Prior to about 1990 the boxcar was pretty much the universal standard that could haul just about any solid. Thus utilization would have had to have been alot better than what it is for today's more specialized cars. A grain car can haul only grain.. an autorack can only haul cars.. a centerbeam is pretty much limited to lumber etc.. So the percentage of empty miles run must be up too. Is that correct, or does the efficiency of using specialized cars more than compensate for the higher empty miles? Likely it gets more complicated as specialized cars can't easily be repurposed.. i.e. if auto shipments are down and grain shipments are up the autoracks can't be used to haul grain etc.. whereas in the old boxcar days it was a simple matter of sending the boxcars from the autoplants to the grain elevators. Today.. the railroad would have to store the autoracks somewhere and lease or purchase grain cars... that has to be costly too.
Just using your example, boxcars are not nearly as suitable for assembled autos or grain as autoracks or covered hoppers respectively.
CSSHEGEWISCH Just using your example, boxcars are not nearly as suitable for assembled autos or grain as autoracks or covered hoppers respectively.
That's true.. but in a pinch a boxcar can be used for either or.. Not so much going the other way..
In these modern times, a far higher percentage of cars are privately owned compared to the 'classic' era. The car owners, not the railroads, control their routing and usage.
In the case of bulk products like grain, plastic pellets or the various liquids that are shipped in tank cars, the car must be thoroughly cleaned before a different commodity is loaded. As labour costs etc have risen over the years I suspect that the cost of cleaning a car is more than the rail rate to ship it back empty.
As boxcar usage has declined, intermodal containers and trailers have taken its place. I suspect backhauls for them are a bit easier to find.
There used to be specialized types of boxcars and individual cars were often assigned to specific services, not to mention the understandable desire to minimize demurrage/car hire costs, which often led to empties immediately being routed back to their 'home road' instead of waiting for a load. This issue ultimately resulted in the expansion of TTX into the massive railcar pool it is today.
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Good explanation.. thanks..
I believe that the trend towards specialized cars started well before the 90's. It's just that general commodities that used to be shipped by rail, aren't as much anymore. Stuff like packaged foodstuffs, paper, etc., goes by truck. Another thing to remember is that "empty" cars aren't always empty. A good example is autoparts cars. They may not have parts in them, but the empty racks have to go back to the manufacturing plant.
Remember (way-back-when) that consignees released boxcars back to the railroad as either clean or dirty, and the RR had stevedores to clean the dirty ones, even some of the not-so clean ones.
I would opine that most of the specialized cars gain their advantage in the loading and unloading of the product.
Look at what was involved in loading an automobile box car - and they often had special hardware. Grain in boxcars meant a grain door, and often having to shovel much of the load out.
Perhaps the cost of the unladen return trip is less than the labor once involved in loading and unloading.
And look at the discussions we've had on finding suitable loads for those return trips.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
Yes, the company in MI that has designed a container shipping system that uses autoracks.. good idea..
Ulrich CSSHEGEWISCH Just using your example, boxcars are not nearly as suitable for assembled autos or grain as autoracks or covered hoppers respectively. That's true.. but in a pinch a boxcar can be used for either or.. Not so much going the other way..
Not exactly...
Yes, grain (and many other things) was shipped bulk in boxcars, but at this point not really anyone has the facilities to load/unload that way anymore. And it was far more labour intensive for the loaders and unloaders. I'm not sure modern boxcars allow for "grain doors" to be nailed across door openings anymore. But if they did, sure, you can still load bulk products in boxcars.
As far as autos in boxcars, actually automobile boxcars WERE highly specialized cars for their time.
You didn't just put autos in any old boxcar. Auto boxcars needed to have extra large door openings, plus they had specialized internal loading racks. You can't see that from the outside, but that's a critical feature. And again, loading was far more time consuming and painful than driving into flatcar racks circus style.
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My Algoma Central Railway Modeling Blog
Backshop I believe that the trend towards specialized cars started well before the 90's. It's just that general commodities that used to be shipped by rail, aren't as much anymore. Stuff like packaged foodstuffs, paper, etc., goes by truck. Another thing to remember is that "empty" cars aren't always empty. A good example is autoparts cars. They may not have parts in them, but the empty racks have to go back to the manufacturing plant.
Absolutely. It goes back at least 50 years. Heck, as mentioned in my last post, even those automobile boxcars were specialized and that goes to the 40s and 50s.
Auto racks were developed in the early 1960s.
Covered hoppers in various flavours also became more common through the 1960s for various types of bulk commodities but they had been in use for decades for cement, bulk chemicals, etc.
The large 60' and 86' boxcars dedicate to large bulky auto parts and body panels were also were built in the 1960s.
Also through the 1960s in particular you really started to see lots of boxcars with specialized internal loading devices (strap anchors, belt rails, restraint bcars, bulkheads, etc.). While on some cars this would only be visible from stencil markings, those "waffle side" boxcars weren't just done to look pretty...
cv_acrAlso through the 1960s in particular you really started to see lots of boxcars with specialized internal loading devices (strap anchors, belt rails, restraint bcars, bulkheads, etc.). While on some cars this would only be visible from stencil markings, those "waffle side" boxcars weren't just done to look pretty...
This reminds me of the '50's when my dad left the MoPac after having been relocated multiple times and having two boys in school and not wanting to uproot them chose to quit. He became a traffic manager for a Company in Cincinnati. One of their products was bomb shells for the military. He was very proud of converting the company to the use of Evans Dunnage Free Box Cars. RR was happy with the reduction on O, S, & D. Dad did not have a masters.
This is an article by another company about them.
Another idea for loading autos on rail cars.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0nkf198XO0
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
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