I finished enough of my layout that I can start to really run trains and so I am trying to develop a roster of rolling stock (I have most of the engines I need). I model CB&Q and NP in Minnesota. I’m trying to come up with some train consists that would be pulled by CB&Q and NP engines. The unit train stuff is fairly straightforward but I model the 1950s so I also want a number of mixed freights as well. The question I have is what are some rules of thumb for selecting rolling stock with regards to (lets assume an average train has 12 cars):
Mix of roadname (for both unit train and mixed freight). How many should be the same as the home road versus non-home road? How many non-home roads should appear in a 12 car train?
For mixed through freights what should be the car composition (boxcar vs., hopper vs., gondola, etc.)
Where is the layout set? closer to cities, or more in the backlands? and threby possible interchanges with other roads, may have more mixed road frieghts. Boxcars are a major part of revenue in the eras, as they can do almost anything. They hauled grain, and boxes. Also scraps from beer making, you name it.
In terms of the setting, the layout runs from Chicago through Minneapolis to Duluth (as you might imagine there is a lot of selective compression). About half of the run is through towns and cities versus countryside. It is in part of the country where iron ore, coal, cattle and grain would have been major commodities for transport. The trains I have already purchased are:
1 westbound reefer set
1 eastbound refeer set (for these I have 6 of Burlington, NP, PFE and WFE cars)
1 iron ore train
I was also thinking of adding a stock car train, a coal train and at least 2 through mixed freights and 2 locals (for the locals I largely have a list of car types I need since I have most of the spurs planned out but don’t have a feel for what roadnames to use).
Check out the historical societies for the railroads you are modeling. You might find things like shippers’ guides, old train sheets that list consists, all kinds of information. Another good resource is any vintage videos you can get your hands on. Most of them only show the engines going by, but a lot of times you’ll see an entire train go by. That’s great, because you not only catch glimpses of the road names going by, but you can get an idea of what kind of weathering would look good, and what the mix of traffic was.
my rule of thumb, look at photo’s on the D&RGW during my time period of interest and see what they were running, and try to find reasonably accurate HO freight and passenger cars to match. So far Athearn has been helping me out with the Thrall coal gons like PSCX, NORX, UP/D&RGW coal liners etc etc
Depending on the year in the 50’s, you will need nothing larger than 50 footers. That narrows the spending field very quickly. Also keeps the radii small for your layout. Although they will look good on 30inch radius curves. Look for old pictures of the lines you model and look closely at the rolling stock to check the road names. You’ll probably be surprised at what you discover. But the most important thing to remember is “it’s your railroad” so you can run cars that you like. Can always say it’s for testing purposes only. Have fun and enjoy the ride.
You are basically modeling the CB&Q line from Aurora to St Paul, and the NP from St Paul to Duluth(the ‘Skally Line’). If you are modeling the 60’s, you can forget about ‘unit trains’ - they really did not exist at that time. The CB&Q was basically owned by the GN & NP - it was their route to Chicago. CB&Q trains many times had solid blocks of GN/NP cars from the west, followed by other traffic. Fruit from Wanatchee(GN) and Yakima(NP) would be heavy on these trains. Manufacturered products would be rolling westward. on the CB&Q side you would see lots of GN/NP reefers, lumber cars, and grain ‘in season’. The ‘mix’ of the trains would see about 50% GN/NP/SP&S/CB&Q cars. The rest of the trains would see lots of eastern roads as much of the manufacturered item originated at Chicago or east of Chicago.
The NP line really had little traffic(and it is now torn up). The NP has an overnight freight each day, and an every other day local at the time. Ore traffic came off of the Brainard line and was routed to the Hill Ave ore docks in Superior, so only touched this line at Carlton, MN. What was interesting is that the Milw had rights over the NP line and ran their own daily freight train on that NP line every day. The NP/GN trains would have lots of Canadian cars with lumber or ‘fertz’(potash). The rest would be split between ‘home road’ cars and ‘offline’ cars. I suspect that the ‘mix’ was split pretty even by Canadian/NP/everything else. Remember, grain was still being hauled in 40’ box cars. The covered hoppers any started showing up in large numbers at the end of the 60’s. You might see an ‘all rail’ ore movement in the winter if steel production could not wait for the Great Lakes to thaw out.
If you are modeling the 50’s, those articulated steamers were not seen on this part of the NP(they ran on the Western end of the railroad). Most NP steam would be smaller like the T1 class 2-6-2, and the W3 & W5 class 2-8-2 engines. Diesels on the NP featured a lot of RS1/RS3/RS11 engines in road freight service with some GP7 & GP9 class engines as well. Oprerations out of Duluth featured Alco engines. The NP also used 4 unit sets of the black ‘Pine Tree’ F units as well. The GE’s did not arrive until the mid 60’s, and were assigned to the west coast main line.
On the CB&Q, you would see the usual F units, and by 1959, the SD24 and GP20 engines were being assigned to the main freight trains. Locals used GP7 or GP9 engines or sometimes the SD7 or SD9 class engines would show up. The hood units would be in a mix of ‘Blackbird’ and ‘Redbird’ paint schemes(They changed to the red scheme in 1958). The F’s stayed in their ‘Greyback’ scheme. At one time the GN had a power pool with the ‘Q’, but I never remember the NP ‘pooling’ power with anybody out of the Twin Cities. The NP did pool ore equipment on the Cuyuna Range with the SOO Line.
This is a great idea. Historical Societies often have huge amount of information. It was a huge help to me modeling a less often known branch of the Boston and Maine. I now have pictures of buildings, trains, and the rolling stock that was thought long gone.
Thanks Jim. This is very helpful information. I realize that the term unit train is really a misnomer for the 1950s. What I was really referring to were solid trains of all the same car type. I know this would have been the case for iron ore but how would through freights with fruit or meat reefers have been handled? Would they have been a solid block at the front of the train or an entire train? Similarly, would stock cars be in blocks or entire trains? What about coal that arrived in Duluth and then was distributed by rail?
There is alot of boxcars… probably 35% of the fleet. Then 10% reefers, 10% tank etc.
I try to stay within 4 states of West Virginia with roadnames so alot of B&O, C&O, WM, PRR etc. However all parts of the USA and a bit of Canada gets a shot, nothing too wild.
So a train inbound to Falls Valley might be:
8 Boxcars, 4 tank, 2 gondola, 2 covered hopper, 3 coal hoppers, 4 reefers for example. Everyone of those cars on that train has a waybill and a specific destination.
Some days some industries will want heavier amounts of a commodity requesting larger amounts of certain types of cars.
Some places on the railroad like the planned Last Chance Coal Mine will get a bunch of hoppers in and a bunch out. What I dont know yet is what to do with all that coal. Either barge em downriver or yard em out to interchange.
For a general freight train for a major road, a very rough rule of thumb would be 50% home road, 25% connecting roads, 25% everything else. Types would be mostly boxcars. This will get you started, but don’t buy more than half what you need until you do some research. The NMRA has a reprint of the 1953 ORER for sale which can tell you what your roads owned. http://www.nmra.org/nmrastore/supplies/Store_Index.html