I’ve read on several occasions on the forum over the years that when modeling a specific prototype, roughly 40% of the freight rolling stock should be the home road. Is that only true for the “golden age” of railroads? Or, would that still hold true for the modern prototypes, as well?
Thanks,
Tom
Tom, Here’s run down on the weekly report from NS. I hope it helps.
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By Car Owner |
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System |
52,011 |
49,680 |
49,936 |
4 |
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Larry does Private mean leased cars or are there industries that own cars?
About 1/3 of my freight cars are lettered for the STRATTON & GILLETTE. That ratio looks good to me.
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-Kevin
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Henry,Those are lease cars. Some of the freight car leasing companies is getting into leasing boxcars GATX already has them as does three others besides TTX/Railbox.
If you are modeling before the 1960’s, a typical mix might be 50% home road, 25% interchage roads and 25% others.
If you are modeling after 1980 or so, a mix might be 50% private (car initials end in “X”), 25% home and 25% other.
The mix of cars varies by where you are modeling and what you are modeling. Those percentages are just starting point, not hard and fast rules. If you are modeling the coal regions in the 1940’s then about 75% of the cars will be home road. If you are modeling the Gulf Coast in Texas or Louisiana in the 1980’s then about 75% of the cars will be private owner (chemical cars).
The classic example I use is Ft Worth on the UP. If you are modeling the E-W former TP there will be auto racks and intermodal cars, if you model the N-S former MKT there will be coal car and grain hoppers. Same road, same location, same era, different lines, different traffic mixes.
[quote user=“BRAKIE”]
tstage
Or, would that still hold true for the modern prototypes, as well?
Tom, Here’s run down on the weekly report from NS. I hope it helps.
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By Car Owner |
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System |
52,011 |
49,680 |
49,936 |
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I’d have to think the percentage would depend on the RR a great deal.
For example the D&RGW was a bridge route taking traffic from other connecting RR’s and passing it on to another on the other side. So my guess is the mix of home road freight cars would be much lower than say 40%. When I look at historical photo’s of D&RGW freight trains, that seems to hold true, only a smattering of D&RGW and a broad mix of other roads, perhaps weighted more in terms of friendly connections.
A huge difference between older and modern fleets is the amount of private equipment. Using the NS as an example, and the UP on the AAR website, modern customers own or lease a far greater percentage of the freight fleet than in the past. UPs percentage approaches 70% private.
Tom,Those are different weeks in the month.Its a FRA thing.
What is the date of these charts. The boxcar/intermodel #s seem way out of wack for starters. I do have limited knowledge and wish to be informed.[(-D]
Brent,Here ya go…
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Week Ending |
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1Q17 |
Dec 2017 |
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The modern boxcar story is confusing because it is incredibly regional. My railfanning is mostly the NS Pittsburgh Division or CSX in the national capital region. In Pennsylvania, there’s almost no boxcars to be had. Here in DC, it is mountains of them. I recently saw a train of about 85 cars. My count put it around 30 boxcars.
I always try to include a few cars of the road name of the loco. As for the original question. I’m sorry but my knowledge of modern trains is null and void…
[quote user=“BRAKIE”]
Brent,Here ya go…
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Week Ending |
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1Q17 |
Dec 2017 |
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Even on the same railroad, there could be some real contrasts. The standard gauge main lines definitely reflect that assessment. If you look at the coal-generating branches, there’s a story that varied a lot by era. They tended to have much higher % of home road coal cars back before the big lease fleet hoppers arrived on the scene. Now the lease fleet hauls a high % of that coal.
But if one looked at the Rio Grande narrowgauge, then home road cars are probably 95%+, the main exception being leased tank cars.
Looking at the number of car shops that has closed or downsized over the years I’ve always suspect the railroads would like to get rid of their freight cars and let the lease companies furnish the cars.
You also have to look at the car mix. The UP has over 60,000 more covered hoppers and 30,000 more tank cars because they serve more chemical and grain areas. Most of those car types are private owner cars. Their traffic mix lends itself to more privates. They also have more auto racks and intermodal cars and they are almost all private cars.
Maybe in the UP but,I see a lot of railroad owned autoracks in this area including some old SP racks bearing Southern Pacific with SP recording marks.
At near 60% private one can see the slow trend toward lease companies supplying the nations freight car pool-don’t overlook those lease boxcars that’s beginning to show up. Think of the money railroads would save by not having to maintain their own car fleet.
If you really want to read a eye opener read the special report in the January(2018) issue of Trains Magazine.
There was perceived to be a boxcar shortage in the early 1970’s, and it’s at that time you started to see the yellow Railbox boxcars, and smaller railroads (Middletown & New Jersey, Providence and Worcester) building large fleets of “per diem” boxcars.
What percentage of cars would be ‘home road’ in a train partly depends on what the railroad does. A shortline railroad, or a railroad dedicated to switching cars from railroad to railroad, like the Minnesota Commercial in the Twin Cities, or the Belt Ry. of Chicago, may own very few cars. A large railroad with many online industries may have many freight cars to serve it’s many online shippers.