% of car types in the very late 1930's very early 1940's

[rrebell]

BRAKIE

Guys,There was still hundreds of reefer trains bringing fresh fruit and vegetables from the West coast and hundreds of reefers came from Chicago loaded with meats for the dining room table.

There had to be thousands of reefers roamimg the rails back then.

 

160,000 plus is not a small number, seems alot were owned by companys back then and not the railroads.

[ACY Tom]

Guys & Gals:

Rrebell is absolutely right.  I used the wrong numbers.  That's what happens when you try to do this stuff when you're tired. The last numbers incorporate private owner cars, which boosts the percentage for reefers and tank cars significantly. The corrected percentages for 1936 are:

Boxcars                                                 37.45%

Stock cars                                               3.51%

Refrigerator cars                                      7.37%

Flatcars                                                   3.92%

Hoppers & Gondolas (i.e., coal & other)    37.21%

Tank cars                                                7.17%

Other                                                      3.37%

As pointed out, hoppers were used for many other commodities other than coal, including various ores and types of stone.  In addition, gondolas were sometimes used for coal in addition to the uses we associate with them today. Some coal customers did not have facilities to use self-clearing hoppers, and resorted to unloading gondolas with camshells and labor intensive hand shoveling. The widespread use of gondolas for coal haulage in the West has been mentioned. The development of open-top cars is very interesting.  Back in the 19th century, coal and similar commodities were usually hauled in gondolas, and many roads such as PRR and Philadelphia & Reading used the letter designation G for them. Eventually some gondolas featured floor hatches or side doors to facilitate unloading. By 1900, the self-clearing hopper had been introduced, but PRR continued to use the G designation until about 1909. This accounts for PRR's numerous GL class twin hoppers. In 1909, the PRR introduced hopper cars with an H designation to differentiate them from gondolas, although some gondolas were still being built with floor hatches.

I apologize for any confusion caused by my earlier erroneous post, and I appreciate Rrebell's pointing out the error.

Tom

(edit:  Also, thanks to CX500, below)

 

[cx500]

Yes there were thousands of reefers, over 160,000 of them according to the figures posted earlier.  And it is quite possible they would be visually even more visible since the perishable nature of their lading usually meant expedited handling.  That translates into faster cycle time than the lowly boxcar.

I reworked the percentage figures to reflect the actual totals for each category (including the privately owned).  The two that changed most were the reefers and tank car fleets, reflecting the high percentage of privately owned cars.  I am not sure whether the big PFE and SFRD fleets counted as railroad or privately owned, although it is inconsequential to the overall figure.  I rounded the percentages.

I did find the relatively low representation of flatcars unexpected, but upon reflection realized they in fact were not very prominent in photographs I have seen from the era.  It illustrates the danger of preconceived assumptions.

Boxcars                                  37.5%  (43.53%)

Stock cars                                3.5%    (3.67%)

Refrigerator                              7.5%    (1.43%)

Flat car                                     4%       (4.47%)

Gondola & Hopper (i.e., coal)     37%    (42.51%)

Tank car                                    7%        (.50%)

Other                                        3%      (3.91% )

[rrebell]

Thanks for the math help guys, like I said, math and me don't get along. This all helps me fiqure out what I want to do.

[BRAKIE]

As far as flat cars railroads learn early that a gon was a better choice for most open loads since the ends would stop the load if it shifted during transit.

Even today you see far more open loads in gons instead on flatcars.

[twhite]

Pacific Fruit Express was the largest refrigerator car leasing company in the world. Though jointly owned by Union and Southern Pacific railroads--with the Western Pacific as a partner until 1967--, it was operated as a private company. However, the SP and UP logos on the cars gave the impression that the cars belonged to the railroads instead of the leasing company. During the California produce season, usually early spring to mid October, solid blocks of refrigerator trains on the SP_UP "Overland Route" constituted almost a quarter of the total eastbound freight revenue. The reefer was to these western railroads what the hopper car was to N&W or C&O bsck east. Tom

[rrebell]

Own about 8 of those in HO scale.

[BRAKIE]

Both the N&W and C&O handled as much freight as coal and both handle long blocks of PFE and FGE reefers loaded with fresh fruit from the West.  Reefers was used to haul meats and fish as well as cheese. Some reefers was loaded with frozen TV dinners bound for a grocery distributor.