Milestones in modern railroading

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

In order to rationalize my freelance road, I’m looking to make a listing of milestones in modern railroading that will help me make sensible decisions on my layout and cars which run on it, era-wise. Plus, it’s quite interesting to me, to get a sense of the timeline. Here’s the listing I’ve started…please do correct anything I got wrong, and please do add to this list any timings which are significant! Especially interested on any timelines on arrival dates of freight car and engine types!

I’ll also update the original post as any corrections/additions come in.

1963 - C&O acquires control of B&O

Mid 60’s - high cube box cars appear.

1968-69 - Penn Central formed by merger of NYC, Pennsy and New Haven

1968 - roller bearing trucks required on all new cars

1970 - Penn Central declares bankruptcy

1970 - Burlington Northern formed by merger of the Great Northern, Northern Pacific and CB&Q

1971 - Amtrak takes over intercity rail transport service

1972 - Illinois Central Railroad merged with the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio

1972 - Consolidated stencils appear on freight cars

1973 - Chessie System formed as holding company of C&O, B&O, and acquisition of WM

1973-74 - Regional Rail Reorganization Act (Conrail) debated and passed

1974 - Railbox Co. formed, to pool boxcars between roads

1976 - Conrail operational, as a federally-funded takeover of financially failing railroads in the Northeast, including Penn Central, Reading, EL, Jersey Central

1977 - First double stack well car

1979 - running boards banned from freight cars

1980 - CSX formed, merging Chessie and Seaboard System

1980’s - Centerbeam flat cars gain in popularity

1981 - Conrail turns it’s first profit

1980 - The Staggers Act passes, de-regulating the rail system and freeing up more mergers, spin-offs of shortlines,

2

Thanks for the time line! That’s great having all that info in one place.[tup]

3

Chessie System was not a “final” merger in 1973, but a holding company. While the WM, C&O and B&O were jointly held, all operated as independent entities into the mid 1980s. (hence the separate reporting marks). This was due in part to generous tax advantages enjoyed by the B&O in Maryland as granted in their original 1827 charter.

The WM main lines were severed by “rationalization” of duplicate routes and facilities, but they had a separate sales force and scheduled trains. They just ran most of the way over B&O rails.

As Chessie the Torch did her evil work, though, the once proud WM was ground into dust, and by the end, was doing little more than local switching, and dragging coal out of West Virginia.

Lee

4

Not sure when, exactly, but hi-cube boxcars were around at least ten years earlier than the mid 80s. I was still wearing an Air Force uniform the first time I saw an HO model. By the mid 80s that part of my life was history.

Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)

5

[#oops] never mind. [:I]

Nice list. Gives alot of good info.

6

Actually, Hi-Cube boxcars were around in the mid-1960’s. I have one painted in NYC Jade Green with the ‘cigar band’ logo.

7

You have a nice start with the Family Tree of mergers. I’d start another with production numbers & eras for locos. You could begin with FT’s of 1939. They lasted on the Santa Fe until the 1960’s when GP20’s replaced them.

What you will be producing is a timeline of when engines were produced, & when they could bve rebuilt or sold off to new owners. For the modern era,those FT’s become only those few units in museums. They can reappear if you want to have a museum or railroad days for all the old timers. You can decide nnot to have a whole fleet of them. For some roads, you can decide in what paint scheme they appear.

A similar item can be made for freight cars. At last you can avoid having a large fleet of single sheath boxcars if you don’t use them for MOW service. You can also be reluctant to have any trucks banned from interchange service.

8

Changes noted on the list.

It would indeed be great to include some timing on the appearance/general retirement of engine types…I just don’t know a lot about those dates yet.

9

High cube box cars existed long before the Mid-80s. I don’t know when for certain but I’ve seen photos of them in Illinios Central, Southern, Northern Pacific, & Great Northern, so they had to be in service before those railroads had mergers. I also recall seeing them in Wichita in the 1960s, and according to my Santa Fe freight car book at least one series designated Bx-108 were built by Transco in 1967, and another desigated Bx-178 in 1975. Then there were the 86 foot long Thrall automobile parts high cube box cars from 1964 or so.

