Since I’m a transition era modeler, I have only a mild interest in modern railroads and their practices. The only railfanning I do is when I’m at a crossing. Today I was stopped at the NS line through north Columbus, Oh as what appeared to be a unit train of boxcars heading north passed by. Every boxcar was the same size, 50 footers I’m guessing and all double doored. There were slight differences in the construction but they all seemed to be of the same dimensions. A majority of them had two vertical bars over each door. I was trying to guess what this train was shipping. I am guessing this train carried a single commodity from a single shipper to a single receiver. Could it have been a grain train and if so, where might it have been heading. I’ve ridden that line on an excursion train to Sandusky, Oh but that’s as far as I know about where it could have been headed.
Could they have been 60 footers? SOunds like a double plug boxcar. Used a lot in auto parts shipments.Might have been a move to an auto plant? I know Ford made everyone happy with a profit adn continued growth. So maybe they are moving the parts now?
Yes, they could have been 60 footers and most looked like plug doors but there were a few without them. That sounds like a good guess. Sandusky is right on the way to Detroit. Any idea what Ford parts plants it could have come from. Most of the parts plants in Columbus have been shut down and the biggest one was a GM plant on the west side.
A thought for you. On BNSF we would run baretables all over the place.instead of storing them it seemed we would just run it from point a to point b and back again. Maybe they are mty cars heading for a plant elsewhere.
Those box cars could have anything from razor blades to diapers, and they can be going anwhere for anybody. Could be war supplies for our troops overseas, or maybe they were all empty. Possibly full of washing machines for the Wal Mart distribution center in Florida, or maybe Maserati parts going to NY City. You just never know what a train is hauling, the railroad carries everything you can think of for thousands of customers large and small and unless the load is visible on a flat or something, trying to figure out what it is and where it’s going is all a shot in the dark guess work.
Did you get any reporting marks and numbers?