Is there a single source to find out types and sizes of railcars used in interchange during a specific time period? I would like to model approx. 1960-1975 diesel midwest. Thanks in advance for any help.
You might want to read the book, The Model Railroader’s Guide to Freight Cars. I don’t personally have it, but I did look through it one day at a train show and it was interesting.
Quarterly an Official Railway Equipment Register (ORER) is published which lists all the equipment registered in interchange service in N America. Copies are available from railroad paper sellers, on E-bay and on CD rom from several publishers. The NMRA reprinted at least one ORER.
While not 100% accurate, cars may be retired, purchased (or not purchased) or renumbered, it is about as comprehensive as you can get.
It lists the road number, car type and dimensions/capacities of the cars. It does NOT include pictures, give class numbers, manufacturers or model numbers. So you will know that the ABC RR had 500 40 ft IL, 10’6" IH boxcars in the series 512001 to 512500, but you won’t know if they were ACF or PS1 or Magor or red or blue.
The biggest change happening re freight cars in 1960-75 was the requirement that new cars be built without roofwalks and with lower brake wheels starting in IIRC 1964. Old cars were required to have the roofwalks removed, but there were a couple of delays so you could still see some in service in the 1970’s.
Curiously, you could still see wood-sided freight cars too. During World War 2 steel was a restricted item, so they went back to building boxcars with steel ends and roofs, but with wood sides. There would still have been some of those around in that time. The Athearn woodside boxcar is pretty close I believe, a 10’ high box but with wood sides.
That time also showed some changes in the midwest due to mergers. M-St.L was folded into CNW in 1960, and CGW followed them in 1966. In 1964 (I think?) the Wabash was merged into N&W, and in 1968 PRR and NYC became Penn Central. In 1970 NP+GN and subsidiaries SP&S and Burlington became Burlington Northern. Fortunately cars didn’t get repainted all that quickly, especially with the later mergers and purchases. I know some GN “Big Sky Blue” boxcars made it to 1990 still in their original paintscheme, so you could have a mix of cars from newer merged railroads like BN along with fallen flags like NYC.
The ORERs mentioned above are your best bet, and details can be filled in by historical societies and their publications. For example, the Pere Marquette Historical society has a very nice list online, which is expanded by books they have published.
Thank you everyone. This info has been very helpful.