Your rolling stock roster... your railroad

[tomikawaTT]

There are five companies represented on my pike:

1. The Japan National Railways - owns EVERYTHING (can you say monopoly?) except for rolling stock owned by:
2. The Tomikawa Valley Railway - which owns some freelance unit coal equipment and a selection of teakettle steamers, and operates a bunch of JNR hand-me-down freight cars.
3. The Kashimoto Forest Railway - 30 inch gauge, operates only on its own rails with equipment that would never be permitted in interchange.
4. The Harukawa Electric Railway - 30 inch gauge (mostly) tourist line that doesn't connect with anything.
5. The Tomikawa Tramway - Streetcars, supposedly running on wider-than-JNR gauge.

As for roster, I carefully arranged to buy a close approximation of 1/700th of the prototype JNR cars operating in September 1964.  Large classes are accurately represented, but most of the minor classes and one-of-a-kinds aren't.

Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)

[leighant]

Home road: Santa Fe 116 freight cars

Other trunklines operating in or associated with Texas (38 total)

• Burlington & affiliates 6
• Frisco 2
• MKT 3
• Missouri Pacific & affiliates 7
• Nacionales de Mexico 1
• Rock Island 2
• Southern Pacific & affiliates 16
• Texas Mexican 1

Logging and related shortlines 12

Pennsylvania RR 7

Other Northeastern trunklines 5

Midwestern railroads 6

Dixie railroads 3

Western railroads not in Texas 9

Private owner reefers, tankcars, etc. 47

United States Navy 4

Undecorated, dedicated to strip & repaint  85

 

Total freight cars 332

 

 

[Anonymous]

I model the ATSF, SP UP, & BN in the transition era to the 60s.  I would say abouut 60% of my fleet is homeroad cars with probably 50% of this being reefers.  SF UP & SP ran alot of reefer blocks east during harvest season.  I wouldn't worry too much about roadnames on rolling stock unless your visitors are a bunch of rivet counters.  Tweet

[BRAKIE]

Rather then worry about percentages I buy the cars that I like and can use..I then base my industries on my favorite car types since each industry is independent from each other...Now,my freelance short line follows prototype short lines..Any road can appear from several WC boxcars to several railbox and railgon..Steel coil cars are usually from mills located on the EJ&E..While EJ&E coil cars are abundant you will find NS,CR,CSX and IHB coil cars since coil cars are used in pool service...Other "pool" type cars such as UTLX,ACFX,GATX etc is common as is private owner covered hoppers.Loads of grain,fruits and vegetables comes off the BNSF and UP.Lumber will arrive in WC,CN,CHTT,BNSF,NS,CSX and other such roads in center beams.Get the picture?

Then I have way to many short line per diem boxcars..No worries..I collect those cars.

[Texas Zepher]

What is the railroad you model, your top three roadnames in your collection, and what do you feel is the prototypically correct percentage in your train?

Interesting you would ask.  This is for our Freelance railroad (PV&W) set basically in Denver (Platte City) and going west over the mountains in direct competition with the D&RGW.  We recently analyzed our mix of rolling stock and noted things we had too many of or two few of.  We also did the same thing for type of freight car not just road name.  This was after we had just culled the whole fleet of era inappropriate cars, so we need about 50 more cars to fill the layout.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

	count	current	desired	factor
all other NE	9	4%	3%	-1%
all other SE	3	1%	2%	1%
all other W	26	10%	5%	-5%
B&O	1	0%	1%	1%
C&O		0%	1%	1%
CB&Q	22	9%	7%	-2%
D&RGW	8	3%	7%	4%
GN	8	3%	2%	-1%
IC		0%	1%	1%
MP	1	0%	5%	5%
NP	7	3%	2%	-1%
NYC	1	0%	1%	1%
Pennsy	6	2%	1%	-1%
private	28	11%	6%	-5%
PV&W	79	31%	30%	-1%
RI	2	1%	3%	2%
SF	16	6%	7%	1%
SOU		0%	1%	1%
SP	20	8%	5%	-3%
UP	15	6%	6%	0%
WP	3	1%	4%	3%
total	255

[mtrails]

I have heard a rumor that 60% of your rolling stock should reflect the road you're modeling. Not that I took that information into account when aquiring rolling stock, but even today, you still see a majority of the "home rail" cars in a train. I can recall most of the boxcar freight of SP, to be SP cars, and SSW next to that. Of course, out of the entire train, these home road cars might have only made up 40% of the entire train. Of the hundreds of photos I have seen, and the videos I have watched, rarely did I see a train that was 60% of home road cars. Recently, I was visiting my folks in Nevada, and watched a UP train go by... most of the cars were UP or MP as well as ex-SP, and I think there might have been one or two BNSF in there. Likewise, here in montana, of BNSF freight trains, it's rare to see a UP or MP marked car.

