I’m modelling a modern era shortline which will be based in one of the Mid to North Eastern States, and I’m trying to work out which roads I could use for the freight cars.
In the main I’m trying to keep to the leasing companies, but would it be valid to use freight cars from any road, even those which don’t exist. For example would it be perfectly valid to use a Chessie System Boxcar? or one from BNSF etc as well as ones from CN and CSX ?
or should I be thinking of where my industries are getting there raw materials from and where there goods are being shipped to ?
The Industries I’m going to have is a Plastics Factory which will take deliveries of Plastic Pellets, and ship out small plastic items such as Hard hats. A Marshmallow factory which takes delivery of Corn Syrup and Sugar and ships out finished goods. There is also a fueling and sanding area for the industry switcher and a team track for some other industries which I haven’t decided on yet.
Finally which type of Box cars would be valid to use on a modern (post 2000) era HO layout ?
Any car from any road in your era would be appropriate. So depending on the time frame for “modern” there is a wide range of cars.So pretty much anything that is within 30 years or so of your definitiion of “modern” would be good.
Whole volumes have been written about this issue (which usually culminate in telling the questioner to find a OER (equipment register) suitable to his modeled era), so I won’t get crazy here.
I would say that most newer boxcars are hi-cubes (Plate F?) 100t+, but there are lots of Plate C 70ts out there in service, so keep that in mind. Also keep in mind that nowadays many baked goods would be more likely to go by train via intermodal than boxcar, so while inbound rail traffic can be high to the candy manufacturer or bakery, outbound shipments via boxcar would be low (or nil), and rows of containers and trailers would rule the outbound loading docks.
In general, the older the paint scheme (like Chessie), the more likely it will be ratty looking and beat (and possibly patched), unless it’s one of those ‘Heritage Design’ deals (a railroad paints a freight car in one of it’s previous ‘fallen flag’ schemes). A Chessie boxcar from 30 years ago would probably be pretty weathered and beat looking nowadays (and probably patched to CSXT - although C&O reporting marks are still valid).
Note that about 10 or so years ago, a bunch of cars with ‘New’ NYC and PRR reporting marks appeared, as former ConRail assest were allocated to NS/CSX/CSOA. Not sure how many remained still patched and un-repainted.
see there are union pacific, bnsf, norfolk southern,csx, kansas city southern, canadian national, and canadian pacific railway. those are the main railroad these days. if you can get the november 2010 issue of trains. there is a railroad family tree
Well, Chessie System hasn’t existed since about 1982, but you can still find examples of cars still in Chessie paint but with CSXT numbers. Otherwise, yes. There’s a lot of leased and pool boxcars out there these days which are lettered in shortline reporting marks like AOK, TR and NOKL.
Not a bad plan.
Plastic pellets would be shipped in shipper-owned/leased cars, as would the corn syrup and sugar. These cars would be specifically assigned to these commodities and shippers.
The finished products can be shipped out in boxcars provided by your home road (or if you’re modelling a small shortline, boxcars provided by your main connecting railroad). These will likely be mostly home road cars, but also mix in some “foreign” empties being reloaded (there was a nice big thread on routing empties a couple weeks ago). Also mix in pool and free-runners like shortline pool cars and RBOX.