Got yet another one for my forum friends. I protolance the early to mid 70s, ex-Burlington Northern line (former NP) but they still have trackage rights. I have the equipment for the protolanced line and I have plenty of BN equipment including predecessor roads (coal cars among lots of others). I still have the feeling that I need some other roadnames in my mix. I also have Railbox (gondolas), Trailer Train (bulkhead), UP (boxcar and flatcar), Soo Line (covered grain hopper and boxcar) and Milwaukee (covered grain hopper and two woodchip cars) represented. Are there any other roadnames that I should have represented? As usual any assistance that can be provided would be most welcomed.
As Horton says, cars from any road could run through your lay out, including Canadian roads.
Do a search of your area, and time period, and see what's out there. There might be a couple of west coast short lines involved as well.
Just what would be your specific area? Ex BN, former NP could include a lot of area.
So, your road is a short line, spun off the BN. ?
Mike.
My You Tube
Since your doing the mid to late 70's that rules out Railgon as that company did not start until 1979. Also you are pushing the date for Railbox which was founded in 1974, the same goes for any of the IPD cars. Your best bets would be the PC and its progenitors the PRR and NYC, they owned scads of cars and they would be found anywhere in the country.
I would also suggest the C&NW and Rock Island as they were not transcontinentals and their cars would need a way to get to west coast destinations. I have a Rock Island car with a destination of Vancouver, WA.
Rick Jesionowski
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FRRYkid,
The answer to your question partially lies in the locale of your railroad. As a road that interchanges/has trackage rights with BN in the early/mid 1970s, any component of that merger should be represented. If you can find an Official Railway Equipment Register from your era, it will have a map known as an Association of American Railroads Car Selection Chart Showing Home Districts For All Principal Freight Car Ownerships in it. This map breaks the U.S. and Canada down into 23 districts, consisting of individual states and groups of states. These maps are used for routing cars back to their home rails or, as close as possible.
I have an April 1970 copy of the ORER and the BN is home in districts 1,3,4,5,7,8,11,12, and 14. Of course, these districts are also home to any of the components that made up the BN. The other railroads in these districts change by location so, their presence on your railroad would depend on the location of your railroad. Other roads that share districts with BN were CN, CP, MILW, Oregon Short Line, Spokane International, UP, CGW, CMO, CNW, C&W, Litchfield & Madison, MStL, Carbon County, RI, D&RGW, MP, SP, Utah, WP, TS, SN, DSSA, Copper Range, DMIR, DCI, DWC, ELS, GBW, IC, FDDMS, LS&I, MDW, MNS, NJI&I, NKP, N&W, P&WV, VGN, WAB, ATSF, BKTY, MKT, GM&O, KCS, L&A, MI, MRS, SLSF, SSW, AS, ITC, C&EI, B&O, C&O, CSS&SB, DL&W, EJ&E, EL, ERIE, GM&O, GTW, L&N, LS&BC, MSC, NC&StL, NYC, PC, PRR, P&E, PM, P&WV, SOU, and TPW among them.
Looking at the flow of the reporting marks, the districts read from west to east and because the BN extended from Seattle to Houston and Chicago, it rubbed shoulders with a LOT of railroads. Having a car from any standard gauge railroad in North America, including Mexico, on your railroad could not be disputed but, the cars more likely to be seen would depend on where your railroad is sited. It is all about location, location, location!
The other factor would be the industries served. You won't find many mechanical reefers in iron ore or coal country, or wood chip cars in the field and orchard country. Some roads are closely tied to forest products, others, the "chemical coast". It is your choice, which ties in to the location.
Generally speaking, the railroads your railroad connect with will be the most common foreign-road cars you would see, second most common would be railroads in the same state or region as your railroad (but not directly connected to your railroad); least common (but still present) would be any other US railroad.
Pre-NAFTA, Canadian cars in the US (and vice-versa) were somewhat restricted - they had to be returned to Canada within like 48 or 72 hours - so wouldn't be anywhere near as common as they are now.
Cars from railroad that no longer existed would be fairly common. Railroads were generally slow to repaint freight cars in the 1970's after a merger. I often saw NP, GN and Burlington Route freight cars at Northtown yards in Minneapolis in the mid-80's, even a few into the early 1990's.
One little nit-pick (are there any big nits?) would be that BN was started in 1970; seems unlikely they would have operated a line for a year or two and then spun it off - especially if they had enough traffic to warrant their keeping trackage rights. More likely they would have got rid of it at the time of the merger. But it all pretty much ends up the same I guess....
mbinsewi Just what would be your specific area? Ex BN, former NP could include a lot of area. So, your road is a short line, spun off the BN. ?
I don't really have a specific area in mind. In general it is intended as somewhere on the east end.
As to the second part, something akin to how MRL was formed. The general idea was that the BN decided to focus primarily on the ex-GN line and decided the ex-NP was unneeded.
dti406Since your doing the mid to late 70's that rules out Railgon as that company did not start until 1979. Also you are pushing the date for Railbox which was founded in 1974, the same goes for any of the IPD cars.
dti406Your best bets would be the PC and its progenitors the PRR and NYC, they owned scads of cars and they would be found anywhere in the country.I would also suggest the C&NW and Rock Island as they were not transcontinentals and their cars would need a way to get to west coast destinations. I have a Rock Island car with a destination of Vancouver, WA.
