Good afternoon everyone. I’m new here to the forums, as well as being somewhat new to real model railroading (that being as opposed to the armchair variety).
I’m working on a concept for a fictional division of the RF&P railroad, which I am calling the RF&P Western Division. The current plan for the model is for it to run from the RF&P’s Potomac Yards, west to Fall’s Chrurch, Virginia, and then south to Roanoke. In keeping with the RF&P’s identity as a bridge line, I plan to have a good deal of interchange traffic.
Which leads me to the crux of my question. On a railroad of this type, home much foreign rail traffic could you reasonably expect, and from how far away? For example, I would expect to have lots of service from the likes of the PRR, B&O, C&O, and N&W. But what about the mid-western and pacific coast lines? Did cars in that period typically wander that far away from home rails?
On a railroad like you describe, wouldn’t virtually all the traffic be overhead? There wouldn’t be many traffic sources or destinations on line, I think.
By Western I think you mean west of Chicago. If so, traffic that would get that far east in the early 1960s would consist largely of lumber (dimensional, millwork, plywood), canned goods and bulk tomato products, and perishables (mostly potatoes, onions, fruit, and hard vegetables). Western road cars would include SP and Santa Fe, and to a lesser degree GN, NP, Milwaukee Road, and UP, and the reefer lines such as PFE and ART.
I don’t think this route would carry much in the way of chemical or metals traffic as that sort of traffic mostly went to the Philadelphia-North Jersey area.
I think the preponderance of the eastern road cars would be PRR, B&O, and NYC, and to a lesser degree E-L, NKP, Wabash, and C&O. Plus SRY, ACL, and SAL.
True enough. I am planning a few local industries for way freights, but the bulk of the traffic would indeed be through traffic on the line from Roanoke to the Potomac Yards.
Would the cars from those western lines then consist largely of reefer traffic then? Or were your hard vegetables shipped in standard boxcars?
I was considering a textile mill as one of the on-line industries, since that western area of Virginia was thick with them, especially down towards the Roanoke area and south into North Carolina. They did use several varieties of chemicals, so that could be one source for those cars, I expect, as well as wool and cotton.
Thanks for all the information there. I really appreciate it.
Any car from any railroad in N America could be on that line. Really the key question is who are you connecting with at each end and what did THEY haul. Since the eastern end will be the lines serving the NE corridor there could be virtually any industry there. The Roanoke end would connect to lines that feed up from Memphis and New Orleans. Those are major gateways to the southwestern states. So more than likely stuff from the Boston to Washington area going to the west via Memphis or New Orleans would pass over your route. That could be chemicals, manufactured goods, produce, cotton, etc.
The replies help. I’ve been buying up rolling stock for the layout lately, and I think, after reading some of these replies, that I have been unnecessarily limiting myself. I’ve been really focusing on the eastern railroads, especially those that I know ran in and around Virginia (N&W, B&O, C&O, ACL, SCL) to the exclusion of other roads. But what I’m gathering from the replies I’m getting is that it’s less important what road the car originates on than why the car is there in the first place.
Is that more or less the concept?.
Also, does anyone know of any good resources that cover this sort of information?
A car from “XYZ RR” could end up anywhere in the US as long as it was on the rails.
When pulling the “feed work” for the night crew, we may end up with a mix of CP, SOO, CN, CNWX, BRIX, NOKL, ADMX, UELX, etc. depending on what cars are in the yard at the time. So for “long haul” stuff you may see a mix of carriers.
Now, for “regionalized” haulage, you may see sets of leased cars with specific numbers. For example, the local fuel supplier that takes gasoline and diesel fuel via rail has a specific series of cars they lease (“Tank trains” - interconnected tank cars … and “singles” - standard tank cars) that go from the unloading terminal down the RR, to the loading terminal, and back. There’s about a 72 hour “turn around”. Usually 1 day down, 1 day back, and 1 day of unloading.
There’s another fuel dealer that we supply with #2 heating fuel, diesel, kero / stove oil, etc. His cars travel quite a bit farther, but for the most part we see the same cars rotating in and out of the yard to service his facility.
On the flip side of this, you may get a car showing up on your road with a load of lumber for a local supplier, the car gets unloaded, and then released and sent a couple hundred miles away to go get a load of bags of limestone.
Thanks for that information, GR. That’s very helpful. I admit to having a very limited knowledge about how real railroads move goods around, which, I will admit, is probably a good deal of my problem.