I know not everyone is subject to strictly modeling their railroad as it was in real life, and many modelers don't consider prototypical make-ups, or collections of their trains, and simply enjoy the hobby and model what they want. I, myself am fond of the SP and can't compare much to other railroads, or train make-ups throughout different parts of the country, so I am more prone to model close to real life as I remember it.

It's very interesting to hear everyone's perspective on their rolling stock decisions.

I model Norfolk Southern, But most of my freight are BN and UP but i plan to buy some more NS stuff.


Another question " mtrails" where do you get your sig pictures from i see everyone has em but cant find em. 

The picture that appears at left, under your screen name is your "avatar". This is a photo you need to upload in your profile. The picture you select should be resized to about 200x200 pixels or less.

Jeremy

[accord1959]

I have 250+ cars, the majority of which are hoppers, tanks and boxcars. As for the road names, I pay particular attention to modern era, but how many of each railroad? I don't have that much time on my hands.

[CrazyDelmar]

I havent taken a inventory for awhile, so ill do one just for this.

 

Check back here tomorrow, and I should have the results.

[on30francisco]

I model a freelanced logging/backwoodsy line in Large Scale based on prototype practices. I have two logging cabooses that I built based on an article by Ron Tarjany in the June 1979 issue of Model Railroader. I also have several wooden flat, gondolas, and bulk end cars built from plans from Pete Moffet's "Narrow Nuggets" series that used to appear in the NMRA Bulletins in the 80s. I plan to build more wooden rolling stock and purchase some of the excellent RTR cars from Bachmann and other  companies.

[twhite]

I model the Rio Grande and Southern Pacific during the 1940-53 period, so my rolling stock would naturally reflect those roads and their connecting lines.  Since there was a tremenduous flow of traffic both east and west at that time (the majority destination depending upon the War effort), there are a number of eastern roads (NYC, Pennsy, C&O) represented on my roster, mostly box and auto cars, but also the midwestern roads that the Rio Grande connected with (Missouri Pacific, Burlington, Rock Island).  To say nothing of other roads that interconnected in California (My Rio Grande line is a ficticious California Extension), such as Santa Fe, Union Pacific, Western Pacific and some northwestern lines.  The majority of my freight cars are for the 'home' lines (especially PFE reefers), but for the most part, my freight rosters reflect the truly 'transcontinental' traffic patterns of the era. 

Tom  

[ouengr]

I  understand the propensity to buy only those fright cars that represent only your favorite railroads.  I am not always successful but I try to pattern my collection after the trains that I see in Oklahoma City and in Tulsa.  I own a large number of cars for the Burlington Northern, Santa Fe, Union Pacific and the pecurser roads.  I have only recently accepted BNSF with thier new wedge logo and own a few of thos cars.   From what I have observed, the BN(SF) garin trains seem  to be around 50-75% BN(SF) with the rest mostly a mix of private leasing cars.  The UP grain trains I used to see in Oologah seemed to be around 50% UP with the rest leased.

When I developed my collection, I tried to look at the area where I would operate and consider our interchanges.  My fictional prototype does not interchange with the CSX so their cars are far more scarce than the UP or the BN(SF) with whom we directly interchange.  I have a weakness for the Wisconsin Cental, the Montana Rail Link, and the DM&E resulting ina greater prsenece than I should have realistically.  I try to keep my non-interchange foreign rolling stock at less than 10% of my collection.  Union Pacific equipment represents around 25% of my collection. BN(SF) represents around 15%.

(BN(SF) means Burlinton Northern, Santa Fe, and the combined BNSF.  Both railroads served my home town in Tulsa and I was accustomed to seeing them together even before they merged.  It was a sad day for me when the warbonnet and the cascade green and black fell to the great pumpkin.  Now the BNSF has taken up the colors of the in state rival of my university making it really hard to accept the merger. I may have to model the present day with ATSF SD70ACEs in the blue and yellow warbonnet and BN SD70ACEs in white face.) 

[orsonroy]

As most of us determine a railroad to model, and are prone to picking up rolling stock we like, I made a roster of my rolling stock to see the relation of roadnames, to prototypically transported cars of my chosen railroad to model. In my case Southern Pacific:

Of 98 cars I own, the top three are as follows:

1. SP (30)

2. SSW (9)

3. SOO (7)

Less than 50% of my rolling stock make up the top three. The frequency of these road names in a prototypical SP train in the 80's, ranks about 90%. The remaining cars (of other likely roads, private, and leased), rank about 98% prototypical.

