What kinds of cars can you expect to see on a manifest train?

[Anonymous]

Generally speaking, will a manifest train be made up of a.) Mainly box cars with a few of the other types of cars mixed in. Or b.) A fairly equal mix of ALL car types? I know that seems like a "loaded" question, and there are simply too many variables for a "true" answer, but I would like to model a manifest, and I would like some input to make it as realistic as possible. Thanks, Kevin

[orsonroy]

What time period?
What railroad?
What region?
What season?
What country?

Sounds stupid, but you really need to know that sort of thing. A "manifest train" can mean almost anything, and an IC strawberry express is going to look nothing like a N&W coal train or an intermodal string.

[canazar]

I am curious too. Ray, for justthe sake lets say current. mid-90's and up? And then maybe say 40's era

Thanks everyone..

Best Regards
John k

[ericsp]

QUOTE: Originally posted by canazar

I am curious too. Ray, for justthe sake lets say current. mid-90's and up? And then maybe say 40's era

Thanks everyone..

Best Regards
John k

Location is also important. Out here, I see a significant amount of boxcars, center-beam flatcars, covered hoppers, tank cars, and gondolas, with there being no large difference in the amount of each. Also there are quite a few bulkhead flatcars, along with some reefers, woodchip gondolas, open top hoppers, aircraft parts cars, and autocarriers. There is also the Express Lane trains that are short and composed of reefers, RBLs, and some XM boxcars. Some of the manifest trains have quite a few more covered hoppers than other types of cars.

[orsonroy]

Believe it or not, I know more about antique railroading than I do about today's railroad scene. In general, I pay no attention to modern mainline railroads, since they're so uniform and boring. I live about 1/2 hour's drive from Rochelle; I go about twice a year, hang out for 2-3 hours, and get all the modern railroading I need for the next 6 months. I'm the wrong person to be asking about modern freight train compositions!

Now the 1940s I can handle. In GENERAL, a train was a train was a train. Federal operating rules forbade pricing incentives for block shipments, so moving one car theoretically cost the same as any other. Some railroads had expedited schedules and faster transit times for certain commodities or shippers, but they were rare. Average RR freight speed was in the 12-15 MPH range. Since there was no financial benefit to preblocking or running unit trains, railroads didn't do a lot of preblocking, aside from putting cars that had to be switched out at the next yard in front (stock cars & reefers mostly).

This means that the vast majority of trains, in general, were a hodgepodge of cars. Boxcars dominated, but they dominated (almost) the national freight car pool (hoppers actually dominated, but they were ALMOST captive service, running from mines to unloading facilities and back in an endless loop). Some railroads also held certain sort of loads for lower class trains (large flatcar loads or pipes especially, since they caused all sorts of shifting nightmares), but there was no regularity to this practice.

So a "typical" freight train of the 1940s, consisting of 60-80 cars, would probably see 60% 40' boxes, 10% gondolas, 10% hoppers, 5% tanks, 10% reefers, 4% 50' boxes, and 1% flats. Some trains would really destroy this ratio due to the road and typical traffic (you'd see trains of 90% reefers on the NKP and Erie, 90% hoppers on the N&W and B&O, and 90% gondolas on the IC)

[canazar]

THanks Ray.

I got a cabfoward for Christmas and I wanted to build a good train for it. (I mostly model current stuff, but the Old Steam has a soft for me). Nice to have a an idea

Best Regards
John k

[brazos87]

Today's manifests can certainly be interesting--you'll see boxcars, tankcars, covered hoppers, open hoppers, and even a cut of intermodal cars. I'm fortunate that I live near a mainline which still runs these trains frequently. I do get my share of pure IM trains--boring IMHO, but a seeing a train is better than seeing no train at all.

[dehusman]

Its definately location sensitive. It also depends on the origin and destination of the train.

For example on the same territory, one train might go by with 2/3 the train covered hoppers and tank cars of chemicals, while the next train might go by with mostly 50, 60 and 87 foot auto parts boxcars. In the Omaha area East-West Manifest trains are loaded with reefers and cars of lumber, plus covered hoppers of soda ash.

It really depends on the area and where the train is coming from or going to, plus the era.

Dave H.

[Wdlgln005]

Too bad the book how to Operate your Model Railroad by Bruce Chubb is out of print. Maybe you can find an old copy on that website?

Different RR's will have a different mix of cars.
An Average road may have
1940 : 43 box, 20 hop,17 gon, 6 ref, 6 tank,4flat, 4stock
1970 : 34 box, 22 hop, 10covh,10gon,8tank,6refer,2stock

ATSF: 47 box,7hop,5covh,11gon,3tank,15refer,7stock,1rack
SP : 57 box,5hop,2covh,20gon,2tank,2refer,1stock,1rack

home road 50%, connect 25%, secondary 15%,misc 10%
the farther you are from home, the fewer cars you have.
Tanks & other cars (PFE reefers) tend to come from private owners, that don't count in the above totals.

