The Stock Car thread got me thinking of this. As I considered my fleet, many of my cars are indeed associated with local industries. I have a number of cars that deal with the meat packing and tanning industries. I have a lot of beer reefers and a brewery for them to ship from, and my icing platform gives me an excuse for pass-through reefer traffic to stop anyway. I have unloading facilities for tank cars, and both loading and unloading places for hoppers. I view boxcars as industry-generic so they can go anywhere with a loading dock.
Of course, I have some rolling stock without destinations, like log cars or TOFC cars. Some of these are holdovers from my teenage years, but they have gotten metal wheelsets and Kadees along with the rest of my equipment.
So what about the rest of you? Have you coordinated your rolling stock with structures? I find that researching industries from back in the transition era to get an idea of their gozintas and goesoutas adds a lot to my enjoyment of modeling.
Since the basic plan of my layout is switching, there is no other reason to have a car on the layout except for the industries (and a couple of off-layout industries, fictionally 10 miles away)
I base my freight car fleet from what my railroads roster included. For ex PRR’s 1954 freight fleet had 71756 hopper cars which made up 39% of the entire freight roster.
I also model ATSF which mined boxcars. Therefore my freight roster mostly consists of various boxcars of every road, and PRR hoppers.
From there, I determined my industries. I have two freight houses and a coal mine to service on my railroad.
Unlike you, I built my layout (industries) around what I wanted to model, instead of the other way around. Its interesting to see how we thought of different ways of modeling!
The far majority of my cars serve the local visible industries. I’ll have an occasional through freight that includes the very few that can’t. That ncludins a single stock car, running empty. Dan
The majority of industries on my layout are manufacturers, so they may receive parts or materials in boxcars, and gondolas, and perhaps some on flatcars, too. I also have unmodelled industries that ship to or from places that are “elsewhere”…like these cars loaded with parts for an overhead crane…
This load of vehicle frames doesn’t have a modelled point of origin, nor a modelled destination…
…but it has very specific routing instructions due to its height, and also handling restrictions, as the car, whether loaded or empty, is not to be turned.
Other industries, such as coal and ice dealers, livestock buyers and sellers, and even the home-based roads use cars that are appropriate for the commodities carried…most of the coal comes from “elsewhere”, which allows me to use a very wide variety of roadnames.
Most of my scrap metal loads travel in gondolas, mostly home-road cars, but it’s not uncommon to see ones from the U.S., too. I don’t know from where those loads originate or terminate, but there are lots
I have only two industries, a sawmill and a small coal mine. The sawmill has it’s own Heisler and a couple of skeleton log cars. The mine leases/rents cars from wherever the rate is cheapest that week, be it C&O, N&W, or B&O, and that’s what trails my heavy steam power. All the other traffic is ‘through’ traffic, unless a boxcar or gon has a load of whatever, lubes, spare parts, a new stamp mill, and needs to be shunted up the switchback.
Some yes, some no. Since a portion of the traffic on my layout represents overhead, originating and terminating in staging, it has no modeled destination. Cars restricted to through movements are chosen based on typical prototypes seen on such trains in the era modeled, with no effort made to tie them to an on-layout industry.
Not yet as I haven’t built my two Industries yet Mister B. Not much room on a 4x8 layout but I have accumulated enough rolling stock over the years to accommodate the two and steamers for the servicing faculty.
A lot of 70 ton ore and smaller mining cars for the ore loader. Many box cars and just recently finding log cars for the lumber mill. I even got some beer can tank cars for the lumber treatment part of the mill.
A lot of my collection serves no purpose on the layout but had to have them. I guess they will fit into that just passing through clause.
You did give me the idea of fitting in an ice house dock somewhere to make sense of the many reefers I have, including my favorite beer ones[Y]
So, on the layout plan, there are only about 8 industries planned to be on the layout. One will be a petroleum dealer (tank cars), one a coal dealer (hopper cars), and the rest will be served by boxcars.
It is what is “off the layout” that brings the fun. The whole point is to move feight cars around in a semi-orderly manner in a semi-plausible purpose to serve all these imaginary “industries”.
There are locals that come-and-go to service all the industries in Manchester and Great Divide, that are off layout. There is the interchange track with the YTBNR (yet to be named railroad), and the transfer runs to and from the DAWDLE AND DELAY. Plus, I will have a car float that gets “fiddled” in between operating sessions to service all the industries on Saint Teresa Island.
