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[quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by JimRCGMO Somewhere a while back, I had run across some figures (percentages?) for what part of the cars on a railroad were from that RR line,... [/quote] [:D] Jim , heres a copy of info from Steam Era Yahoo elist... trust it will help- not of my making but a really interesting dissertation that I archived to make use of- From: "Mike Brock" <brockm@...t> Subject: Characteristics of RRs Date: Wed, 5 Sep 2001 00:19:33 -0400 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Unsent: 1 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2615.200 There was no such thing as a "typical" railroad for that would imply the "typical" railroad to be merely the "average" railroad. So what you really mean may be better phrased as a "multi-dimensional" railroad. So let's explore a few of the statistical averages of a few multi-dimensional railroads with the National average in 1947 and note the differences between them. (I like to use 1947 because that year combined civilian traffic with hardly any freight car surpluses.) 1947 AVG RR PRR NYC SOU UP AT&SF % Car Miles Loaded 66.4% 66.9% 64.5% 70.2% 66.5% 67.6% " - Eastbound 76.0% 81.6% 84.5% 83.9% 72.8% 69.0% " - Westbound 56.9% 52.1% 45.7% 56.6% 60.3% 66.3% % Loaded Car Mi - East 57.1% 61.2% 63.5% 59.7% 54.7% 50.5% " - Westbound 42.9% 38.8% 36.5% 40.3% 45.3% 49.5% Ton Mi/Loaded Car Miles 32.6 34.8 31.9 28.7 29.5 26.5 Cars per Train 52.3 58.4 57.1 36.8 56.4 54.6 Avg Miles Hauled 227 239 226 219 563 515 Avg Train MPH 16.0 13.5 15.4 17.1 20.0 19.6 Car Mi/Car Day 45.7 31.1 40.8 48.2 79.4 70.0 % Hours Cars Moving 11.9% 9.6% 11.0% 11.8% 16.5% 14.9% %47 Roster/Cars on Line 92.2% 91.8% 83.7% 88.1% 81.6% 102.2% " - in. Private Cars 106.3% %Boxcars/Cars on Line 38.6% 30.7% 42.2% 47.0% 42.1% 44.9% %Hop.&Gons/COL 45.3% 58.1% 38.7% 32.6% 23.5% 19.3% %Reefers/Cars on Line 1.1% - - - - 19.1% %Other Car Types 7.1% 3.0% 2.3% 8.5% 16.0% 18.9% Home% Total Cars on Line 34.6% 44.8% 28.0% 27.9% 37.7% 46.1% Because of the multi-dimensions of the five railroads listed above, any analysis should be delayed until a comparison of railroads having fewer dimensions are analyzed. Perhaps, the most one-dimesional of all of the US Class I railroads in 1947 was the Duluth, Messabe & Iron Range. Well over 90% of its traffic was hauling iron ore from the Iron Ranges down to Lake Superior and hauling the empties back to the ranges. Because of incompatible brake systems, most of their ore jennies could not interchanged without a transition car. Avg RR DM&IR N&W % Car Miles Loaded 66.4% 51.3% 58.9% " - Eastbound 76.0% 4.6% 58.9% " - Westbound 56.9% 97.6% 58.9% % Loaded Car Mi - East 57.1% 4.5% 50.1% " - Westbound 42.9% 95.5% 49.9% Net Tons/Loaded Car Miles 32.6 54.2 47.7 Avg Miles Hauled 227 77 280 Cars per Train 52.3 97.4 77.8 Avg Train MPH 16.0 17.0 16.0 Car Miles per Car Day 45.7 23.6 58.4 % Cars Moving of Total Hours 11.9% 5.8% 15.2% % 1947 Roster of Cars on Line 92.2% 99.8% 168.2% % Boxcars of Cars on Line 38.6% 2.2% 26.2% % Hoppers & Gons of Cars on Line 45.3% 94.8% 138.8% Home % Total Cars on Line 34.6% 96.8% 77.1% The DM&IR ran long trains over a short haul at better than an average speed - no local switching en route. The cars that they owned were mostly dedicated to this service - no other railroad got involved until the ore arrived at a port on the Lower Lakes. The N&W is shown above because it depended, albeit not as completely as the DM&IR, upon mineral traffic - a higher than average tons per car ratio is an indicator of heavy mineral traffic. The prime difference, however, was that the N&W coal was delivered to other railroads for delivery to