Re: Following the tanks (gas) CONX # 25 & # 38

Jeff:

X478 doesn’t pick-up the shipment until Friday morning the 6th and then it maybe sits in Durango over the weekend and I presume is hauled from Durango to Dolores on Monday the 9th by the RGS. Tuesday the 10th it moves X453E Dolores to Vance Junction and then on Wednesday 11th it completes the last RGS leg and it is interchanged with the D&RGW at Ridgway sometime before 7PM.

Now here is where it gets suspicious in that after having been handed over “hot?” by the RGS just minutes before the 7:05PM departure of the X315 from Ridgway the CONX # 25 has a hotbox at Colona ( 13 miles out of Ridgway). What are the chances that a second CONX car # 38 in the same RGS shipment but going to Crested Butte would also develop a hotbox later as well? Another posting from Dave Grandt and one I have also show hot boxes and derailments of tank cars on the RGS. Given that they are carrying about 36,000 Lbs. of gasoline when fully loaded I am wondering if the archbar trucks were up to the task. Maybe some modern day carmen like yourself can comment on these trucks/ bearings and what a rough ride over the RGS may have done to contribute to the problems these tanks seemed to have.

Rod