I have been wondering about this for a while - consider one boxcar, say the MR 70th anniversary car. Once it is on a particular railroad’s rails, and has reached its destination, what determines its next destination?
Does the ownership of the car have any influence on what it is loaded with and where it is sent to? Does the car owner derive any revenue from each use of the car? If so how is it billed?. Does the car ever have to (or is it supposed to) return to it’s owner’s rails, and if so when? Will the car be predominantly located in the vicinity of its owner’s rails, or does it freely traverse the continent?
Sorry for all the questions, but they are all flavours of the same query.
I will be most grateful for any help from you informed members.
Thanks, Ryan
Most boxcars are general service cars. That means that as long as it’ll fit in the car, just about anything can be loaded into it (with “normal” exceptions: nobody would be daft enough to load a boxcar with loose coal or olive oil!). Some boxcars are designated “clean lading only”, meaning nothing can be loaded that will gunk up the car’s interior, and some others have special loading racks that restrict it’s use.
In general, shippers don’t really CARE what car they use, as long as it suits their purposes. The shipper calls the freight agent and asks for X amount of cars to be delivered on Y day, and the RR freight agent figure out what type of car the customer needs. On rare occasions, a RR and a shipper get together to design special-use cars (or loading racks inside the car) for their exclusive use. The freight agent contacts the local yardmaster, who finds the cars for the customer, and holds them for delivery.
Cars are billed per hour of use. Empty 'foreign" cars are routed off a RR’s tracks as quickly as possible, since the RR the car is on is responsible for paying for it’s hours. Your own cars on your own tracks aren’t billed. A loaded car is charged to the customer, from the time the car is delivered empty to the shipper, to the time it’s emptied and picked back up at the point of delivery. Empty cars are supposed to be sent back towards their home rails as quickly as possible, but in reality can float around anywhere. Some Pennsy freight cars spent their entire service careers off PRR tracks!
General service cars (boxcars) move all over. In theory, any other interchange car can too, but it’s less common. Gondolas and open hoppers generally don’t wander far afield as much. The national flat car fleet used to be very small, so you’d see those cars all over the place. So long as the cars are constantly being used by shippers, it really doesn’t matter that the cvars aren’t returned home. Generating revenue is more important than cars going back to where they came fro
There are two answers to your question.
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If the car has no particular assignment the receiving road is supposed to give it a load that heads generally in the direction of the owning road. If no load can be found quickly it is to be returned empty.
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Some cars are assigned to a customer. In that case the car will be stencilled with “When Empty return to …” and the car must be returned empty to the agent listed. This is usually, but not always, on the home road. If two or more roads share in some captive traffic, such as auto parts going from the manufacturer to the assembly plant, then they all might assign cars to the pool with the return point being the manufacturing plant.
Thanks so much to you guys for your help.
From a modelling perspective, I am interested in 2 eras : 1950 and 1995.
Thanks, Ryan
Cars with special equipment (load cushioning, damage prevention equipment, special doors, special interior fittings, etc) are almost always in assigned service. So if your boxcar has plug doors, or a “LD”, “DF” or other equipment stencil on it it would probably return empty reverse route. It is an insulated car it would be in assigned service. If its an auto parts car it would go back empty (or loaded with parts racks).
Dave H.
Orsonroy sums it up pretty well w/ 1 exception. Per diem (the “rent” one RR pays for using another road’s cars) is based on a daily, not hourly rate. This is why, at jct points there’s frequently a scramble to get off line cars delivered before midnight. There are different rates for different types of cars.
Actually the rate “per diem” is charged at is an era thing. Originally it was per day (literally “per diem”) but then changed recently to an hourly charge. The current term for “per diem” is car hire, since it is no longer on a daily basis.
So the 70th Anniversary car would be on an hourly rate, car hire.
The 20th anniversary car would have been on a daily rate, per diem.
Dave H.
Hmm…so the per diem can be either/or…well, that just adds another layer of complexity to the whole issue!
No per diem is either. It changed sometime in the 1960’s or 1970’s. If you model before that its perdiem, if you model after that its car hire.
In addition to the hourly rate there is also a mileage rate.
Dave H.
What all the above boils down to is: the customer! The customer calls the local freight agent and says, “I need a x ft. boxcar (tank, flat, gon, etc) for a load going to xyz co. in Chicago.” The agent will try to line up a nearby suitable car from a railroad somewhere near the destination that is empty and lookling for a load.
So… a follow-up question would be… If a BNSF boxcar ends up spending a year or so on CSX rails out east, who is responsible for maintaining it? I’m assuming that there is scheduled maintenance on every piece of rolling stock? Is there a common database in use between all railroads?
Ryan
If you are developing a operations model for your layout, you may want to join these 2 yahoo groups, they both contain tons of info, and they are “operations” savvy
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Ry-ops-industrialSIG/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CarCards/
I am in both and have seen some pretty intense threads that border on almost actual RR shop talk.
Thanks to al of you guys, that information is very helpful. Thanks, dthurman, I will check out thise sites - I just hope the new threads are not too esoteric for me to follow.
Thanks, Ryan
The AAR (American Association of Railroads) sets up standard charges for performing routine maintenance on cars (replacing a brake shoe or grab iron, repairing a broken brake valve, repairing a door) so if one railroad repairs a car they charge the other railroad the set fee (carmen call it “AAR billing”, it is a profit center for the mechanical folks). If the car is damaged so bad it can’t be loaded or needs repairs that will require thousands of dollars of work, they will send the car home for repairs and the home road will then decide if they want to fix it or not. If the damage involves a specific system (a special door or restraining device type or involves a car that has a special lining (tank or covered hopper) it will be sent home.
Scheduled maintenance is on a pretty long term basis, years, although the car recieves an exterior inspection and an air brake test every time it is switched in a yard.
Dave H.
Thanks Dave. That’s really interesting information and you’ve answered a question I’ve had for a long time! 
From George Hilton’s book “The Ma & Pa”, per diem was introduced July 1, 1902. Prior to that the rate was based on car miles. According to the book, the Ma & Pa built a coal tipple to unload foreign cars into its own cars in order to save on per diem charges.
Enjoy
Paul.