I’m planning a freelanced railway set in the summer of 1969 in southern West Virginia and Southwestern Virginia. I’ve been trying to develop a coal car roster for my era. What ratio of old 55 and 70 ton hoppers should I have compared to newer 100 ton hoppers? Also, what would be a good train size in this era?
Just to give some background on my railway, the Virginian and Atlantic (V&A) is a modest size class 1 railroad. Its physical plant is about the size of the N&W before the 1964 mergers with NKP, Wabash, P&WV and the AC&Y. The railroad was founded in 1890 and is set in 1969. the Main Line runs from Toledo, Sandusky and Cleveland Ohio to Richmond, Norfolk, Manassas and Roanoke Virginia. It is based off of practicees of real appalachian railways and model ones liek the V&O and the AM.
I’d try for lots of the 55 tonners. They are smaller so you can fit more of them into the layout. 1969 is early for 100 tonners. I’d want to check documentation to make sure that 100 tonners were in production in 1969.
a factor you might want to consider is how heavy is your rail and what shape is you track in? i worked on the old NYC Cairo division for a while where 99% of our business was coal and we couldn’t use anything bigger that 70 ton hoppers because the track was so bad. there were so many slow orders and speed restrictions, even with the smaller cars, the road crews needed calendars instead of standard watches.
I know its not the road your doing but it still applies to your main question. Teichmuller’s book titled PRR open top hoppers. It covers the major classes of hoppers from 1895 till the PC in 1969. 50 ton and 55 ton hoppers were being phased out at that time for the newer 70 ton triples. 100 tonners were scarce around that time.
As for train size, I would say that it depends on how long your passing sidings are. I would try to work in 6 foot long sidings as that will give you a decent train length for a home layout, unless you have a really big area for a big layout.
In your immediate prototype area, the VGN had the very first 100 ton coal carriers - but they didn’t even resemble anything more recent. Don’t know how many, if any, were in service in 1969.
My own freelance coal carrier is about 13 time zones removed from yours, and runs articulated hoppers of no acknowledged ancestry in 2-2-2, 2-3-2 and (proposed but not yet built) 2-2-2-2 axle configurations. Gross weight is limited to 12.5 (metric) tons per axle, and the railroad was laid out with a wet spaghetti noodle for a straightedge (350mm minimum radius, including two helices.) So, if you are actually freelancing, why not have some really unusual home-road cars.
Not only that, but they are absolutely wonderful when Scalerule Harry and Rivetcounter Richard show up on your doorstep…
Chuck (Modeling Freelancing Central Japan in September, 1964)
Thanks for the tip. I think most of the VGN Battle Ship Gondola coal hoppers were retired by 1969. What brand of 55 ton and 70 ton hoppers do you recommend for HO scale?
I checked the internet and it says that 100 ton hoppers were produced starting in the late 1960’s. Also, the PRR had some 100 ton hoppers before PC and the N&W had 100 ton hoppers painted in the half moon herald scheme of the 1960’s. I also found that 85 and 90 ton hoppers were also developped during the early 1960s. Were these cars fairly common on coal roads? Are they easy to create or are they available as a model?
If your free-lanced railroad is more of a “Class I/Bridge-Route” than a “Class I/Mainline” – This may make 55-ton coal hoppers even more plausible as the railroad would take a tad longer to adopt 70-ton or 100-ton cars.
The use of Twin Coal Hoppers (55 Ton) dwindled quickly with the demise of coal as heating fuel (late 50’s) in houses, as most coal yards received their fuel in these cars and most of these were last manufactured during WWII. Athearn, Bowser, Accurail and Tichy all make cars of this type with Athearn being the easiest to build and Tichy the most difficult.
The fifties and sixties were mostly populated by the 70 Ton Triple and Quad Hoppers represented by the Athearn Quad, Stewart (Now Bowser) Offset and Rib Sided, and the Boswer PRR H21 cars. As time went on these cars were re-rated to 77 tons with changes in the journals of the cars.
I was checking my PRR book last night, and the 100 Ton H43 was introduced in 1963-1964 on the PRR and was similar to the H11 on the N&W which was introduced at the same time. These are represented by the Bowser 100 Ton Triple Hopper.
Thaks for the webite. My railway is a Class 1/ Mainline with some bridge traffic but not a whole lot. More traffic is forwarded from cities on my railway to other cities rather than going to and coming from a different railway. So I think my railway would be more of a Class 1/ Mainline railway. So I’ll have more 70 ton hoppers than 55 ton hoppers. I plan on having either 85 ton or 90 ton hoppers on my railway. Do these cars look more like 70 ton or 100 ton hoppers?
the term “bridge carrier” is used to denote a company that neither originates or terminates the load. they get it from one railroad and hand it off to another.
with a few exceptions, interchange with other roads whether it be for an originating or terminating load is a major source of any railroad’s business. two exceptions that come to mind would be iron ore on the DMIR that moved from mine to lake dock and grain on the IC that moved from midwest elevators to New Orleans for export.
otherwise, much of the rail traffic in this country originated in an area where the commodity was not consumed. for example, produce from the west went primarily to big city markets in the east at one time. automobile engines from the GM plant at Tonawanda NY went to assembly plants throughout the country. same for sheet metal stampings from fisher body in Michigan and Ohio. appliances made in Marion Ohio may have originated on the PC but they went out to distribution centers all over the nation. today’s NS gets a lot of business from Caterpillar in Decatur and Peoria Illinois but i bet little if any of it terminates at a NS location.
a prime consideration for you is to consider which location on your prototype (real or imaginary) you are modeling. if it is somewhere in the middle of the system, then most cars just pass through enroute to their final destination. if it is the end of the line like KCMO,St Louis or Chicago, then a huge portion of your volume will be received and delivered through interchange with other carriers be they terminal switching roads or other class ones.
In my modeling region, more trains are passing through to other points on the system rather than terminating in my area. Although there is a fair amount of traffic in the mountains on my railway, there isn’t as much as on other parts of the system. Some of the mountain freight yards on my system include Roanoke, Saunton, Bristol and Richlands Virignia, Charelston and Huntington West Virginia and many more mainly coal yards in the Hollers of Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia. My railway does do a fair amount of bridge traffic, but I wouldn’t really consider my railway mainly as a bridge route. I would say that most traffic is interline traffic and on-line traffic. The coal traffic accounts for most of the on-line traffic and some of the interline traffic.
The V&A is somewhat based off the N&W. I might change the system map a bit to allow for more interchange but for the most part, the main part of the system will remain untouched. I’ve been trying to develop paint schemes, logos and rosters for my railway and every time I think I’ve found the scheme I want, I see some other scheme and abandon the other. I just can’t seem to make up my mind. All I have are the basic colours, black for first generation diesels and blue for second generation diesels.
“I’ve been trying to develop paint schemes, logos and rosters for my railway and every time I think I’ve found the scheme I want, I see some other scheme and abandon the other. I just can’t seem to make up my mind.”
did you work for the Illinois Central??
now you are getting realistic!! just like the IC after Wayne Johnston left. split rail?, orange and white? orange and gray? back to black? gulf or no gulf? black to gray? death star?
the canadian noodle solved the problem for them. it was the “final solution”
I’ve decided that I’m going to try to change my railway and give it its own identity. I’m gonna try some new ideas and create a railway that’s my own. On a coal car note, does a 90 ton hopper look exactly like an 100 ton hopper?