Weighting for help.

[Anonymous]

I use waybills for my train movements, and these waybills require the Gross, Tare, and Net weight of the car. Is their a book, or website where I can find the weight of loaded freight cars?

[ericsp]

LD. LMT. GRL
70 ton: 263,000 lbs
100 ton: 286,000 lbs
110 ton: 315,000 lbs (If I remember correctly)

LD. LMT. an approximation of the load limit.
GRL - I do not remember for sure, however I think it is gross rail limit.

[dehusman]

On the side of the car is a stencil labeled "LT WT" or light weight. That is Tare, the weight of the car itself. The weight of the car and its load (gross) minus the weight of the car (tare) is the weight of the load (net).

The weight of the load varies wildly. Generally tank cars and bulk commodities (coal, grain, rock, ore) are loaded at the max the car will carry. The other commodities tend to be less than the full capacity of the car. Best guess, think about the commodity and how much is actually in the car. Things like boxes of cereal, auto parts (fenders) and appliances will be relatively light, rolls of newsprint, headstones and automobile engines would be heavier. LCL and FAK would be very light, probably less than 10 tons. I would suggest that the net would be between 25% and 75% of the capy of the car. So if its a 50 ton boxcar you would have between 12 and 38 tons of stuff in the car. If its a 50 ton hopper of coal it will have 50 tons of coal in it (well actually 48-50 tons if you want some variation). It all depends on how the load is packaged inside the car. Modern palletized loads allow loads to be stacked higher and get more commodity into the car.

Dave H.

[GN-Rick]

The book you want is the 'Official Railway Equipment Register'. or ORER.
It is a publication put out for railroads and done every year. I've heard
that there is an outfit that has these available on CD-ROM, but I can't
remember who. Maybe somebody else out there can assist you with
that. Hope this helps.

[dehusman]

ORER's are issued quarterly.

You can buy the real thing at book shops that specialize in RR books and on e-Bay.

Westerfield (the resin car manufacturer) sells ORER's on CD for about $20 a pop.

Dave H.

[jrbarney]

Lotus098,
How do you ever model railroad in the lotus position ? [:)]

Some ORER reprints are also available from the NMRA:
http://www.rrhistorical.com/cgi/NMRA_Store/nmra-store.cgi?ORDER_ID=245331286&thispage=page5.html&ACTION=NEXT+PAGE
That link will take you to the member page, the NMRA also has non-member store pages, where the prices are higher.
Bob
NMRA Life 0543

[Anonymous]

My name is from the car company. Do ODRER list the wieght of loaded cars, or the wieght of the loads? Would it be better to try and find old waybills?

[dehusman]

There is NO standard weight for loads or loaded cars of any kind.

The only thing the ORER lists is capacity of the car, not the tare.

Remember that even if you find waybills with the weights on them, the next boxcar loaded with the same commodity can vary greatly. If you have a boxcar loaded with 500 bags of cement and the next car has 600 bags of cement the two will have very different net weights. Why would one car have 500 bags and an identical car have 600 bags? Because that's what the customer ordered.

Dave H.