I like to use 1970 average, when cov hopper come in for grain trains, fewer boxes, but reefers stay the same. Not much coal out west yet & some stock runs to the packing house. Plenty of gons taking sheet metal to mfg co. Racks coming in to transport autos & trucks. Some TOFC & other flats.

For a manifest freight, you may want to run with mostly boxes & reefers moving merchandise & food items as fast as possible. The train is moving from division point to division point. No stopping for local service. Tonnage will be affected by the ruling grade on the railroad unless the road adds helpers for the steep grades, to keep the freight moving.

[csxengineer98]

a manifest train will have anything and eveything....regardless of the time period involved what ever type of cars are in service during the time period..they can and will all be put into a manifest train...empty and or loaded...
csx engineer

[Anonymous]

I see a million boxcars. Not really...Interestingly my fleet of rolling stock is about 40% boxcars and really light on the special cars such as Athearns Heavy Duty Flat (I have only one) and at least several of each type.

I can build a manifest train with a mix of roadnames going midwest or north of DC and other trains that have a distinctly southern flavor with Florida Reefers etc. Western roadnames are a little bit rarer but they do exist. All sorts of cargo from Coal to Widgets to boxcars loaded with grain and covered hoppers along with a few gons hauling stone or cable reels and finished with a reefer cut and a few oddball cars.

On the photo I have in my signature you would see SP reefers and that was a manifest train, it had 17 other cars behind that set of 4. I figure we had west coast produce going east and seafood going back west. The reason they were in the front is that they have to travel a long way and probably gets first attention upon arrival in the yard for icing, cleaning and assignment to the next train.

My Falls Valley Town area is planned to have a grain/feed mill, a stock yard area and a few house tracks. If I was to run a freight there it would be as a way freight or a local with cars to switch. I would try to stay out of the way of the really big manifest storming thru town. They MIGHT stop for coal and water if my coin flip comes up one way or the other.

Manifest trains travel long distances 50+ to 200+ miles and yard masters are scared to death of these trains. They arrive, fill the yard up and create chaos as the switchers struggle to break up this train into smaller trains going to local customers.

The reverse happens in the yard when enough cars are gathered from local industry to be sent to the next state, city or the land beyond time never to be seen again. Yard masters are always happy to see these trains go.

So. The mental image of a 50 car manifest screeching to a halt at my itty bitty town and struggle to get one or two cars dropped off does not work. What I see is a small train of maybe 6 cars going into town to swtich and trying to stay out of the way of the manifest monster that is due in 10 minutes. Exciting huh?

[leighant]

quote from canazar "I got a cabfoward for Christmas and I wanted to build a good train for it. "

My first thought was, let the yardmaster and traffic development staff build the train for him. In other words, there would never be assigned cars for the train, just what the day's run of cars in the ebb and flow of traffic produces. But that implies a fair sized layout with big functional classification yard and several trains worth of cars in various stages and directions of movement. Not everyone will hand to get that deeply into "car handling" and traffic.

However, Canazar did mention that his modeling was "mostly current stuff" so the cabfoward is in the nature of a "special" train, aside from the normal operation.

My thought would be, over what routes and in what time periods did those cabforwards run? 1930s to 1950s? north and south traffic over Tehachapi... east and west over the Sierras.... (am I too restrictive in thinking primarily California? Perhaps just my limited knowledge....)
Automobiles to clog the freeways of Southern California... sheet steel, aluminum and other metals and copper wire to build airplanes and high-tech machinery. Petroleum and products. Pipe because a lot of California needs irrigation help. Reefers with fresh agricultural products, boxcars with canned ag products. (and a rare wine tankcars?) War materiel during "the" war.
It would be interesting researching and making up that train thinking about representing a region and time period and most likely railroads to have cars represented.

I have a similar situation, running just post-steam but want to have a steamer and a few older cars on hand for an occasional movie train. Although that train's consist wouldn't be blocked by the normal semi-random nature of car cards or a computerized traffic program, it would vary from time to time based on what "story" the movie train was performing. Generally, passenger trains play more frequent starring and supporting roles in period feature films while freight trains sometimes appears as just background in modern pix.
(In a recent film, I believe Ray, there was a scene supposed to be in the 1940s or 50s, vehicle going down the highway and happened to pass under a railroad where a train happened to be going by.....with DOUBLE STACKS! Maybe the producer just thought catching a train would add a bit of authenticity....)

[johncolley]

With a cab-forward one might have a reefer drag of 100 cars! or from Oregon one would expect many many lumber loads. Take your pick and/or stage several different ones for your loco to pull at differnt times/ directions.

[BRJN]

I occasionally see a fast-moving train go by with a big block (37 when I counted) of autoracks. The train also had a block of tank cars and a block of covered hoppers (which I did not count). The cars were from various owners and roads.

There is a big GM pickup plant just outside of town here and the autoracks could have been just filled.