consignee. Because of the delays in unloading off-line, the N&W had to own a lot more hoppers than required daily on line. The N&W's lower than the national average of percent loaded car miles (58.9% vs. 66.4%) is a reflection that empty hoppers were difficult to reload in any quantity with commodities which were useful at the mines. That the 50.1% of N&W's traffic went north into Ohio and 49.1% went east to the Coast is because of the central location of the mines on the N&W. Both the DM&IR and N&W had high Net Ton Miles per Loaded Car Mile averages when compared to the national average because of their heavy mineral traffic. When tons alone are analyzed, mineral traffic skews much of the analyses and comparisons with non-mineral traffickers. A case in point is the Great Northern with its ore traffic. In 1947, GN's Iron Ore Traffic contributed 43.8% of the GN's Total Revenue Tons, 15.0% of its Revenue Ton Miles (short haul), 7.8% of its Loaded Car Miles (heavier tons per car), and 10.7% of its Total Car Miles (inability to reload the ore jennies on their trips back to the ore pits). Below is a table separating GN's Ore Traffic from the rest of the GN - the basis of the Iron Ore data assumes that all of it is from the haul from the Messabe Range to Lake Superior. 1947 AVG RR TOT GN GN ORE GN OTHER % Car Mi Loaded 66.4% 64.1% 46.7% 66.3% " - Eastbound 76.0% 93.1% 100.0% 81.1% " - Westbound 56.9% 46.7% - 52.1% % Load Car Mi - East 57.1% 63.0% 100.0% 59.9% " - Westbound 42.9% 37.0% - 40.1% Ton Mi/Loaded Car Mi 32.6 34.5 62.7 32.1 Cars per Train 52.6 57.3 NA NA Average Miles Hauled 227 293 100 443 Average Train MPH 16.0 15.8 NA NA Miles per Car Day 45.7 48.5 30.0 52.4 %Hours Cars Moving 11.9% 12.8% NA NA %47Rost of Cars on Line 92.9% 90.1% 100.0% 88.1% % Boxcars of COL 38.6% 52.7% - 63.7% % Hops & Gons of COL 45.3% 26.1% 100.0% 10.7% % Other Types of COL 8.2% 11.3% - 15.7% % Home of Total COL 34.6% 41.0% 100.0%% 28.7% Unlike the N&W, both the GN's and DM&IR's ore businesses were seasonal. When the ore traffic was shut down during the winter, the DM&IR's operating statistics resembled very much the Long Island RR's freight operations. The Long Island's freight operations amounted to little more than branch lines which terminated more cars than they originated (68.0% of the loaded car miles were eastbound from the mainland vs. 32.0% westbound). The two largest manufacturers, Grumman and Republic Aviation, had other means to ship their finished product. Accordingly, they ran short trains (21.3 cars per train) at slow speeds (8.1 MPH) not very far (average haul 18 miles). The average freight car moved only 2.3% of the time and 4.5 miles per day. 1947 Avg RR LIRR B&A NH B&M % Car Miles Loaded 66.4% 56.6% 64.6% 72.0% 72.3% " - Eastbound 76.0% 77.0% 96.0% 91.1% 82.3% " - Westbound 56.9% 40.8% 34.7% 53.0% 61.8% %Loaded Car Miles -East 57.1% 68.0% 72.5% 63.1% 58.5% " - West 42.9% 32.0% 27.5% 36.9% 41.5% Net Ton Mi/Load Car Mi 32.6 29.8 26.3 26.0 26.6 Average Haul 227 18 123 149 150 Cars/Train 52.3 21.3 35.9 53.5 51.6 Avg Train MPH 16.0 8.1 15.6 14.0 15.1 Car Miles / Car Day 45.7 4.5 31.2 30.8 43.9 % Cars Moving 11.9% 2.3% 8.3% 9.1% 12.1% Roster % Cars on Line 92.2% 1.4% 37.3% 33.3% 49.7% Box % Cars on Line 38.6% - 21.4% 21.0% 25.4% Hop&Gons % COL 45.3% 1.4% 14.4% 11.2% 21.9% Other Car Types % COL 8.2% - 1.5% 1.1% 2.4% Home % Total Cars on Line 34.6% 0.9% 4.2% 6.1% 10.5% Potatoes & canned goods made up 86% of carloads originated plus whatever LCL cars were originated. These were primarily boxcar loadings on the LIRR. What was the source of cars for the LIRR's limited originated traffic? The owner, PRR, would be unlikely to provide empty boxcars if some other source was