"grain belt"?

In the Northwestern District at least, primarily Oregon and Idaho, GP units including the 9, 20, and 30 were common. In HO, look for Athearn Genesis or older Proto units. You don't specify a branchline scenario, or mainline traffic. The Union Pacific fleet in 1960 was completely different from that of 1980.

Answer: Yes

When you say "grain belt" do you mean mainlines or branchlines?  Anything they owned could be found on the mainlines, although the gas turbines mostly stayed out of Southern California.  The 4-axle power dominated the branchlines.

You can't go wrong with GP9s and GP30s in the "grain belt" of the UP (Colorado, Kansas, and Nebraska).  They didn't have as many GP20s or GP35s and they barely outlived the GP9s.  The  GP7s were mostly assigned to the Northwest, as were the GP38-2s when they arrived.

Now you have to understand that things changed dramatically on the UP in the '80s, first with getting back the engines they financed for the Rock Island in 1980, then absorbing the Mopac and Wobbly, er, WP in 1983.  The Mopac had a _lot_ of non-dynamic GP15s and GP38-2s that put many of the UP's Geeps out to pasture.  The Wobbly's fleet of rebuilt GP35s and GP40s also went into local service all over the expanding Borg empire.

Scott Chatfield

Thanks for the inputs

Funny thing is, that I did modeling back in the '60s, but lost interest in railroads in the '70s.

In the early '70s, I spent time either in the basements of grain elevators (notorious for water leakage) or trackside unloading boxcars and hoppers. Never noticed a single locomotive. Then again, they usually switched before my day shift started.

Back in the day, terminal elevators in my home town both received and outloaded grain. Today they only ship outbound.

My hometown, Salina, was both along a mainline of UP and numerous branch lines of UP (and others). Today the surviving branch lines are operated by folk like K & O. Here's where the K & O had offices in Salina until it was torn down. 

Gary?

Do you have a particular time and place in mind?

Time and place

Central Kansas, mid 1960s to mid 1970s.

Something like what is the Salina Division of the UP now.

Hmmm

In that period some of the "oddball" power like the Alco RS2 and GP35 tended to show up in Kansas. Even the ex-Spokane International RS1 units, from time to time. On the other hand, you can't go wrong with the lower number series GP9.

Preference: GP9

UP wasn't afraid to use power wherever it could, so it wouldn't be totally out of the question to see some oddballs on the grain lines (except Centennials and Turbines). If I were to pick a loco type, it would be the GP9. Not only were they old enough to qualify for branchline service, but their Roots-Blower (non-turbo) engine was better suited for a switcher. Turbocharged engines, while extremely efficient, especially at altitudes, had the problem of 1) needing time to spool up to utilize their efficiency, and 2) created more maintenance and reliability issues than the RB. The GP9's also weighed a bit less than most of the other diesels that UP was rostering at the time.

Also, don't forget EMD switchers; the SW10 program didn't begin until 1979, and most of the NW2 fleet (and newer) stayed on until 1972 and later. The SW7's and SW9's mostly made it to the SW10 program, so they'd be plausible as well.

Thanks for the inputs

Thanks for all the information, Graham Line and Juxen.  It helps a lot in making a decision.

Now I'm into looking for appropriate boxcars for grain service during that same period, that are actually being manufactured today. Seems like boxcars are out of vogue. And remembering that back in the day railroads tried to keep rolling stock on their own line rather than pay fees for it riding elsewhere. So around my area, it would probably be ATSF, UP, Rock Island, and Missouri Pacific, predominantly. But as I said earlier, I was a bit busy working to get those things unloaded to notice markings.

And yes, in 1971, there were still a lot of boxcars carrying grain. 

And remembering that back in

You have it backwards.  The OTHER railroad pays per diem TO the railroad that owns the cars.

Thanks, Dave

Isn't the first time I got something backwards. Appreciate the correction. It's been a long time.