What is the railroad you model, your top three roadnames in your collection, and what do you feel is the prototypically correct percentage in your train? (if applicable)

Trying to replicate reality on a model RR car roster is tricky. To be believable, you don't want to load up too much on one or two roadnames, but you don't want to include too many oddballs either. Those with large rosters 200+ cars on a layout at any one time) have it easier than guys with small rosters, since larger rosters can use the national averages to their advantage.

Many proto-bases modelers look at the raw numbers of cars out on the road, and use it as a guide. Here's an example: if you've got room for 100 boxcars on your roster, and are trying to recreate what a period roster would look like, you should look at the national car fleet by region, and then by overall size of the fleets. Some roads completely dominated the country: in 1950, the Pennsy owned 93,019 freight cars, when the average roster was less than 12,000 cars. The Pennsy had 65,645 boxcars alone! So it's obvious that any modeler working on the 1930s through 1968 should have a few PRR cars. Likewise with the roads with the top ten car fleets, which included the NYC, SP, UP, ATSF, C&O, B&O, N&W, IC and L&N (I'm not including the two giant Canadian roads here. While they ranked 4 & 5 in the North American fleets, their cars weren't as common south of the border). OK, so you should have a few cars from the big boys. Now what? A few from your home road, of course, but how many? Realistically, not all that many. Boxcars roamed all over the country, and they made more money off home rails than on. So it paid to have your cars someplace else. You shouldn't have any more than 20% of your cars from your own road, and most should be "other than boxcar". OK, the big guys and the home road are represented. Now go through each region (the ORER broke down the AAR regions), and pick a few cars from each. Concentrate on the big guys, but have room for at least one or two "oddballs" from each region. If you're modeling the South, you'll obviously want a lot of cars from the Southern, ACL, SAL, and N&W, but keep room for the RF&P, Georgia, and Tidewater and Tompah.

Of course, this is only a rough guide. Reality varied from train to train. One train might be nothing but SFRD reefers, while the next might include a long cut of plywood from the GN, or pulpwood from the GM&O. Another way of figuring out your rosters would be to gather a large number of train photos from what you're modeling, and start counting cars. Make sure that you don't overrepresent some types, so gather a LOT of photos (40+ is good).

Either way is a valid way to assemble a realistic-looking fleet of cars. Neither will be 100% accurate, so both are equally valid ways of guessing what your trains should look like. Personally, I mix the two systems. I make a baseline list based on the national and regional averages, and then adjust my fleet based on photos. I need fewer hoppers and more tanks on my line, so I skew the numbers based on that fact. Likewise, I do need a couple of odd cars like helium tanks (MTY heading east, loaded in Indiana, and full back west), so I make sure to add them to the fleet.

 

[Anonymous]

I model the New Haven in the late sixties, of my fleet I only have about 10% lettered for the home road. 10% are NYC, 7% are Pennsy, 4% EL, SP, and B&O. The rest are from interchanges and are from all over the U.S.

[nbrodar]

I model the Reading and Delware & Hudson in the mid 1970s.

Car Types:
Box Cars (all types) - 47
Coal Hoppers  - 35
Gonolas (all types) - 17
Cement Hoppers - 12

Road Names:
Reading - 17
Penn Lake System (my freelanced road) - 13
Delaware & Hudson - 12
The rest of the fleet is mostly Northeastern and Canadian roads.

The captive service cars - the coal and cement hoppers are almost entirely D&H, PLS, and RDG.  While the freer roaming box cars and gondolas are much more varied.

Nick

[prbharris]

In my case Southern Pacific:

Of 98 cars I own, the top three are as follows:

1. SP (30)

2. SSW (9)

3. SOO (7)

Less than 50% of my rolling stock make up the top three. The frequency of these road names in a prototypical SP train in the 80's, ranks about 90%. The remaining cars (of other likely roads, private, and leased), rank about 98% prototypical.

I too model the SP but earlier, from 1940-1970. I have not been going long and only have 200 freight cars but I have tried to stick to what I have seen from photos.

I have a number of consists - some complete consists like Beet Gons, Black Overnights, Silver Overnights and Trailers on Flat Cars are all just SP. But I have a number of other consists that are more mixed.