available. Commodities terminated included coal, lumber, cement and iron & steel, the LIRR's four largest in 1947. The number of originated carloads could easily be accommodated in lumber boxcars after unloading and cleaning. Having to haul empty boxcars to Eastern Long Island caused the percent loaded of total car miles to hover around 50%. Where was the source of that lumber? On railroads like the UP and SOU as well as others - these railroads whose boxcar traffic normally followed the boxcar ownership distribution on their own roads subject to a slight bias towards home road cars. Branch lines having seasonal traffic like the DM&IR probably had many of the characteristics of the DM&IR in season while resembling the LIRR in the off-season. Included in this category would be branch lines in agricultural areas moving livestock, fruit and vegetables or grain after the harvest. I suspect that many of the Granger roads owned enough boxcars to insure a supply for the Grain Rush which they thought was a surplus. Throughout the 1946-1948 period, RAILWAY AGE reported that there were fears led by Senator Reed of Kansas of not enough boxcars for the Grain Rush: - any surplus having evaporated with the reloading on foreign roads, and entering the general service boxcar pool. To combat this problem, the Car Service Bureau would order specific railroads to return a specified number of boxcars to interchange points empty. These "BC" orders had bite; the B&M was fined for not complying with an order to return empties to the NYC and CP. To help comply with this order, the B&M accepted 500 PS-1 boxcars at Pullman's Michigan City IN plant with these PS-1 sent to the Chicago Area for their initial loaded maiden voyage. The difference between the East & Westbound Percent Loaded Car Miles on the Boston & Albany (NYC's New England subsidiary) may be an example of how most metropolitan areas terminated more traffic than they originated. After all, coal, when consumed, goes up in the air; food ends up in a sewer, and steel mills have slag piles. Did the parent NYC have similar operating statistics from the Albany Area for their Hudson Division Line to Manhattan and the West Shore Line to Weehawken NJ? With a favorable trade balance in 1947, more traffic was delivered to ports for export than imports received. Would the same phenomenon occur in LA, San Francisco or Seattle? Inland cities had a through traffic which would hide the operating statistics characteristics similar to the B&A's experience in 1947. While the New Haven's eastbound loaded percent (91.1%) was less than the B&A's 96.0%, their westbound 53.0% swamped the B&A's 34.7%. The B&A was a linear railroad with a very limited branch network, while the New Haven was territorial in nature having a rail monopoly in New England south of the B&A line. Throughout the New Haven territory were manufacturing cities where, while many raw materials were imported, at least some finished product was shipped by rail either in carload lots or LCL - the New Haven was one of five railroads in 1947 which originated more than a million tons of LCL. The other four were the PRR, NYC, B&O and SOU. The New Haven's total roster was only a third of the total cars on line with less a fifth of that third being on line. The bulk of the supply of boxcars for LCL came from incoming LCL cars although some of the supply came from emptied boxcars carrying carloads of which there was an ample supply. LCL was a major contributor to the high percentage of loaded car miles throughout the nation. The prime difference between the B&M and New Haven besides size was that the B&M was the conduit for traffic to or from Maine - major commodities produced in Maine were paper and