I ran across an article on a forum that addressed this but would like coments on what they said. They said in this time period that 65% of cars were 40’, 30% 36’ to 38’ and 5% were 50’. Of the these 20% were double sheathed, 35% single sheathed and 45% all steel. It also stated that around 90% of cars, were boxcars. Trying to see what I need and what to downsize as I am going for generic as far as local but right for the era average.
The Official Railway Equipment Register is your friend. Published annually, it lists railroad-owned equipment in interchange by car type, listing dimensions and road mark number ranges and other info.
Car builders manufacturing reports for the years in which you are interested are often helpful, as can be annual reports from prototype railroads even if you don’t model that particular railroad; it’s still an indication of the sort of foreign equipment that’d be interchanged. For the same reason, Technical and Historical Society material from other railroads that existed in the time period you’re modelling can be informative, as well as downright fascinating.
Looking for more of a broad average, type of car by area differs alot in that era.
Those numbers sound about right EXCEPT 90% boxcars is wrong. Yes, a much higher percentage than nowadays, but if that’s a national average that doesn’t sound right. For one thing, look at the N&W, where the hopper was king, as it was on many coal-hauling RRs.
What would you say the right numbers would be?
Ya for boxcars that’s probably pretty close as far as how many were woodsided single sheathed, double sheathed, and how many were steel, and the lengths…although by 1940, it had been 25-30 years since any new 36’ boxcars were built (although some 38’ meat reefers had been built more recently), so it might be the pct. of 40’ cars should be higher and 36’ - 38’ ones lower.
Most housecars (boxcars, reefers, stock cars) would be 8-1/2’ high. The 40’ long, 10’ high steel boxcar so many of us think of when we hear “boxcar” only started in production in 1936.
But 90% of all cars being boxcars seems high, though it would have been higher than today. A lot of things now carried in covered hoppers were hauled in boxcars back then.
Remember too a lot of new regulations came in during the 1930’s, so you wouldn’t see cars in interchange service that had archbar trucks, or truss rods (unless they had a steel underframe), and private owner / leased “billboard” reefers would be very rare.
The % of each car types in the national fleet as well as the % owned be each railrioad are useful starting point, but basing the number of cars of each type and railroad will usually not be prototypical. Real numbers depend on the location of the railroas and segment of the railroad modeled, connecting railroads, online industries servered, where and who products are shipped to/from, and overhead traffic carried on the line.
What I am going for is the general feel of the late 1930’s, even though things like the S-1 diesel were first sold in 1940, they existed in 1939, just not up for sale yet (what you think they just started producing it with no testing etc.). Also I am OK with an S-4 as iit was mainly the same but different truck which was avalible in 1939 if they had wanted to use it.
Mike, N&W may have been a coal road but,it handled several thousand boxcars a week… Even today NS handles between 14-15,000 boxcars per week.
90% is high it would be more like 55% coal and 45% general freight for the N&W. You see N&W switched a lot of industries plus handled overhead traffic between the South-East to Columbus and Cincinnati and vice versa.
Nation wide around 70% boxcars would be right. .
I have looked through a couple ORER’s and found little bits of useful info, but a truly accurate picture can only be gained by tabulating each type of car for each road and adding thousands of numbers in hundreds if not thousands of categories. I’m not gonna do that. Fortunately, it was already done in “The Postwar Freight Car Fleet” by Ted Culotta and the late Larry Kline, published by the NMRA, 2006.
The work does not break down the totals in quite the way you have requested, but it should help. The book says that in the late 1940’s (1946-49), the U.S. freight car fleet was comprised of:
Box/Auto cars 36.4%
Hopper (open and covered) 27.1%
Gondola 16.5%
Tank 7.1%
Refrigerator 6.7%
Stock, incl. poultry 2.7%
Flat 3.5%
These totals can be deceptive. Coal hauling roads such as N&W, C&O, VGN, PRR, RDG, B&O, etc. had disproportionately large rosters of open hoppers for coal service. Covered hoppers were rare before the 1950’s, being used principally for cement and similar commodities. Widespread use of covered hoppers for grain and powdered chemicals began in the 1950’s and didn’t become truly widespread until the 1960’s. Those commodities generally traveled in boxcars, often in bags. Western roads tended to own more stock cars than Eastern roads. Gondolas were widely us
While interesting, the national or even railroad totals don’t mean much as far as what cars should be on your layout. The classic example is the UP in Ft Worth TX. If you look at the N-S line through Ft Worth its a lot of covered hoppers, unit coal trains, and general merchandise traffic with a bit of auto racks. If you look at the E-W line its heavily intermodal, auto racks and general merchandise with almost no bulk covered hopper business and no unit coal trains. Same railroad, same city, but two completely different car mixes.
