Re: The JBWX hopper car

Thanks for posting a picture of one of "John's Follies". Looks like Earl made good on his threat. It's good to see that one is either on the road, or close to it. Have they got the brakes working and the full size couplers on yet? While it has been a struggle, I remain convinced these cars will be very useful to the C&TS. The need to build retaining walls and shoulders delayed the ballasting program, but in due time we need to get back to making the track better and that means ballast, and a lot of it. Clearly the old bottom dump cars are not up to a lot of hard use, not to mention putting ballast in the wrong place. The EBT cars were rust buckets having sat outside for 45 some odd years, but our inspection prior to the Commission purchasing them indicated the major structural pieces....center sils, bolsters, trucks, draft pockets, etc. were reasonably sound at least based on as much as you can inspect without tearing them apart. Clearly they needed sheeting. One of the fascinating things about the cars is the mint condition of many of the safety appliances....hand holds, stirrups, etc. EBT apparently took pretty good care of their equipment. Another scary thing was how rust at the bottom of the corner stakes had swollen and caused many of the poling pocket castings to burst. Powerful stuff that rust.