Hi All
If gondolas and tankers (for instance) are called freight cars and coaches and observation cars (for instance) are passenger cars and big hooks/cranes are maintenance-of-way cars, then what category does the caboose fall under?
And what about Hart ballast cars? Are they considered freight or MOW?
Wondering,
Paul
“Necessary” on my 1920’s RR! Actually, it’s technically a “non-revenue” car.
As to the Hart Ballast car, we don’t have those in the 1920’s, so I don’t know.
Big hooks may be “maintenance” equipment, but not necessarily “maintenance of way”. MofW is the Engineering dept, big hooks are in the Mechanical dept.
Maintenance equipment is assigned to non-revenue servce and primarily is used for company business. So if a hopper is assigned as a ballast car or is given longitudinal doors and is used only for hauling company ballast then its a maintenance car. If a regular hopper is used for hauling ballast, its a freight car. Many times maintenance cars will have different initials, such as MPX on the Missouri Pacific or SPMW on the Southern Pacific.
Cabooses are just cabooses and are their own category.
Dave H.
A caboose is a freight car. These cars were designed to operate in freight trains.
Express box cars and express refrigerator cars are considered passenger cars. These cars were designed for passenger trains: high speed wheels, signal lines, and steam lines.
If you don’t believe me, just check out the ARA classifications for car types.
Mark
Hmmmn. Three replies, three different answers. I will take all into consideration. Thank you.
Paul
You did have them in the twenties. There’s an article in the April 1902 Railroad Gazette about Hart Convertible Cars that were being ordered by the Santa Fe. They were built by the Rodger Ballast Car Company. The ATSF had ordered 600 cars, with another 1,200 cars on order by other railroads. The 1906 Car Builder’s Cyclopedia shows a Big Four Hart car, the 1922 CBC shows cars for the C&NW. The Green Bay & Western and the Algoma Central had some built in 1924, the Northern Pacific in 1922 and 1928.
As far as I can make out, the Hart design was licensed to a number of carbuilders, including Rodger, Enterprise, National Steel and ACF.
The AAR classifications seem to vary, too. If they were used only in MOW service you would expect them to be MWB, but the ATSF cars were HFA, the AC’s were GD, and the GB&W’s were GH, which suggests a revenue-earning role.
So now you have four replies, and four different answers! [:D]
All the best,
Mark.
When I first saw the title of the thread I thought it referred to the order and neatness of ones rolling stock. And yes, I do try and keep my rolling stock categorized and organized - unlike some people I know who have to dig and search for their cars for half the day…
As for the caboose question. I would think that cabooses would in their own class.
Tracklayer