Per diem vs. loading

Avoiding per diem was a minor concern compared to loadings because per diem was such a low rate, probably less than a dollar a day for a plain old boxcar.  The big thing was protecting loadings because they is way, way more money in revenue, the freight charges for hauling something than there is for per diem.  Railroads would try and keep their cars on their lines and assign their cars to shipments to destinations on their lines in order to preserve cars to protect loadings.

UP outlets

The UP only served west coast ports and only got as far east as the Missouri so they would have had to interchange grain going to any other market.  That’s one of the reasons they wanted to merge with the Rock and later the MP, it gave them access to the Gulf and Mississippi gateways (plus Mexico in the case of the MP).

I was told that the CNW had favorable rates to destinations on line so that’s where shippers shipped to.  Then they merged with the UP and the shippers got better rates to the gulf and west coasts so they started shipping to those destinations.  Problem was because they were further away it took weeks to turn a set of cars instead of days, and suddenly the former CNW area ran out of cars because they were on trips with a longer cycle time.

UP boxcars

The UP had a lot of plain old 40-foot boxcars in the day, but as the '60s and '70s progressed they added lots of specialized 50-footers and even rebuilt and/or stretched some of the 40-footers.  The result was a unique fleet that offers lots of opportunities for modeling.

Now what can you buy off the shelf today?  That's a fast moving target.  Tangent just released three models of combo-door 40-foot PS-1 boxcars for UP, Milwaukee, and NP.  All three are different.  The combo doors (plug and sliding) allowed them to be used for lumber and grain.  Open both doors to load lumber.  To load grain keep the plug door closed and cover the sliding door's opening with a grain door.

UP also had double-plug door 40-footers with grain-loading doors in the main door.  Athearn has made a model of this car for decades.  Most were later stretched to 50'.

For plain old boxcars keep an eye out for the Trix 40-footers, which are unique to the UP.  Imported a while back, I still see them at train shows.  

Scott Chatfield

@Scott

What I mostly remember are plain old boxcars. No double doors. No grain doors. Now whether they were 6' or 8' doors, I don't remember. I was there to work, not to look at the car. But in general we received (1971) a lot of boxcars that had 1x12 s across the doorway to make it grain worthy. We had a hydraulic ram built onto the door level dock which was then used to break the first two boards getting the grain flowing. One needed to be careful handling the ram to not get your hand in the wrong place while pushing on the boards. After the pressure subsided on the boards, we pulled them out of the way. The dock had twin screw track mounted auger on it (both sides) and it pulled much of the grain outwards until it was time to go in with brooms and grain shovels to finish it off. We had some strapping and cardboard door coverings, but not as much as boarding.

The first terminal I worked at also had a salvage operation. So we'd see grain coming in from where an elevator had burnt down. Very wet grain. The dryers worked hard on that. We also got reject dog food from the Purina plant in Topeka. What did we use these for? The company had a hog farm.

My question evolved since there are so many varieties of boxcars that made it into the 1970s, clear back to ones made in the 1940s. But as I said, finding models is often difficult. Intermountain lists a lot of choices, but finding someone with them is difficult. I wish the blue box Athearn grain box was available in a quality version. Walthers Mainline has some choices. I've looked at the Tangents and they're nice. 

Thanks for the info, BTW.

Grain doors

Those are "grain doors".  The vast majority were only long enough to fit over a 6' wide door opening.  They were actually owned by the railroads, and terminal elevators and other receivers of grain had to keep track of them and return them.  Places that got lots of boxcars of grain would sort them into piles by owner and eventually load them into an appropriate empty box and send them home.  Just one more thing for the railroads' army of clerks to keep track of.

Grain door boards only being 6' long is why the GN and NP bought a bunch of 50-foot combo-door boxcars with 6' sliding doors.

"Paper" grain doors were usually used on boxcars with wider door openings, especially after 1960.  Paper doors were actually heavy kraft paper reinforced with steel strapping.  To open them you tore the kraft paper, then after the pressure was off you cut the steel straps.  Problem is the paper could tear before it got to the consignee.  Made the birds happy....

Scott Chatfield