NHTX I have an April 1970 copy of the ORER and the BN is home in districts 1,3,4,5,7,8,11,12, and 14. Of course, these districts are also home to any of the components that made up the BN. The other railroads in these districts change by location so, their presence on your railroad would depend on the location of your railroad. Other roads that share districts with BN were CN, CP, MILW, Oregon Short Line, Spokane International, UP, CGW, CMO, CNW, C&W, Litchfield & Madison, MStL, Carbon County, RI, D&RGW, MP, SP, Utah, WP, TS, SN, DSSA, Copper Range, DMIR, DCI, DWC, ELS, GBW, IC, FDDMS, LS&I, MDW, MNS, NJI&I, NKP, N&W, P&WV, VGN, WAB, ATSF, BKTY, MKT, GM&O, KCS, L&A, MI, MRS, SLSF, SSW, AS, ITC, C&EI, B&O, C&O, CSS&SB, DL&W, EJ&E, EL, ERIE, GM&O, GTW, L&N, LS&BC, MSC, NC&StL, NYC, PC, PRR, P&E, PM, P&WV, SOU, and TPW among them.
That is a list I have to research.
I do have a couple of SLSF cars as well that I neglected to mention.
FRRYKid Got yet another one for my forum friends. I protolance the early to mid 70s, ex-Burlington Northern line (former NP) but they still have trackage rights. I have the equipment for the protolanced line and I have plenty of BN equipment including predecessor roads (coal cars among lots of others). I still have the feeling that I need some other roadnames in my mix. I also have Railbox (gondolas), Trailer Train (bulkhead), UP (boxcar and flatcar), Soo Line (covered grain hopper and boxcar) and Milwaukee (covered grain hopper and two woodchip cars) represented. Are there any other roadnames that I should have represented? As usual any assistance that can be provided would be most welcomed.
I'd say go with primarily your homeroad, then a nice amount of BN and Predsessor roads, then some of the other mid-west/Northwest roads (Milwaukee, Soo Line, WP), then a sprinkling of other American and Canadian RRs.
FRRYKidI recall that the Q had a run agreement with one of the east coast roads.
The CB&Q had a Chicago-St.Paul run-thru agreement with New York Central beginning around 1960. Because of their cab signal system (I think?) the trains on the Burlington always had to have a CB&Q engine in the lead, but the other engines would be NYC. It continued into the PC and BN eras - I've seen a pic of one such train around 1969 or 1970 that has a CB&Q engine leading three other engines - one PC engine, one PRR, and one NYC. I believe it's still in force today; I recall seeing Conrail engines in St. Paul in the 1980's and I often see NS engines here now (although some of them I believe are on oil or coal train run-thrus).
DavidH66 I'd say go with primarily your homeroad, then a nice amount of BN and Predsessor roads, then some of the other mid-west/Northwest roads (Milwaukee, Soo Line, WP), then a sprinkling of other American and Canadian RRs.
I think that I have more BN and predecessors that I do my home road but that can be retified by the way I run them. (I'm an Northern Pacific fan even though I never saw it in operation. I'm a bit too young.) As previously mentioned I have both Milwaukee (woodchip cars) and Soo Line (a boxcar and a hopper car) cars already in the mix but I can always add more, but I hadn't thought about putting Western Pacific into the mix.
I have ordered a Rock Island hopper. While that may sound unusual, I remember that there was a old RI hopper (well after the RI bankruptcy) that was parked in a siding for many years in the late 80s to early 90s here in town.
As was stated above, the industries on your layout will help determine where you need cars from as well, sometimes even specific railroads.
I learned that a newspaper publisher on a Lehigh Valley branch I want to model got its paper delivered in Green Bay & Western boxcars. On a protolanced line, you could use a scenario like this to rationalize just about anything.
You might also find an interesting industry to include on your layout, then think about where its loads might come from, then choose cars that make sense that way.
Eric
I may be prejudice but you could throw a few KCS cars in there. Also, Pickens started with their red, white, and blue boxcars. Good to have especially if you are looking at the bi-centennial year.
I think the Milwaukee Road ran through that area at the time. You can run any engine or car you want. You can see NS engines on BNSF trackage today, and you could probably see other railroads as well. Do what you want, it's your layout.
FRRYKid I have plenty of BN equipment including predecessor roads (coal cars among lots of others). I still have the feeling that I need some other roadnames in my mix. I also have Railbox (gondolas), Trailer Train (bulkhead), UP (boxcar and flatcar), Soo Line (covered grain hopper and boxcar) and Milwaukee (covered grain hopper and two woodchip cars) represented.
.
Really?
Are you sure that is ALL the roadnames you have?
-Kevin
Living the dream.
SeeYou190 FRRYKid I have plenty of BN equipment including predecessor roads (coal cars among lots of others). I still have the feeling that I need some other roadnames in my mix. I also have Railbox (gondolas), Trailer Train (bulkhead), UP (boxcar and flatcar), Soo Line (covered grain hopper and boxcar) and Milwaukee (covered grain hopper and two woodchip cars) represented. . Really? . Are you sure that is ALL the roadnames you have? . . -Kevin .
OK I will concede I forgot to mention the boxcar you sent me.
FRRYKid I forgot to mention the boxcar you sent me.
I hope it serves your needs well and with honor.