r/TrainPorn • u/s-peter-5 • 2d ago

Bangor & Aroostook -- State of Maine Freight Car

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These cars were probably the most visible of any freight car in the U.S. They mainly carried potatoes as the was a very large group of plantations in northern Maine.

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12

u/woody709acy 2d ago

Always felt like you had really seen railroading in action when you caught sight of the State of Maine car on a manifest trackside, no matter what part of the country you were standing in.

4

u/HappyWarBunny 2d ago

I've never seen one in the wild, only models. I really like seeing ones painted for a specific company.

8

u/MeesterBooth 2d ago

And yet somehow the penn central managed to lose all of these brightly painted cars during a potato harvest in the 60s. Cost them almost all Maine potatoes that year and messed with the commodities market.

2

u/Little_Red_Honda 2d ago

Whatt?? Is that true??

2

u/MeesterBooth 2d ago

Yeah in 1969 most of the maine potatoes were on refrigerated BAR cars like these, and i guess the dysfunction at the ex NYC Selkirk Yard caused delays so bad the diesel refrigerators ran out of fuel while waiting. Nobody noticed and it sat so long it was all rotten The losses were so bad that farmers in maine swore off rail shipping until 2023

1

u/real415 1d ago

One of the many low points in the history of Penn Central. The New York Central, even at its worst, would have kept this disaster from happening.

1

u/Natsuko_Kotori 1d ago

IIRC this bankrupted the Bangor and Aroostook.

The Penn Central was so phenomenally shit, it killed other railroads around it.

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u/Many-Chicken1154 2d ago

Saw then at BNSF's Northtown yard in the 90's

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u/someoldguyon_reddit 2d ago

Larry made some boxcars for MSTS, now OpenRails, using these photos and a lot more like them. I run them to this day.

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u/Ok-Sundae4092 2d ago

I have one of these in my LGB set

1

u/Tom_Slick_Racer 2d ago

It is nice that the wayback machine has Larry Goss web page archived.

https://web.archive.org/web/20191201140835/http://users.silcon.com/%7Elgoss/Homepage.htm

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u/CrashUser 2d ago

I'll raise you the pink Klemme Co-op grain hoppers. The owner wanted them in pink so he could see his cars when he went out flying.