Another thing that is not really evident from the car fleet statistics is the private owner fleet. If you are modeling the 1930’s that will be mostly tank cars and reefers, but if you are modeling the 2000’s private owner cars can make up 50-60% of the cars in your trains.
The best bet is to look at photos of trains in your area and learn about the industries served to determine the car mix.
That 36% seems really low for boxcars and judging by the period photos of freight yards dating back to the 30s that 36% may be more like 70% since the majority of freight went by boxcar back then.
The 1946-49 stats cited by Kline and Culotta were for the entire North American continent, and included private owner cars as well as those owned by the carriers. Many cars, especially tank cars and refrigerator cars, were privately owned, and are included in those totals.
Modern auto racks, spine cars, and most of the covered hopper fleet, represent technology that didn’t exist in the time period mentioned by the O.P.
I agree that photos of trains, preferably including the entire train, can be a big help in deciding what cars are appropriate for a particular RR, time period, or region. A friend of mine actually was fortunate enough to obtain a complete file of one month’s Conductor’s Wheel Reports for the shortline he was modeling. That’s the Holy Grail.
I thought 36% sounded a bit low for boxcars too, but then I thought about the massive amounts of coal being shipped for use in heating plants nationwide. Then I thought about the needs of the steel industry for gondolas and hoppers. The totals for reefers and tank cars seemed a bit low, but those are the published numbers.
Tom
Thanks alot for the info. I understand the average numbers mean nothing to a specific railroad but when you are going for a timeframe and modeling a generic railroad (though I try to buy SP livery, my railroad is not modeled on the SP at all, just happened to be what I aquired most of).
Yeah, I can see trying to avoid being too specific. But consider the various insights offered. A national statistic isn’t nearly as useful as a regional look at what’s going on. Whatever your RR does, unless it’s a rare isolated line like the WP&Y or Alaska RR, it interchanges with at least one other line or has traffic that at least flows through to yours in some manner. So it might pay to pay attention to regional patterns and differences.
One example that comes to mind is from the steam and transition eras. Many Western RRs used drop-bottom GS gons to haul coal. They were useful for other purposes in the non-heating season is I think the main reason. Eastern roads tended to rely on hopper cars to move coal. By the 60s, Western roads had also adopted hoppers in preference to GS gons and they faded away except in MOW and other company service after that.
That’s just one small segment of your car fleet. Worth exploring to give you a better idea of what might suit your tastes best.
And the following would also be appropriate for that time period:
- Alco HH600/660 (Atlas) - Built 1932-39
- Balwin VO-660/VO-1000 (Stewart) - Built 1939-46
- EMC SW1 (Walthers) - Built 1936-39
Tom
Got those along with steam. Got a bunch of NW2 also by Kato, those will be hard to upgrade once I get around to than, no room for decoders or batteries without extencive milling.
Yea, I converted an older Walthers SW1 to DCC. I had to mill a longer groove in the frame to isolate the motor. I ended up using a Lenz Silver MP decoder for the install and had to remove the interior cab details and modify the hood (that slipped into the cab section) to get it all to fit. Worth the time & effort though.
Tom
You would actually be looking for the S-2. S-1 and S-3 are the 660HP Alco switchers, main difference being the trucks. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ALCO_S-1_and_S-3
S-2 and S-4 are the turbocharged 1000HP. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ALCO_S-2_and_S-4
Edit:
Also add GE 44ton, EMD SC and Plymouth switchers to your list.
Pre 1940 switchers here:
Got some 44ton, no EMD SC (don’t know of one available outside of brass), no one makes a good quality Plymouth that I know of.