potatoes. Based upon a model of B&M's freight car utilization using operating and freight statistics in 1946-1948 era, the percentages of cars on line by car type are estimated to be roughly the following: Total Cars on Line 12,373 100% B&M Cars on Line 1,305 11% Foreign Cars on Line 11,068 89% 12/31/1947 Roster 6,141 50% Cars on Line - Estimate 12/31/1947 1947 B&M Foreign Total Roster%COL Boxcars 1% 54% 55% 25.4% Hoppers 7% 18% 25% 9.5% Gondolas 2% 6% 8% 12.2% Reefers <1% 5% 5% 0.2% Tank Cars - 5% 5% - Flat Cars <1% 2% 2% 2.0% Stock Cars <1% <1% <1% 0.1% Covered Hoppers <1% <1% <1% 0.2% Pulpwood Racks <1% <1% <1% 0.2% Total 11% 89% 100% 49.7% (NOTE - Estimate above is for all of the B&M. Around Boston, the home road percentages would be higher than those on the West End around Mechanicville, the largest interchange point on the B&M.) The B&M required their own hoppers in order to load Pocahontas coal brought to New England by ship for consignees and B&M engine terminals inland. There were some gondolas which were transferred temporarily to MOW service, some of which remained being treated as cars on line. That does not leave many B&M boxcars to be on line. It was not unusual for a B&M boxcar to be away from home for four years - the B&M boxcar yo-yoing around the country with loads originated and terminated on other roads. To supply boxcars for originated loads, the B&M had to use empties - too many which caused the "BC" order. These boxcars came from the national pool which included, by the way, the 500 PS-1 the B&M acquired in 1947 as well as more than 2,000 other B&M boxes. The B&M owned 0.4% of the total boxcars nationally; still, there was the home road bias of B&M boxcars at home being roughly 2% (1 in 55) vs. the 0.4% (1 in 250) of the national pool. The third dimension would be the roads which specialized in the through haul. The classic example of this would be the RF&P: - the bridge line between the Northeast Coast and the Southeast Coast between Washington & Richmond. Our problem is that the RF&P was not included in the OPERATING STATISTICS until 1958. Substitutes would be the Cotton Belt (SSW) and CNO&TP, Southern RR's bridge between Cincinnati and Chattanooga. Western Pacific is included because their long average miles hauled put them into this category which countered the percentage of time spent loading and unloading cars. AVG RR SSW CNO&TP WP Loaded Car Mi% Total 66.4% 75.9% 77.6% 77.4% " - Eastbound 76.0% 79.0% 78.1% 66.7% " - Westbound 56.9% 72.7% 76.9% 86.9% % Loaded Car Mi - East 57.1% 53.0% 53.4% 40.4% " - Westbound 42.9% 47.0% 46.6% 59.6% Ton Mi/Loaded Car Mi 32.6 26.6 26.0 29.4 Cars per Train 52.3 51.9 44.9 56.1 Avg Miles Hauled 227 371 202 449 Avg Train MPH 16.0 19.4 21.5 20.2 Car Mi/ Car Day 45.7 97.5 76.9 91.6 % Hours Cars Moving 11.9% 20.9% 14.9% 16.8% %47 Roster/Cars on Line 92.2% 72.3% 172.9% 85.9% % Boxcars/Cars on Line 38.6% 56.8% 72.3% 35.4% % Hop&Gons/Cars on Line 45.3% 7.2% 98.2% 25.5% % Other Car Types/COL 8.2% 11.9% 2.0% 24.9% Home % Total COL 34.6% 16.8% 6.8% 41.4% The daily average of car miles per day on all three railroads exceeded the "average RR's" by a wide margin. Not much time was spent by the average car loading or unloading. 