So my stats are:

PFE 13%

Private Reefers [like meat and fruit producers] 13%
- very mixed range as it is difficult over in the UK to know precisely where some companies are located - for example Kohrs and Prima Beers, Union Refrigerator, Seaboard Oils, Grand Union Food - but I like the liveries and most folks in the UK are not that knowledgable either! [If you can help please let me know]

PRR 5%
- I read that nearly 10% of all box cars were owned by Penn, so they must have been very widespread
Other RR [very mixed flags including Mid West and East coast lines] 3%

SSW 3%

NP 3%

REA 3%

leaving SP at 57% of which 22% are Overnights in the 3 liveries. 10% are Gons - but I want to increase these as my consist is too short at present.

I do not have many Cotton Belt - just 3%, as there is not a lot of evidence that they were abundant on the Coast line.

Happy modelling

Peter Harris

[conrail92]

I model Norfolk Southern, But most of my freight are BN and UP but i plan to buy some more NS stuff.


Another question " mtrails" where do you get your sig pictures from i see everyone has em but cant find em. 

[Ibflattop]

I model as of right now N&W,NKP and Wabash anywhere from the 50's-70's. You can find also the following roads thrown in to the consisits.

 Monon, Ann Arbor, DT&I, D&TSL, B&LE, P&LE, ACY, Virginian, Erie, EL, C&EI, LT.

 Also I am thinking of modleing my own Freelanced Railroad. It would follow  the Cloverleaf Trackage thats in NE Indiana and have connections with some of the other roads that you see on the board. 

 As of right now I have close to 650 Freight cars that consist of the following types

 40 ft. Boxes

 50 ft. Boxes

 2 Bay hoppers

 3 Bay Hoppers

50ft Gondolas

65ft Gondolas

 85ft High Cube Boxcars

 85 ft. Flatcars

 50ft. Flatcars

 54ft Covered Hoppers.

                                                    Kevin

[C&O Fan]

90% C&O

10% N&W

As most the trains that ran thru Thurmond were coal drags I got alittle carried away buying C&O coal hoppers

Amtrac's Cardinal Ran thru Thurmond at night but i don't own any of those.

[P & LE RR]

just starting out.. but p&le in the late 70's/early 80's.. we've only accumulated 8 cars thus far

p&le(5)
conrail [and predecessors] (2)
chessie [as b&o] (1)

we are trying to remain prototypical so we havent bought any rolling stock that wouldnt be feasible on the line.... yet ... i do like some of those aussie paint schemes (QR national) i saw in that new post from james saunders.. i dont think it would be prototypical but it would be neat to get a hold of one of those cars :)

[tstage]

I model the NYC in the 40s.  So I have a number of rolling stock lines that run behind my locomotives, with only a few that are actually NYC or their affiliates.  I like seeing the variety of road names and colors, since all sorts of products would have been shipped from west to east (and visavera).

Tom

[Tracklayer]

As most of us determine a railroad to model, and are prone to picking up rolling stock we like, I made a roster of my rolling stock to see the relation of roadnames, to prototypically transported cars of my chosen railroad to model. In my case Southern Pacific:

Of 98 cars I own, the top three are as follows:

1. SP (30)

2. SSW (9)

3. SOO (7)

Less than 50% of my rolling stock make up the top three. The frequency of these road names in a prototypical SP train in the 80's, ranks about 90%. The remaining cars (of other likely roads, private, and leased), rank about 98% prototypical.

What is the railroad you model, your top three roadnames in your collection, and what do you feel is the prototypically correct percentage in your train? (if applicable)

I model a number of roads, and mix the cars as best I can so that I don't have ten cars of the host road and only three cars of various other roads...

I'm a Southern Pacific fan myself, and remember it all very well from when I was a kid from the early 1970s to the mid 80s. In a typical consist around here at that time, you might see 30% SP stock but the rest was either Cotten Belt (SSW) or various other roads.

As for your other questions;

I don't model any one particular road, but if I did, it would be the Western Pacific. Otherwise I model Santa Fe, Union Pacific, Southern Pacific, Norfolk & Western and Rio Grande. My layout is versitile and can be changed around for the desired era in history including the 1930s, 50s, 70s and modern day.

Tracklayer

[mtrails]

As most of us determine a railroad to model, and are prone to picking up rolling stock we like, I made a roster of my rolling stock to see the relation of roadnames, to prototypically transported cars of my chosen railroad to model. In my case Southern Pacific:

Of 98 cars I own, the top three are as follows:

1. SP (30)

2. SSW (9)

3. SOO (7)

Less than 50% of my rolling stock make up the top three. The frequency of these road names in a prototypical SP train in the 80's, ranks about 90%. The remaining cars (of other likely roads, private, and leased), rank about 98% prototypical.

What is the railroad you model, your top three roadnames in your collection, and what do you feel is the prototypically correct percentage in your train? (if applicable)