They actually formed the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway. Then you would add the date below:

2005 - Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway changes its name to BNSF

It seems most of the events listed are mergers. I would think someone out there would be able to comment on when Railrunners, coalveyors, and the phases of Amtrak would have appeared on the rail. The introduction & then wide spread use of concrete ties. The massive abandonment of right of ways converting into rails-to-trails. The massive rebuilding of mainlines to double track to handle the increased load. CTC consolidation & control which resulted in the steady loss of semaphors (especially out here in the west).

You know perhaps this should be posted in the Trains section were people are more familiar with the real dates these things happened on the real railroads.

10

Well, liveries do matter. Which is why i originally started the list, to make sense of them and time relevance. I’m trying to include matters pertinent to modeling modern lines, hence the post. I’m not sure stuff like massive abandonments and conversion to trails has an effect for modeling, at least not mine…mine line is still active. [;)]

I wonder how widespread concrete ties are. That’s an interesting question. I’ve been to a lot of rail sites by now, and never have seen them, at least not in widespread use.

11

[quote user=“shawnee”]

In order to rationalize my freelance road, I’m looking to make a listing of milestones in modern railroading that will help me make sensible decisions on my layout and cars which run on it, era-wise. Plus, it’s quite interesting to me, to get a sense of the timeline. Here’s the listing I’ve started…please do correct anything I got wrong, and please do add to this list any timings which are significant! Especially interested on any timelines on arrival dates of freight car and engine types!

I’ll also update the original post as any corrections/additions come in.

1963 - C&O acquires control of B&O

Mid 60’s - high cube box cars appear.

1968-69 - Penn Central formed by merger of NYC, Pennsy and New Haven

1968 - roller bearing trucks required on all new cars

1970 - Penn Central declares bankruptcy

1970 - Burlington Northern formed by merger of the Great Northern, Northern Pacific and CB&Q

1971 - Amtrak takes over intercity rail transport service

1972 - Illinois Central Railroad merged with the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio

1972 - Consolidated stencils appear on freight cars

1973 - Chessie System formed as holding company of C&O, B&O, and acquisition of WM

1973-74 - Regional Rail Reorganization Act (Conrail) debated and passed

1974 - Railbox Co. formed, to pool boxcars between roads

1976 - Conrail operational, as a federally-funded takeover of financially failing railroads in the Northeast, including Penn Central, Reading, EL, Jersey Central

1977 - First double stack well car

1979 - running boards banned from freight cars

1980 - CSX formed, merging Chessie and Seaboard System

1980’s - Centerbeam flat cars gain in popularity

1981 - Conrail turns it’s first profit

1980 - The Staggers Act passes, de-regulating the rail system and freeing up more mergers, sp

12

I would add the break-up of Conrail 1 June, 1999.

Nick

13

Oh, I left that out. It’s huge. [#oops]

14

Did you get any of that info from here? Great Northern Timeline (includes post merger stuff till the 1990s too

He includes some stuff you don’t have, e.g. AEI tages mandated (1996), although a few of his years seem off.

Also, get some info about mech reefers, such as the last PFC styles, the breakup of PFC, rebuilds of same, and the new reefers out now…

15

When it comes to engine types, a good reference can be Kalmbach’s Field Guide to Locomotives. Many of the diesel color books about each RR can also be a good reference. What you want to see is, for example, the first FT’s were produced in 1939. The last ones were made in 1945. ATSF did not buy theirs until 1941. They lasted untul 1961. This gives you a useability period for most units of 20 years. A railroad with a good shop force may keep old power around a few years longer. At the same time, it made sense for ATSF to trade in the old FT’s for new power. Still other roads with no money found more units out of service. A road in the death grip of bankruptcy finds units that look bad & run worse.

16

The BNSF Railway was formed in september, 1995.