I have a bunch of Red Caboose Bi-Level Auto Rack cars and I am curious if there was any special order they may have been placed in a consist. Were they loaded so that they would head back to their home track or just random? I would assume they were loaded so they could travel in groups according to their destination but did that also mean that they picked Auto Rack to load according to their home track?
Trying to determine if there is any specific order I should place cars in my consist. In real world, they seem to be a jumble of road names in a consist.
Paul D
N scale Washita and Santa Fe RailroadSouthern Oklahoma circa late 70's
It's all in the reporting marks. The pretty little heralds don't necessarily mean anything, as far as your question.
Seems to me if they had TTX reporting marks, they would have been pretty interchangeable--no special order. And they were never sent "home", because they didn't have one.
There were also auto racks that were individually owned by railroads. They carried the reporting marks of the railroad. Those COULD have been in captive service IF the railroad made such an agreement. But they could also have been thrown into the TTX pool IF the railroad made THAT agreement.
Ed
I have seen autoracks with TTX rep marks on the flat car but say UP, BNSF, KCS, NS, CSX, ect. Rep marks on the side of the autorack itself.
Steve
If everything seems under control, you're not going fast enough!
NWP SWP I have seen autoracks with TTX rep marks on the flat car but say UP, BNSF, KCS, NS, CSX, ect. Rep marks on the side of the autorack itself.
A freight car has only one set of reporting marks. It can't have two.
It can't have both TTX AND a railroad reporting mark.
TTX owns the flat, the railroad owns the rack superstructure. That's why they sport TTX reporting marks, but have someone else's herald (not marks).
Thats what it is, it's not rep marks but the railroad Herald.
If TTX owns the flatcar and then what is the motive for a RR to pay for the structure with their logo?
PED If TTX owns the flatcar and then what is the motive for a RR to pay for the structure with their logo?
Here's an article on autoracks in Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autorack
There is some discussion about who owns what and operates where.
I recommend studying it.
I SUPPOSE I could study the particular railroad heralds that show up on auto trains that pass through my prototype location-of-interest. I might just do that. But I have a decent collection of cars, and I think I'll just run what I have.
Autoracks bearing TTX reporting marks such as TTGX 940000 for example are in a pool of cars and like other members of the Trailer Train family, its "next load, any road". The shipper only cares about the car having the correct configuration to handle his product and when he calls for a specific number of cars to load with his products, the railroad rounds up that number of cars regardless of whose herald is on the racks and delivers them to him. Cars and racks owned by a single railroad, such as an SP rack on an SP marked car belong to that railroad and may be in restricted service between two points only. It is possible some TTX cars with special equipment may also be in restricted service, but it should be plainly marked somewhere on the car, just like cars in the famous Louisville KY Appliance Park pool, or many auto parts pool boxcars of the past. For those wanting more information on Trailer Train and its history and operation as well as equipment, Pennsylvania Railroad Historical and Technical Society is coming out with a two volume set of books on TTX.
7j43k I SUPPOSE I could study the particular railroad heralds that show up on auto trains that pass through my prototype location-of-interest. I might just do that. But I have a decent collection of cars, and I think I'll just run what I have. Ed
In my observations throughout the Mid Atlantic, the mix has been so thorough that I can't imagine it isn't like that everywhere. A random train has such variety that I wouldn't balk at any road name. Plenty of modern fallen flags too.
Remember, all the auto parts cars are parts of pools, so the car no matter what the reporting mark is usually scheduled no matter what it's final destination is back to the assembly plant to where it is assigned. All the railroads contribute to the pools based on the mileage that they use between delivery points and final assembly plants. Therefore any roadname can be anywhere.
Rick Jesionowski
Rule 1: This is my railroad.
Rule 2: I make the rules.
Rule 3: Illuminating discussion of prototype history, equipment and operating practices is always welcome, but in the event of visitor-perceived anacronisms, detail descrepancies or operating errors, consult RULE 1!
Short answer: No, there is no order to the cars based on the heralds on the cars.
The railroads don't even show the rack ownership on any of the shipping papers. Its not on switch lists, its not on train lists, its not on waybills. Buried down in the mechanical car records they know which is which, but for the operating department, they couldn't tell you who owned the rack on the TTBX 123456.
There may be cars put in order by "reporting marks" because they are assigned to a particular service and that service rides in a particular block. Only SP123456 series cars are set up to carry copper ingots, copper ingots ride in one block, so all the SP123456 cars are in one place in the train. I once told a crew to switch out a cut by the color of the car. It just so happened that the cut had plastic pellet hoppers that were all grey, MP gons and hoppers for rock service all red and tank cars going to south Texas, all black.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
Interesting how they operate but good for me because I don't need to be concerned with consist order. I have 25 Auto Racks and all are TTGX (with various logos) except for one that has a SP reporting mark.
From a modeling perspective, you can pretty much run a random mix of 89' autoracks, and also articulated racks (though those are known to run in coupled sets of 3 or 6). The only thing to keep in mind is that bi-level auto racks carry larger vehicles like SUVs, pick-up trucks and vans, while tri-level racks carry compact sedans and coupes. Larger shipments of certain kinds of vehicles from the factories (or the ports, if they're imported) would tend to have a number of bi-levels or tri-levels together, but then car order also depends on the destination. So a random consist of '89 autoracks can definitey pass for prototypical.
Everytime I see a BNSF Autorack train, the cars are a different set and the colors are different.
Sometimes you get those smooth sided Auto Max cars mixed in, other times no.
Shoot, don't you guys know anything?
Those are FEMA Prisoner Transport Cars, just look inside, you can see the Chains and Shackles, most of them are headed to the Secret Beech Grove FEMA Prison that is Disguised as an Amtrak repair facility.
You guys Really need to do Better Research
Doug
May your flanges always stay BETWEEN the rails
Yeah, I wouldn't sweat it. Toss them on the rails and run them; they will appear random in a real train so if you want to immitate real life, do the same.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983