Heyy Everyone,
It always confuses me when i see peoples layouts, and they have boxcar after boxcar of the same roadname. too me, that is not realistic at all. a mixed freight train includes all different kinds of cars in all different road names. When was the last time you all saw a freight train with 50+ cars of the same roadname. No offence too anyone because modeling is all about what you want too see, but this is my opinion.
Thankyou again,
Keith
Running all boxcars of the same roadname is prototypical in certain circumstances (and/or era). However, I don't think it occurs nearly as much as a typical unit train (like a coal train).
In some cases all one road name can be prototypical...unit coal, grain or ore trains. Express reefer trains also tended to be solid roadnames.
However, it is more realistic to vary the roadnames in most trains.
Nick
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NSWRDivision80061 wrote: Heyy Everyone,It always confuses me when i see peoples layouts, and they have boxcar after boxcar of the same roadname. too me, that is not realistic at all. a mixed freight train includes all different kinds of cars in all different road names. When was the last time you all saw a freight train with 50+ cars of the same roadname. No offence too anyone because modeling is all about what you want too see, but this is my opinion.Thankyou again, Keith
I think few modelers run 50+ car trains, even N-scalers. That requires a large layout. Whether a train would realistically be entirely from on road would depend on circumstances. A branchline that receives freight entirely from shippers entirely on the home road could realistically have all the cars from one road. A mainline freight would be far more likely to have interchange traffic from other railroads so in that case, it probably wouldn't be realistic unless it was a unit train.
NSWRDivision80061 wrote: When was the last time you all saw a freight train with 50+ cars of the same roadname. Thankyou again, Keith
When was the last time you all saw a freight train with 50+ cars of the same roadname. Thankyou again,
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Simon Modelling CB&Q and Wabash See my slowly evolving layout on my picturetrail site http://www.picturetrail.com/simontrains and our videos at http://www.youtube.com/user/MrCrispybake?feature=mhum
I think it depends on the area/era. My 1950's era layout has at least 50% of the freight cars painted/lettered for the Milwaukee Road. And 50% of those cars are box cars. Most of the cars are oxide/box car red as well. If you are modeling an extra train in a grain rush, lots of 40' box cars would be in order(usually 'home road' cars if possible). So, that solid train of box cars may not be all that strange.
Jim
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
Not all railroads have connections to the "outside world". I model the White Pass and Yukon Route, a narrow gauge line that ran from the port of Skagway Alaska to the interior of Canada's Yukon Territory and has no connections with other railroads. While some might think that such a line would only run short freights, during the 60s and 70s, it was not unusual for the WP&YR to run 60 car trains using modern diesel locomotives.
Likewise the Alaska Railroad's only interchange with other railroads is via a rail barge connection to the lower 48. Prior to that all the cars on the ARR would be ARR cars.
However, this would be the exception rather than the rule.
In the book "How to Operate Your Model Railroad" Bruce Chubb provides some guidance to come up with a plausable mix of road names based on the railroad you model and the railroads your road interchanges with.
-George
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NSWRDivision80061 wrote: When was the last time you all saw a freight train with 50+ cars of the same roadname.
I think there is room for all make-ups of trains. Here in Canada, CP and CN trains have mixed road names in tow, but you will surely understand if I tell you that 30-60% of any one train will comprise CP or CN rolling stock. It is the nature of the beast.
With all of the prototype research (more like interested reading) that I have done over the past two years, with seeing what other modellers have installed, and in reading general discussions here, I decided early that my trains would be all mixed up. However......my PRR J1 is at this very moment sitting on a siding with 12 H2a hoppers of the N&W type, every one of them from B&O..cuz the price for two 6-packs from Outlet Direct was right.
(ducking, with worried look on his face)
I love the elegence of a unit train snaking along -yes... that is "elegence"!
I also like mixed up muddles with something of everything.
In between a block of cars in a mix up is good and a single odd shape or different livery in a unit train is great.
I like TRAINS!
Re: Boxcars,
I've seen 1940s photos of boxcar unit trains. Mostly 40 footers, they looked impressive. ( NYC, UP, and Pennsy)
By the 1970s, it was more common to see certain freight trains having groups of boxcars with the same road name. Auto parts and packaged lumber/forestry products could be seen here on the east coast back in the 1970s. Was really cool seeing trains with batches of Southern ("Gives a Green Light to Innovations") and bright yellow RailBox cars cruising by.
Today, with intermodals, unit grain, and unit mineral trains, long boxcar trains are not common. A reasonably close exception would be the TROPICANA JUICE train run by CSX from the Florida west coast to northern destinations. It's a solid train of mechanical and cryogenic reefers. Interestingly enough, once the cars reach their destination, they're returned in batches on southbound CSX freights.
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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.
See it just depends on you if you want to run 20 different roadnames on one train thats up to you. Thats whats nice about this hobby your free to do what you want not what Joe Blow wants. But if you go to someones layout and you see that they are running a more Prototypical
mix of cars you can bet they have proably done alot of reseach to find what the railroad they model really ran and to where.
