I am looking for the code to describe a 2 bay Offset side Hopper. Think of the Athearn, Atlas, or Kadee versions of this car. I am probably staring right at it, but for the life me I can’t figure out what it is.
The AAR code for an ordinary open two-bay hopper is HM . For an ordinary open triple or quad hopper is HT .
The codes changed over time. You need to consider the period being modeled to decide which codes to use.
http://nakina.net/other/aartype.html
Complete list, also showing changes over time.
Guilty of thread necromancy.
Anyone know the AAR code for a substation car?
It would probably be assigned some variation of “MW” code probably for boxcar or flat car depending on what the substation is sitting on or in. There probably isn’t a specific “AAR” code.
AAR codes were used primarily to designate car types used in revenue interchange service and a substation car is not really an interchange or revenue car and would be incredibly rare in the overall scheme of things. Many railroads had their own car type classifications, so picking something unique to your railroad wouldn’t be out of order,
Agree with dehusman. Never seen evidence of an AAR mechanical designation for a substation car. This is as close as I’ve ever gotten:
http://okthepk.ca/mobile/mow.htm
Edit – off on a tangent. I’m perusing the equipment roster of the Central California Transit Company. While the AAR designations are not shown, two of the maintenance units were numbered with alpha characters. The line car (self-powered) was numbered “S” and the portable substation “A”.
What the heck is a “substation” car? Does he mean a car for carrying electrical transformers like a depressed centre flatcar (FD) or schnabel car (LS)?
http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?o=hepx&i=hepx200
A substation car is a car used on a trolley or light rail line to carry a portable power substation. In the event that the regular substation that powers a section of the railroad is damaged or being repaired or something cuts a portion of the railroad off from its fixed substation, the substation car can be connected to the commercial high voltage power supply provide power to the lower voltage overhead or trolley wires.
Its sorta the equivalent of having a spare power pack or DCC command station for a model railroad. If the regulear one has a problem, you unplug the regular one from the commercial power, unhook it from the power leads to the railroad and drop the spare one in. Only with thousands of volts in and hundreds of volts and amps out.
What was the AAR code for an ore Jennie in the 1950’s?
Ore cars would be HMA.
Thanks, see I wouldn’t have figured that out since the HM is a 2-bay hopper. What does the A stand for?
Actually, these alpha descriptions are called Mechanical Designations in my Oct. '68 ORER. The car codes are alpha-numeric, and that ordinary two-bay hopper could have an AAR code of H140, H240, or H340, depending on the car’s capacity in lbs. Its mechanical designation in all three cases would still be HM.
In this issue, the ore jenny isn’t specifically mentioned in the Mech. Desg., but there are two diagrams under the heading HMA: the first refers to a car with longitudinal doors dumping between the rails (okay so far) but “operating as more than one unit” and "having two divided hoppers", while the second shows similar car, but “with the doors operating as a single unit” and “having two divided hoppers”. [:-^] No wonder these designations changed over the years - it seemingly took them ages to figure out which cars belonged in which category.
In the Car Code listings, though, ore jennies are shown, with Mech, Desg. of GT and HMA The car codes for GT are J100, J200, and J300 and for HMA, J110, J210, and J310. The explanatory note indicates that “J” is for ore jenny, the first numeric is a code for the capacity of the car, the second numeric a code for the Mechanical Designation, and the third for special features (none in these examples).
Probably way more information than anyone asked for. [:-^] [(-D]
Wayne
It depends on the type of “ore jenny”.
If its the solid bottom car like the ex-PRR and SP squarish rib side cars, its a GT.
If its a hopper bottom ore car, it could be any one of several designations depending the door or hopper configuration, but HFB or HTA would be two of the more probable.
Once he said HMA I Goggled “AAR HMA” and found this link:
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/rsList.aspx?aid=K280&Page=2
And that would be the car I was looking for.