I was in the Gorge last saturday with the 'Fam" on vacation and they look to be building a new siding about one mile east of Lyle. What struck me as I was watching a ribbon rail train go by was all new cars, a couple of gondola's and flat car's, all painted a light brown, with "SPSX######" on all the cars in yellow, with the old SP&S font-style lettering on all the cars!!! Have they been hiding this train for 36 odd years somewhere, or is BNSF somehow trying to hold onto it's trademarks like UP?
Ya, as the wife was takin' pic's of the scenery and kid's? Nope! She's a real camera hog :angry:! From the looks of the construction goin' on though, the "SP&S MOW" train will be there for awhile! Now, if they could just get around to painting the old GP-38 #2072,(which was supposed to be the next SP&S engine at merger time), and let it haul it around, sweet!!:teeth:
Were these cars actually from pre-merger? Or something painted, for reasons unknown, in later years? Boxcab E50
Are you sure it isn't like Sperry Rail Serices or something? Generally, If it has an "x" as the last letter it is a private owned car. If it was a BNSF car it would more than likely be SP&S or something like that.
Pat- You are correct that, (for example), ABCX does indicate a private (non-RR) car owner. However, SP&S did stencil their cars at times, in such a fashion that instead of reading "SP&S X-123456, it actually was much closer together. So it might look more like "SP&SX-123456." This could be what was seen. Boxcab E50
It was a rail train for carrying ribbon rail with the racks on every flatcar. The reporting marks were"SPSX" followed by the car number on each car, including a couple of gondola's. The paint on all the cars was pretty fresh lookin'. If anyone is down there in the Gorge soon, it's probably gonna be parked in Lyle for times in between maintence windows cause the siding they are building is a mile east of there.
Leaving out the ampersand, ("&"), means it's not SP&S. SPSX is Progress Rail Services Corporation. Boxcab E50