73.7% of the CNO&TP's tonnage was bridge line traffic (received from connecting RR's and delivered to others). How this translates into cars is difficult to assess exactly, but the national average "received & delivered" tons was less than 20%. CNO&TP's parent, the SOU, apparently used the subsidiary's balance sheet to supply cars - this accounts for CNO&TP's 12/31/1947 roster being 172.9% of total cars on line. In the ORER's, all of SOU's subsidiaries were listed in the SOU's pages with no differentiation in reporting marks. SSW's percent of Home Cars on Line were low because the SSW did not own many hoppers and gons. SSW's Hoppers & Gons were primarily in local service rarely straying far from home. The WP's home road percent was greater: - one of the reasons being a higher percentage of hoppers & gons owned than the Cotton Belt. The WP's net directional loaded car flow westward can be interpreted as feeding the Bay Area's metroplex - the difference between the WP and B&A being that the Central California agricultural area created eastbound traffic versus the relative lack of westbound traffic on the B&A on account of the B&M and NH garnering a greater share of the LCL business. Returning to the five "multi-dimensional" roads, the comparisons may be more subtle than the subsequent roads discussed, but each have some of the three characteristics (originating, terminating and through) discussed subsequently. 1947 AVG RR PRR NYC SOU UP AT&SF % Car Miles Loaded 66.4% 66.9% 64.5% 70.2% 66.5% 67.6% " - Eastbound 76.0% 81.6% 84.5% 83.9% 72.8% 69.0% " - Westbound 56.9% 52.1% 45.7% 56.6% 60.3% 66.3% % Loaded Car Mi - East 57.1% 61.2% 63.5% 59.7% 54.7% 50.5% " - Westbound 42.9% 38.8% 36.5% 40.3% 45.3% 49.5% Ton Mi/Loaded Car Miles 32.6 34.8 31.9 28.7 29.5 26.5 Cars per Train 52.3 58.4 57.1 36.8 56.4 54.6 Avg Miles Hauled 227 239 226 219 563 515 Avg Train MPH 16.0 13.5 15.4 17.1 20.0 19.6 Car Mi/Car Day 45.7 31.1 40.8 48.2 79.4 70.0 % Hours Cars Moving 11.9% 9.6% 11.0% 11.8% 16.5% 14.9% %47 Roster/Cars on Line 92.2% 91.8% 83.7% 88.1% 81.6% 102.2% " - in. Private Cars 106.3% %Boxcars/Cars on Line 38.6% 30.7% 42.2% 47.0% 42.1% 44.9% %Hop.&Gons/COL 45.3% 58.1% 38.7% 32.6% 23.5% 19.3% %Reefers/Cars on Line 1.1% - - - - 19.1% %Other Car Types 7.1% 3.0% 2.3% 8.5% 16.0% 18.9% Home% Total Cars on Line 34.6% 44.8% 28.0% 27.9% 37.7% 46.1% The much longer hauls of the UP and AT&SF led to having operating characteristics similar to the so-called "bridge lines" such as the Cotton Belt (SSW) and CNO&TP. That the AT&SF included their SFRD reefers in their roster while the UP did not include its share of PFE was the principal factor in the differences in the percentage of the 1947 roster and home car at home as a percent of total cars on line. Another factor was the UP serving as a bridge line between the SP and Chicago which increased the miles per car day. The AT&SF had a more balanced directional flow than the UP because: 1) The grain hauled from the Kansas could be hauled to Chicago on Santa Fe's rails while the UP had to interchange their grain at either Council Bluffs or Kansas City. 2) The AT&SF had a larger share of the terminating market in the LA metroplex than did the UP. The lower than average ton miles per loaded car mile ratio of both roads indicates that both roads had less than average mineral traffic in 1947. The Pennsy's tons per car ratio of 34.8, however, was higher than the national 32.6 average. Their low 31.1 miles per car day (only 68% of the national average) was not entirely attributable to greater loading/unloading times in the mineral trade. The PRR owned too many cars; within two years, their roster fell from 225,769 cars owned on 12/31/1947 to 197,397 on 12/31/1949, a 12.6% decline - 10.4% decline in boxcars & 13.2% in hoppers & gons. Much of this decline was due to retiring finally relics of a by-gone age. A good portion of these relics were not used in interchange service in 1947 meaning that the home road cars on line were "padded." Instead of the 44.8% reported, the serviceable PRR cars on the PRR would be reduced to 39.5% and car miles per day increased to 34.5 miles per day - still significantly different from the national averages. Interplaying with