Fallen Flags Train

CP 6251 heading south

This is a quickie post about a CP train that had a lot of "fallen flags" cars on it.

What's a Fallen Flag?

North Western - Employee Owned

For railfans, a "fallen flag" is a railway that doesn't exist as that entity any more. It might be a railway that went bankrupt, or one that was absorbed into another through a merger or acquisition. There are many, many examples in history but here are three.

• Rock Island (the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific) - went bankrupt
• Milwaukee Road (the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific) - went bankrupt, part went to the Soo
• Chicago and Northwestern - purchased by Union Pacific

All of these fallen flags were represented on this train.

Where

I was driving south of Winnipeg on highway 59 to get my tent trailer for the camping season. I store it for the winter on a farm near Otterburne, Manitoba. On my way down, I stopped in at Niverville to look at the ex Manitoba Pool grain elevator and see if any trains were in the vicinity. Niverville is on the CP Emerson subdivision that runs north-south between Winnipeg and the US border at Emerson, MB. There were no trains but I took a few (more) photos of the Artel grain elevator and continued south.

Merchants Merchants Merchants! Amirite?

I drove past the farm and carried on into Otterburne to get trackside. I saw no trains to the north or south, but I did see an interesting collapsed building so I pulled over to photograph it. As I stepped out of my van I heard a train horn in the distance.

I sprinted over to the nearest crossing to capture CP 6251 South. It had just the one unit with a friendly conductor giving me a wave.

The Fallen

Following them were a series of rusty old cars - some festooned with graffiti (ugh) but most mostly untouched. Maybe they were too rusty for people to tag? Here are some samples.

AOKX 181509 is a former Northwestern car

NAHX 23662 is obviously a former Milwaukee Road

Quite the patch job on the car data on that Milwaukee Road car.

GCCX 173851 was another Northwestern car

FURX 815414 is a former Rock Island car

"The Rock" was my favourite car, and it brought up the rear.

Other Interesting Cars

There were a few other cars of interest to me on this train.

FURX 818730 was a Cook Industries Inc. car

I'm not sure who Cook Industries is/was... Google brings up a lot of things but none of them look like they owned rail cars.

GROX 60664 is lettered for UNION EQUITY

I've seen Union Equity before, at the Paterson grain elevator in Binscarth, Manitoba.

PTLX 14823 is labelled for Continental Grain

Continental Grain continues to be a very large company, one of the 300 largest privately-held companies in the US.

USLX 8032 is a mystery...

This one looks interesting but I can't quite determine the former owner of this car. Any ideas?

This is a former Minneapolis, Northfield and Southern Railway car... I photographed brother USLX 8034 in Grande Pointe, MB not too far from here on April 28, 2016.

Summary

This train was interesting to me because of all of the varied cars in the train. It was a nice change from graffiti-festooned boxcars and autoracks, or solid blocks of towering containers. Sadly these trains won't last that long as many of these cars were built in the early 1970s and will be coming to the end of their mandated 50 year lifespan soon. Shoot them while you can!

Paired multimarks in Niverville

Oh, and that collapsed building I stopped for? Here it is.

I think it might be done.

Here's my trailer, attached to my van and being inspected by one of the farm's dogs.

"OK the PK. Woof."

See Also

• Norfolk Southern heritage locomotives
• Finishing the Job - CP's Turn