Ballast cars

The bottom dump gons are over 100 years old, have wooden frames, and in general are no longer suitable for rigorous daily service. Moreover, they dump the material outside of the rail and it has to be shoveled back. That's why we opted for the EBT cars. We also have two converted small standard gauge hoppers that are already in service, and have been spreading ballast out of Antonito when there was an engine available. There are four bottom dump gons that were strengthened with A-frames during the Kyle days, and they may be fixed up and used to dump rip rack to build up shoulders. Once the season closes there should be ballast trains running on a fairly regular basis.