I’m going to assume the OP knows the Norfolk and Western became the Norfolk Southern in 1982. When that happened N&W reporting marks would begin to be replaced by NS. It wouldn’t happen overnight and the number of NS lettered cars as well as locos would increase as years went by. The ratios suggested for home, connecting, and distant roads are all plausible. There is no exact formula and any reasonable mix will be in the ballpark.
This really is the biggest driver. A story:
When I was a youngin, the old Pullman plant in Butler PA was on the last toe of the last leg. Trinity did two things in that plant: paint coal gondolas that were built somewhere else and fabricated what looked like the end slope sheets for covered hoppers. The slope sheets went out on trucks to whatever place. But the steel came in by rail. The mill they sourced their steel from was somewhere in the midwest because those were the only BN and ATSF cars I ever saw go through Butler (aside from the BN paint jobs on those coal gons). There were never Conrail or CSX or anyone else coil cars spotted at the Trinity plant. Only BN and ATSF. Not even UP.
So, if you contrive it right, you can have pretty much whatever you want turn up anywhere.
I don’t think this was true in the OP’s era, definitely not in 1954. Railroads would use a “foreign” car first to get it off of their rails.
The rules were written to encourage this.
I see Dave already stated this in a much better response.
-Kevin
I hadn’t thought about that, I wonder if his layout is set just before the merger?
Keep in mind the new railroad would continue to own the reporting marks of Norfolk & Western, Southern, and all their predecessor railroads. There would be no requirement to change the marks to NS; cars could continue in service for decades after in their old lettering and reporting marks.
Reporting marks are just an owner code.
NS never surrendered NW, SOU, and others so they never have to repaint. Likewise, Conrail never surrendered NYC and PRR, so those could be used to renumber equipment split up between NS and CSX. UP reactivated CMO because they ran out of UP numbers. Just pulled one out of the back catalog.
Trains used to run a “Would You Believe It” type photo section occasionally. A classic was a National of Mexico boxcar sitting in the deep snow on the team track in Churchill, Manitoba. Who knew the eskimos like tacos (I know, I know, EVERYONE likes tacos) and frijoles? Another was a Pacific Great Eastern boxcar that was roaming North America with “PEG” reporting marks.
And this is fascinating
"page 138 of the August, 1947 issue of Railroad Magazine
Wandering Boxcar. Statisticians in the Union Pacific headquarters at Omaha, Neb., tracing the movements of boxcar 193346 over a period of four and one-half years, finding that it was used by eighty-three different railroads, some of which had this car as often as ten times. during the period Number 193346 actually changed hands from one road to another 221 times, an average of one change every seven and a half days. Much of its time was consumed in loading and unloading, in addition to actual travel. No attempt has been made to calculate the mileage of car 193346 during the four and a half years, but there is little doubt that it has been in every state of the Union, in several Canadian provinces, AND IN EVERY MAJOR CITY IN THE U.S.A.
Even Hawaii?[;)]
Agreed. I could have worded that better. What I meant to say was as new equipment was added and older equipment retired, NS reporting marks would become more common.
There used to be a Chessie System line that ran along a baseball complex I used to coach at in the 1970s. I’d see locos and coal hoppers still lettered for B&O, C&O, and Western Maryland. I don’t recall any from the Virginian but I may have seen those too.
Since the Virginian was merged into the N&W in 1959, it would be rare to see a VGN hopper on the N&W in the 1970’s and even rarer to see one on the Chessie System.
Hawaii was still a territory and not yet part of the USA in 1947
My mistake. For some reason I was thinking the Virginian was part of the Chessie merger.
OK, I missed the date on the article.