On Facebook this evening I came across the Walthers page talking about the formation of Conrail: "Formed on April 1, 1976, the Consolidate Rail Corporation, or Conrail for short, took over from the Penn Central, Erie Lackawanna, Ann Arbor, Central of New Jersey, Lehigh & Hudson River, Lehigh Valley and the Reading, along with numerous short lines and holding companies they had formerly operated."
My question is this: Would any cars from these railroads have found their way to Montana? Not that I really need any more cars for my layout, but it would add more color to my layout. (Not that it needs more color, either. About the only color families I don't have a car or engine painted in are purple and gold. [Green-NP,BN,MEC {The green my equipment is in}; Red-CB&Q; Pink-FRRY Tribute engine {No it is not a pink elephant. It is a GP20. The paint was created by Signal Red mixed with Reefer White}; Blue-GN,CSX Blue; Yellow-Freelanced pulpwood cars,TTX; Orange-GN; Brown-NP, along with a few others; Silver-Decals on FRRY cars.)
Depending, of course, on your modelling era, cars of Conrail and Conrail predecessor roads could be found on any common carrier railroad in North America....that's the way interchange works.
Wayne
Freight cars can, in theory, be interchanged to any railroad anywhere in the country. The catch is that they wouldn't stay there for long. Cars in interchange are not "free" for any railroad to capture and use. They pay a fee to the car's owner for that. As such, the practice is to return an interchange car back to its home road by the most direct route possible -- with a load if possible, empty if not. So you wouldn't likely find a Conrail boxcar tootling around your Montana road on a regular basis.
If you want to see a bigger variety of rolling stock on your layout, but realistically, why not join (or start) an interchange group with fellow modelers? These groups will trade (by mail, if they're not local) cars with each other, along with waybills denoting their cargo, origin, and destination. After running the car in an operating session, it's either returned or forwarded to the next model railroad in the delivery sequence. It's a fun way to add variety both to your consists and your operating sessions.
--Steven Otte, Model Railroader senior associate editorsotte@kalmbach.com
For the time frame involved, consider what items would likely be shipped by rail to the area of Montana you model from the Northeast or Midwest on a regular basis? Conrail would be likely to provide it's own rolling stock to ship those items (OK, yes, it's a lot more complicated than that under the rules of car- interchange, but go with it as a first approximation).I keep thinking steel and associated products? Perhaps automobiles? Does Montana import a lot of crops from the Midwest?Growing up in the '80s and '90s "Rust Belt" era of the Northeast, I sadly got into the mindset that raw materials (coal/iron/grain/produce/lumber/plastic pellets/paper/etc) would be what was shipped in by rail, then after processing the value-added finished products shipped out by truck. Particularly on Long Island, NY - we generally only ship out scrap and trash, not much in the way of value-added products (it's depressing, I know).
chutton01 Particularly on Long Island, NY - we generally only ship out scrap and trash, not much in the way of value-added products (it's depressing, I know).
Well, you must have done a lot of shipping of iron ore. I see that MTH is selling some center discharge ore cars lettered for Long Island Railroad.
Remember years ago we were visiting Mobest yards here in Phx. and were invited into the roundhouse (gone now of course) and were quite surprised to find 2 B&O diesels parked inside......In Arizona Wow!!
Steven Otte....If you want to see a bigger variety of rolling stock on your layout, but realistically, why not join (or start) an interchange group with fellow modelers? These groups will trade (by mail, if they're not local) cars with each other, along with waybills denoting their cargo, origin, and destination. After running the car in an operating session, it's either returned or forwarded to the next model railroad in the delivery sequence. It's a fun way to add variety both to your consists and your operating sessions.
That's certainly one option. My rolling stock is roughly one half home road cars (freelance) and one half foreign (mostly prototype) roads. Since the layout can't accommodate all of them at one time, they're continuously cycled on and off the layout at the various staging yards.My railroad is set in southern Ontario, so the foreign roads most seen are from Canada. Closely following those in number are roads from the U.S.northeast, the same as I saw in my hometown of Hamilton, Ontario. After that, there's a lesser mix of southern, south-western, mid-western, and north-western U.S. roads, in numbers roughly approximating that order, and even a Mexican car or two. The TH&B (along with part-owners CPR and NYC) and the CNR are direct interchange partners, so their cars are the foreign roads seen most often. Most interchange cars make an appearance on the layout to deliver a commodity, and are then sent home - some loaded, many as empties. Other foreign road cars appear at an appropriate staging yard, are placed in a suitable train and then sent to another staging yard - through cars with a destination "elsewhere", they may be on the layout for only one or two operating sessions.
This allows me to have a good selection of prototypical foreign road cars (especially those which I find appealing) without my own railroads' prescence being overwhelmed by them.
maxman Well, you must have done a lot of shipping of iron ore. I see that MTH is selling some center discharge ore cars lettered for Long Island Railroad.
FRRYKidWould any cars from these railroads have found their way to Montana?
Absolutely. I grew up watching trains in Utah and Wyoming, where I'd see cars from Conrail predecessors and other eastern roads all the time, in nearly any train featuring "overhead" traffic moving to and from interchages with midwestern gateways.
