing trucks was cost effective is debatable. What isn't debatable is the pressure to make the switch for PR reasons after five blocks of South Cripple Creek burned down in the tragic fire in June of '46 started by a journal box fire. The CC&W cattle cars were used in interchange service as late as 1979 and a few remained in captive service into the late-'80s and early-'90s. The last car, #9746 was retired and scrapped in 1993.

Nice history on the fly.

The roadbed of the Florence and Cripple Creek Railroad is now a road called Phantom Canyon Road, it is a very nice drive between Cripple Creek and Florence.

I just received my Menards cattle car and I must say it is one of their best entries in O gauge. The painting and detailing is very nice and one nice feature is very little swaying . The diecast trucks and couplers look and work good and the trucks feature rotating hubs. My only small complaint is two of the axles were a bit stiff but with a drop of oil they operated smoothly. All in all a big hit for Menards.