I am thinking about a RR model concept. I am thinking about Southern Pacific branck line in Walnut Creek, CA during 1950's-1970's. My question is about rolling stock. Are all cars on a branch line going to be SP cars or could they be from anywhere? As I look at trains currently there are cars from everywhere. Was it like this back then on smaller branch lines?
Outbound loads would tend to go into MT SP cars. If there were MTs from offline roads made available after unloading that could be loaded to return home, some of those could also be loaded.
Inbound loads could be from any road, although local traffic may still tend to include many SP cars.
That's a very general general breakdown of what can be complicated car service rules. Some cars are in assigned service and the usual rules may not apply. Sometimes there are car pools, where several roads contribute to the pool and these are then sent to a customer even if offline RRs are involved, etc, etc.
Many years ago, there was an even greater mix of RRs in the mix, because there were many more RRs before merger mania hit.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Did the Sacramento Northern interchange with the SP around Walnut Creek? If so it would not be surprising to see some SN cars in the mix. I think back in the 50s you'd see a nice mix of cars from various railroads assuming there was both in bound and out bound traffic but that leads to another question -- what were the shippers (and receivers) on line? Mostly agricultural? It is obviously a very different area now than it was 50+ years ago.
This would be exactly the sort of thing a railroad historical society would have articles about in its magazine. I know that the C&NW Historical Society that I belong to has had articles that focus on this or that branch, and while the main focus of a particular photo might be a depot or signal often the background has great information about freight cars that saw service on the line. Sometimes at historical society meets you can even pick up old switchlists, shipper's directories, and the like.
Dave Nelson
The SP San Ramon Branch ran from Avon (near Concord) to Radum (near Pleasanton) through Walnut Creek. It's a neat line to consider for a layout.
For the 1950s or so, a simple mix might be 50% Home road (SP, with a few Cotton Belt and T&NO thrown in, maybe), 25% connections (Santa Fe and Western Pacific/SN, a few UP), and 25% everything else. Specialized and open-top cars (like hoppers for Radum, if you go that far) might tend to be more home road.
Byron
Layout Design GalleryLayout Design Special Interest Group
By the way, you may already know about the out-of-print book San Ramon Branch Line of the Southern Pacific by Irma Dotson. Used copies are currently expensive, but you might be able get a copy via inter-library loan.
Hello all,
It's not the SP but this video might help. Into The Feather River Canyon...Union Pacific's Canyon Subdivision.
Every Monday afternoon at 4:00 pm the cable channel RFD TV airs a show called Trains & Locomotives. A few weeks back this video was the show. Edited for time.
This show was filmed in 2009. Even though more modern that the era you are planning on modeling it does talk about the Walnut branch line along with other subdivisions along the route.
In answer to your question the trains were made up of many different owners or leases rolling stock. There is even a segment on a lumber subdivision.
Good luck on the research.
I hope this helps.
"Uhh...I didn’t know it was 'impossible' I just made it work...sorry"
The Feather River Canyon area is pretty far removed from the San Ramon Branch, not to mention being of WP heritage, not SP.
The branch ceased operation about 1978, so it's unlikely there is any useful information in a video from 2009 focused on an area 100 miles away ("Oroville to Portola", based on the description of the video).
The Sacramento Northern, a freight carrying interurban owned by the WP, had an interchange with the SP's San Ramon branch at Las Juntas. Some details at the following link:
http://www.wplives.org/sn/shelters.html
No problem on railroad of LION. All equipment is NYCT. : )
On LIRR, all equipment is LIRR, but the NY&A handles all of the freight work. NY&A has NO freight cars, only locomotives. But they do have freight car repair facilities. Nothing can leave the railroad with outstanding defects. We'll fix it for you and send you the bill. Since they have no revenue cars (and LIRR takes care of all maintenance) they never have offsetting bills to account for.
Hmmm... I wonder if what I said is even true. Trash is removed from the city by rail, I wonder who owns that equipment.
On all railroads there are privately ownd cars. The Ethanol plant in town is a member of a cooperative of ethanol plants that owns (leases?) a fleet of cars.
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
LION there is a Dept of Sanitation rail transfer facility here on Staten Island. The trash is compacted and put into orange dumpster type boxes and then placed on flat cars with reporting marks DESX. I'm not sure who owns that mark but it is obviously not CSX since their reporting marks are CSXT and any car that has X at the end of it is privately owned.
My understanding is that CSX then hauls the orange caterpillar (for lack of a better term) to landfills in North Carolina and other out of state locations (now that the Fresh Kill landfill is closed). over the Howland Hook bridge to New Jersey.
I tried to model this on the old SIW for a while but decided that since DOS would not give me a tour that it would be hard to accurately model. Still itcould be a good industry ro model on a modern RR. Atlas sells the cars.
Joe Staten Island West
joe323orange dumpster type boxes
The ones that come through Richmond are green like these:
I have the right to remain silent. By posting here I have given up that right and accept that anything I say can and will be used as evidence to critique me.
carl425 joe323 orange dumpster type boxes The ones that come through Richmond are green like these:
joe323 orange dumpster type boxes
Yes those are the type but since they are green they probably came from somewhere else.
joe323they probably came from somewhere else.
They're from NY. It was a huge controversy here all over the news. Folks were not happy about NY trash going to a landfill near Waverly (about 40 miles southeast of Richmond)
"Stuff" from Brooklyn and Queens leave via CSX and the Hells Gate Bridge. They cannot cross the Hudson south of Albany, They may come back down on the West side of the Hudson, we do see them there.
If they are coming to North Carolina, then somebody there is being paid big dollars to take that stuff. Private property, not much you can do about it.
Lion, the NYNJ Railroad (and previously) the NY Cross Harbor Railroad also ship those containers via car float as well.
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Mike Kieran
Port Able Railway
I just do what the majority of the voices in my head vote on.
Hobo, Bruce Chubb did a piece on the percentages of home road and foreign cars on his railroad, The Sunset Valley Railroad, a railroad based on the Southern Pacific.
carl425 joe323 they probably came from somewhere else. They're from NY. It was a huge controversy here all over the news. Folks were not happy about NY trash going to a landfill near Waverly (about 40 miles southeast of Richmond)
joe323 they probably came from somewhere else.
It may be NYC garbage but not necessarily from Staten Island. I see those orange cars lined up by the West Shore Expressway all the time.
There have been contraversies about that in the past there is a famous story from the 80's (I think) about a garbage barge that left NYC and no one would take the trash and it ended up back in NYC.
The out of state landfills do cost NYC big bucks that why they push recycling all the time.
There's both kinds through DC/Alexandria bound for Points South. The green ones move in solid trains, but there's scattered orange ones in manifest freights. Although, come to think of it, its been a while since I've seen any orange ones. So that means I'll see some tomorrow.