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[quote user="fargo"] Model Railroader ran a good story on this a few times, most people that are into prototype operations use the following as a guide to what runs on their layouts. I modeled the Soo, so about 55% of my cars should be Soo, the real railroad wants to haul their own cars as long and as far as they can. But you mix-up that 55% said if your modeling the 50's about 38% of your cars would be boxcars, then 15% gons, 5% flat cars, 25% refers,some coal cars. Then your going to have 35% of other midwestern cars from interchange, CB&Q, Milw RD, CNW, Rock, etc.  The rest of the cars would be a mix of east, west, and southern cars. But now model the Soo in said 1980, your going to have about 10% boxcars and 35% Covered hoppers for grain, why?  1950 almost all grain moved in 40ft boxcars by 1980 almost all grain was in covered hoppers and the 40ft boxcar was in anew car somewhere.[/quote]Also a good idea is to base your fleet on the type of freight your railroad hauled. For example a railroad that deals primarily in hauling coal probably wouldn't own too many livestock cars so you probably should have maybe only one or two if any.
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