these averages is the fact that the PRR only originated about a half of their total coal tonnage meaning that they did not have the hopper supply/ownership problem that the N&W had which led to N&W-owned hoppers & gons being in excess of 100% of the daily average number of cars on the N&W. A lot of the PRR hoppers appear to have been employed in the relatively short haul business which increased their loading/unloading times in proportion to moving time in contrast to the longer average haul of the N&W hoppers. The large differential (38.8%) between the NYC's east & westbound percent car miles loaded (85.5% vs. 45.7%) is less than the B&A's differential (61.3%), but is higher than the average. This may be a confirmation that the NYC south of Albany including New York City originated little westbound traffic. While 1947 was a year in which there was a car shortage, 1949 was a year of recession which created car surpluses. By 1951, however, the economy strengthened again partially due to the outbreak of the Korean War. The effect upon the Average Railroad in this five-year 1947-1951 cycle is shown in the table below - the most significant being the car miles per car day cycle and the fluctuation in the percent of Home Road Cars on Line: AVG RR 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 Percent Car Miles Loaded 66.4% 65.6% 63.7% 66.0% 66.0% " - Eastbound 76.0% 74.1% 71.9% 72.9% 73.3% " - Westbound 56.9% 57.2% 55.7% 59.0% 58.8% % Loaded Car Mi - East 57.1% 56.3% 56.2% 55.2% 55.4% " - Westbound 42.9% 43.7% 43.8% 44.8% 44.6% Net Ton Mi/Loaded Car Mi 32.6 32.9 31.3 31.6 32.9 Cars per Train 52.3 53.8 56.2 57.9 60.2 Average Miles Hauled 227 224 228 229 232 Average Train MPH 16.0 16.2 16.9 16.8 16.6 Car Miles per Car Day 45.7 45.3 40.3 43.6 45.0 % Hours Car Moving 11.9% 11.7% 9.9% 10.8% 11.3% % Roster/Cars on Line 92.2% 92.5% 92.0% 91.9% 92.3% " - in. Private Cars 106.3% 106.5% 106.0% 105.9% 106.4% % Boxcars Owned/COL 38.6% 37.8% 38.2% 38.8% 38.6% % Hop & Gons/COL 45.3% 45.9% 46.5% 45.9% 45.7% % Other Car Types/COL 8.2% 7.9% 7.8% 7.9% 7.9% % Home Cars on Line 34.6% 39.4% 51.2% 42.2% 38.7% In 1949 with the economy in Recession, there were not enough loads available to reload foreign road empties so those empties returned home in order to avoid per diem charges. This empty car movement is reflected in the dip in the percent of car miles loaded. Mineral Traffic appeared to be affected more than Other Traffic because of the decline in Net Ton Miles per Loaded Car Mile from 32.9 in 1948 to 31.3 in 1949. Because cars were in surplus, they were not moving causing the decline in both Car Miles per Car Day and the Percent Hours Cars were moving. In late 1948 in early 1949, per diem was increased from $1.15 to $1.75. This increase, however, had minimal effect in the increase of Home Road Cars on Line to 51.2% in 1949 because, when the economy started to pick up again in 1950, the percent of Home Road Cars on Line began to decrease although not to 1947 levels when there was a severe car shortage. The slight overall increase in the percent of Loaded Car Miles Westbound from 1947 to 1951 is a reflection of the southern and western economies growing faster than the northeastern one. The overall 1947-1951 increase in Cars per Train, Average Haul and Average Train Speed may be attributable to two factors - dieselization and less local freights being operated - I have no way in determining how much of each. The distribution of foreign cars on line by car type by owner will be discussed later. In the meantime, I would appreciate any legitimate questions, challenges and comments about this general material. Thank You, Tim Gilbert ---
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