I figure that makes about 50 “industries” that will need all manner of freight cars sent out. This makes big fun without all the industries on the layout.
I have freight cars for main line and switching traffic. Normally I model main line traffic with no industry near by. I like seeing long intermodal, auto rack, coal, and mixed freight. That exclusives Amtrak.
Long stretches of scenery and maybe one or two industries as desired.
I have two. I have an A&P warehouse and an A&P billboard reefer. I have a Cities Service and a single Cities Service tank car. Both industries are served by a variety of cars. When I complete my short line, it will have two creameries for which I have a couple milk tank cars.
Several of my industries will be deliberately generic so I will be able to feed them with whatever freight cars, gondolas, flat cars or hopper cars that I choose. I will also have an icing platform and a small stock yard to allow me to add reefers and stock cars to the mix.
I will also have a small service area that will be able to handle steam and diesel locos as well as a car shop/paint shop. I anticipate spending a fair portion of my time switching things in and out of the service area.
I will confess that I think I will spend a lot of time just watching trains run. When I was with my old club I found that just running a train for a while was very enjoyable and relaxing. In fact, I found that changing cars was tedious. I am the world’s worst person when it comes to getting a car on the rails.[|(][D)]
Some of us prefer one car type more than another. I determine industries by the car type I wish to see, and give me a wider selection of road or owners/lessors markings. I model the 1980s, when we had a much bigger and for me, a much more interesting choice of roadnames to choose from. I happen to like boxcars thus I chose a paper distributor because paper is manufactured in a large number of states, in many varieties. This would give me cars from northern New England and Canada-Bangor and Aroostook, Maine Central, Boston and Maine, and the Canadian transcons. Upstate New York and possibly Pennsylvania-Delaware and Hudson, and Pennsylvania. Michigan gives me more Pennsy and possibly New York Central and Ann Arbor. Wisconsin sees cars from Chicago and North Western, Soo Line, and Green Bay and Western. Minnesota gives me Northern Pacific, Great Northern, Milwaukee Road, in addition to more CNW and SOO. Burlington Northern is also present, especially in the Pacific northwest along with holdovers from its merger partners. Southern Pacific gets into the action in Oregon. The southeastern states are represented by cars from shortlines such as Appalachicola Northern, Atlanta and St. Andrews Bay, as well as major carriers like Southern, Louisville and Nashville, Seabord Coastline as well as its predecessors, Atlantic Coast Line and Seaboard Air line. Then there is always Railbox and other IPD roads.
Another industry with a large number of potential car types as well as roadnames would be the distribution center for a regional grocery chain. Food products are made all over the country and they all come together at a distribution center. There are facilities for handling refrigerated as well as non-perishable goods. There may be a store bakery, providing the chain with fresh baked items, which may mean spots for covered hoppers of flour and sugar, as well as a tank car of cooki
Yes and no. All the industries were originally on my old layout that was abandoned when my now late father ws forced to move to town due to illness. They got repurposed to my new railyard layout, however.
I do have some woodchip hoppers of various kinds that unload (short 34’ bashed ones akin to NPs 36’ers) and load (62’ high side gondolas) if that counts. A printing plant receives boxcars to ship out printed materials and have paper rolls come in. There is a team track for random cars as needed. I also have a fuel track for getting diesel fuel. Other than that, most traffic is “pass-through” with the yard.
As Rob commented, some are and some aren’t. The D&RGW was mostly a bridge route so much of the freight was passed from one side to the other, but I’ve tried to have freight cars that representy typical bridge traffic of the time period. Some traffic is online generated such as coal primarliy but also some other products. At Grand Junction trailer on flat cars was offloaded.
For decades the only parameter for my rolling stock was “year built”, not wanting anything newer than 1960. Otherwise, I wanted “one of each” but did concentrate on the ATSF and IC.
About 20 years ago I purged the 600 car plus inventory of roads that just were out of place in the midwest - west US. And then I researched the prototypes to massage the car types to a more representative ratio.
But in writing this post, I’m thinking…which came first - the industries on my layout or the railcars I had? For me it was a mix, but for one starting out that is a question to ponder.
I suggest its best to put in the industries you prefer first, and then get the appropriate cars to service such industries. And of course, you will likely have other cars for “thru routing” to other destinations.