Also starting in the mid 80's came the leasing boom, where some real railroads that only had said 5 miles of track, owned 500 50ft brightly colored boxcars and they where all over the place. This made it so the big railroads like BN, NS no longer had to own and repair all those cars themselfs.
Theres alot more to it then just running a train around in a oval, if you want there to be. Railroading is the most researched industry there is, there 1000's of books out on own the real railroads operate.
AntonioFP45,There are long boxcar trains left..I see 2-3 50-60 boxcar trains a day.These trains are 60 foot auto part boxcars.
I still see hundreds of boxcars in a weeks time to include those old yellow RailBox cars..
Fear not those old Southern boxcars are still proclaiming Southern "Gives a Green Light to Innovations"..I see them every day on the NS as well as NW,N&W cars.
I seen a full blooded SP gon the other day-NO UP shield! I even see some old D&TSL cover hoppers at least twice a month.
There is a lot of those old fallen flag cars left if one cares to spend time track side and observe the passing freight trains.
fargo wrote: 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.
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.
Others have mentioned a variety of possible reasons for an entire train to carry one road name - or even be made up of cars of a single design. Here's one you probably never considered.
Almost all of the cars on my layout have no visible indication of ownership. No, I'm not running the Undecorated and Plywood Pacific. My paint jobs are prototypical. When the railroad is a government monopoly and everybody knows it, there's no need to advertise that all the rolling stock belongs to the Japan National Railways.
Well, not quite all. About half the coal hoppers and a few other cars (not in interchange service) belong to the Tomikawa Valley Railway - and trains on the TTT are solid blocks of company-owned cars more often than not.
If you pick your prototype with care, it's easy to arrange for all the cars to belong to one company.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
BRAKIE wrote: AntonioFP45,There are long boxcar trains left..I see 2-3 50-60 boxcar trains a day.These trains are 60 foot auto part boxcars.I still see hundreds of boxcars in a weeks time to include those old yellow RailBox cars.. Fear not those old Southern boxcars are still proclaiming Southern "Gives a Green Light to Innovations"..I see them every day on the NS as well as NW,N&W cars. I seen a full blooded SP gon the other day-NO UP shield! I even see some old D&TSL cover hoppers at least twice a month.There is a lot of those old fallen flag cars left if one cares to spend time track side and observe the passing freight trains.
Thanks Brakie. It is good news that solid boxcar trains are not gone yet. But are the cars on the autoparts trains you're seeing just one road name or is it a variety of names?
I'm glad that those "Green Light" cars are still rolling around in service. Here in my neck of the woods, they and the RailBox cars were a dime-a-dozen 20 years back. Now I rarely ever see them.
Peace
AntonioFP45,Those 60 foot boxcars are lettered for NS CR (some with PRR),CSX(some with NYC) and some NW,Southern and few 50' foot RBOX..
This morning I saw my first BNSF 50' "swoosh" boxcar.
NO -- in real life freight they are not all the same . It's just some only want or collect a certain line and that's all they buy . No one can tell you they are and have seen any actual train on the tracks . That's what I used to love to do as a kid read all the different names on the cars . My grandfather lived very close to the freight yards and main tracks at Cumberland , Maryland and I'd run down everytime one would come down the tracks . Plus some were new looking and some old and battered . But I won't age or batter my diecast cars for love or money ...
Got caught by a CSX manefest this morning that had 22 Railbox cars in a row before there was a loaded flat, followed by more Railbox, then one NS box, then more Railbox. A few other car types sprinkled in at the front and rear.
There have been several articles, some recent, about the "proper" mix of roadnames for different eras.
It greatly varies but I would tend to go with a train having about 60% the same roadname and the rest others. On the other extreme, I don't want my train to look like a Tyco train set, where each car was of a different roadname.
There's lots of variations of course. At least in the past 25 years, most hopper and tank cars don't generally fall under a railroad name but an industry (i.e. ADM covered hoppers, etc). And let's not forget the abundance of TTX intermodal cars on the rails.
Of course if you do the modern era, the "same roadname" would mean pre-merger roads, like having SP, Rio Grande, MoPac and Cotton Belt cars on a UP train, or BN and ATSF cars on a BNSF train. I always take that into consideration.
And even if you do have "same roadname" consists, don't forget that most railroads have multiple schemes for their rolling stock. A UP freight would have both armour yellow and boxcar red boxcars, carrying all their slogans from "We Can Handle It" to "We Deliver" to "Building America."
I've seen it both ways. In 1964-66 I lived 100 ft. off the SF main line into Ft. Worth. I saw lots of SF box cars, but there were also others in there.
When I run my trains, I like to have 50% to 75% from the line of the engine and a mix of other roads.
For my grandkids I have a train of gondolas loaded with 2 or 3 dinosaures each.
The only times that I have seen 50+ Boxcars of the same roadname being moved in a solid train since 1980 was either to be scrapped or to be sent to another railroad under new ownership.
New Covered Hopper, Center Partition Flat Cars, and new Intermodal Cars will move in unit trains from the builder to the owner-operator railroad over other railroads.
Andrew
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