To give one example, let's say CR serves a Westinghouse appliance plant in New Jersey. Shipments from that factory could end up at a distribution center anywhere in the US, Canada or Mexico. Both loaded and unloaded car movements could be seen in between. In many cases, cars involved in such shipments belong to pools where several roads contribute cars, and any of the cars in the pool could be used interchangeably. Western Pacific owned cars belonging to a Whirlpool appliance pool with instructionhs to return them empty to a PRR yard in Ohio for loading, over 1000 miles from WP rails. Any car in the pool could receive the next load regardless of destination. Similar situations applied to auto parts pools.
Another instance would be a steel fabricator near me here in Utah. They regularly take inbound shipments of coil steel in CR cars. A local feed mill takes covered hoppers from the Norfolk Southern.
Pacific Fruit Express (SP and UP) had refrigerator cars regularly ending up on the east coast with loads of California produce.
I've picked some photos from locations and roads I know, but they're representative.
C&O boxcar on the WP at Stockton, CA, 1973 http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=55735&nseq=514
Reading car on the WP at Altamont, CA, 1974 http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=62742&nseq=442 .
Several NYC cars on a run-through train on the UP near Cheyenne, WY, 1967 http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=311250&nseq=161 .
NS car being switched at a local industry in Salt Lake City, 1995 http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=503977&nseq=80 .
Rob Spangler
I remembered where to quickly find more. These are all roads mentioned in the initial post.
Ann Arbor car, Provo, UT 1979 http://www.railcarphotos.com/PhotoDetails.php?PhotoID=67077 .
CNJ car, La Mirada, CA, 1975 http://www.railcarphotos.com/PhotoDetails.php?PhotoID=5232 .
LV gon, Oceanside, CA, 1976 http://www.railcarphotos.com/PhotoDetails.php?PhotoID=70978 .
PC gon, West Colton, CA, 1976 http://www.railcarphotos.com/PhotoDetails.php?PhotoID=50240 .
EL box, Fullerton, CA, 1977 http://www.railcarphotos.com/PhotoDetails.php?PhotoID=37940 .
CR Box, Cajon, CA, 1993 http://www.railcarphotos.com/PhotoDetails.php?PhotoID=70944 .
If all these and many more can make it to California and Utah, they could be seen anywhere in the west as well.
There is no reason why a CR boxcar couldn't float around on any railroad if it was in some type of industrial pool service.Watching any autopart train,autorack train,appliance train(remember those 40' high cubes of the mid to late 60s?),boxcars assigned to a paper service pool etc will have foreign road cars in that pool..
I will also add some empty boxcars had to be return empty to a certain area-When empty return to(say) agent Columbus,Ohio.Do not reload.These boxcars was in assigned service.A example would be plug door boxcars assigned to a local brewery or 50' double door boxcars assigned to a furniture manufacturer..
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
BRAKIE Boxcars assigned to a paper service pool ... will have foreign road cars in that pool.
Boxcars assigned to a paper service pool ... will have foreign road cars in that pool.
That is an interesting possibility. I have a printing plant on my layout that could theorically benefit from this idea. The only problem is I would need to see pictures of a car that is set up for this type of service in order to get it right. (70's era)
BRAKIEThere is no reason why a CR boxcar couldn't float around on any railroad if it was in some type of industrial pool service.
It wouldn't be limited to pool service. Plenty of eastern cars came into Sacramento California in the 70s and earlier as single car general merchandise. That's how interchange works, even today.
RT
FRRYKidMy question is this: Would any cars from these railroads have found their way to Montana?
Absolutely. There was plenty of Conrail crossing the Rockies on the D&RGW; as others alluded to, Conrail freight cars would have travelled all over the use just as other major carriers cars did.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
RT Trains BRAKIE There is no reason why a CR boxcar couldn't float around on any railroad if it was in some type of industrial pool service. It wouldn't be limited to pool service. Plenty of eastern cars came into Sacramento California in the 70s and earlier as single car general merchandise. That's how interchange works, even today. RT
BRAKIE There is no reason why a CR boxcar couldn't float around on any railroad if it was in some type of industrial pool service.
And visa versa will hold true but,there are examples why a car would stay on a foreign road instead of being returned when empty to the owning road.
Even today the majority of the cars you see in a freight train are either foreign road or one of the many leasing company cars.
Weird that you didn't just say that in the first place without taking the conversation down the "pool" path. There is plenty of interchange then and now that is not pool traffic.
BRAKIE RT Trains BRAKIE There is no reason why a CR boxcar couldn't float around on any railroad if it was in some type of industrial pool service. It wouldn't be limited to pool service. Plenty of eastern cars came into Sacramento California in the 70s and earlier as single car general merchandise. That's how interchange works, even today. RT And visa versa will hold true but,there are examples why a car would stay on a foreign road instead of being returned when empty to the owning road. Even today the majority of the cars you see in a freight train are either foreign road or one of the many leasing company cars.
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Pooling cars is a part of railroading..Some UP.SP,CSX,NS,CP,BNSF,CN and KCS pool cars may never see home rails for years.Years ago it could have been a fleet of 40' or 50' boxcars,50' gons,flats or reefers..
I give this as general information for those they may not know or has been lead down the path that all foreign road cars return to their owners when they are empty.
Conrail inherited the old NYC-CB&Q run through agreement for freight trains between Chicago and Mpls-St.Paul (which I believe is still operated by NS and BNSF). I'm sure many of these trains delivered Conrail freight cars to BN in St.Paul, to go on BN to destinations in the west (including North Dakota, Montana and cars going through to the Pacific NW).