Changes in train consists over the decades

[Anonymous]

My husband and I have been watching quite a few videos lately of trains in our era of interest, the 40s and 50s. Last night we got 'stuck' at a RR crossing, first car in the line. Of course we took the opporunity to enjoy some train watching, and comparing the consist of today to the consists of yesteryear. Our local branchline RR, The P &W, was operating a train pulled by 4 older GPs, probably GP35s...In some respects, these are almost museum items, [ but we could argue that the nearby Tillamook Bay GP9s are closer to that mark ]. They were followed by somewhere between 80 and 90 cars. We noted that there was only one reefer car in the consist, and only 3 boxcars. The remainder were tank cars, covered hoppers, and bulkhead flats designed for bulk lumber products. It was interesting to note that in the 40s, the vintage films and photos from books reveal the vast majority of the general purpose cars were boxcars, that carried almost all the goods of America, both locally and over distance. Today, trucks handle most regional goods shipping, and containers carry the goods over long distances, often intermodally.with ship, train and trucking involved. Taking a trip across town to the mainline RR we see miles and miles of containers passing through.  Our local branchline serves medium sized manufacturing and wood products processing in the Willamette Valley of Oregon on tracks once owned by the fallen flag, Southern Pacific. Reflecting the changing times, and the industries served, the train consisted moslty of huge commodity shipments inbound and outbound. It seems the day of the basic boxcar carrying small goods has long passed into a minority position.  No matter where we railfan, we hardly ever see a gondola car in revenue service, also once a common sight, and I havent seen a stock car in anything but a museum.

Aside from the demise of steam in favor of internal combustion/electric who would have guessed 50 years ago how the face of railroading was to change,  Today we have virtually no passenger service, and completely new classes of freight cars, unimagined in the 1940s. The idea of carrying a trailer van on a flatcar, a trailer usually pulled by a truck, was new, and the modern container, let along the unit trains to carry them, was yet to be conceived.   in the 40s, new automobiles were carried in boxcars with interior fittings to elevate one car above another,... later they were carried on open multi deck flatcars, and today on nearly enclosed multideck cars, in a way reflecting the protective enclosure of the 40s boxcar, but with easier loading and higher capacity, ...again a car that was not yet imagined of in the 40s.  In building a model railroad, one has to look beyond the aesthetics of the equipment and the period in general, and look at how rail traffic is generated, switched and sorted, and sent along the main.  The small town with a dozen sidings and a small yard is largely history...just the kind of trackage that lends itself to modeling and operation....GONE..and almost forgotten. Today, the big tonnage is containers and the associated huge port terminals, or huge shipments of liquids, powders and granulated solids mostly associated with large industry and commodity agricultural goods like grains and corn syrup. Todays industries and points of origin/destination are 'hard' to reperesent with a small building at a short siding on a model RR .  I like watching and ocassionally even riding  [Amtrak] the modern trains, but for modeling and operation, give me the railroads of my childhood, or the narrow gauge lines of an even earlier era.  Of course, for those who like to run trains through the scenery and not bother with much operating/switching, ANY era, including the present, is easy and with modern equipment, quite colorful.

 

Just an observation to ponder...... 

Cheers! Jennifer. 

By the way, I'm re registered here after an absense of about 16 months....Mike and I are still 2 rail  O scalers, but now with a much larger model roster, and still no completed trackage to run 'em on. 

 

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

I can remember the changes in car types and operation through the 60's on up to the present. Boxcars are still widely used in my part of the country, though they make up only 20-25% of the train. I see a lot of tank cars, all different sizes. Also a lot of gondolas. They use them here for transporting gravel, coal. scrap metal and sometimes steel slabs. Most of what I see are Gunderson well cars and trailer-train flats with trailers and containersm also many flatcars od different types. Many are used to transport slab steel while others carry lumber products, pulp wood and vehicles (military). Very, very rarely, I'll see a caboose, though that happens only once in a couple or three years.

[tomikawaTT]

Very astute observations!

I, too, have had then versus now brought home to me rather acutely.  In 1964, my chosen prototype ran a lot of very small equipment, mostly house cars but also drop-side gons and small hoppers.  Googling for some modern photos gave me solid trains of tanks and non-standard Japanese domestic-use containers, all cars three times the length of the old stuff.  Sort of makes me feel like a fossil!

BUT - just as ship modelers still build sailing ships and (working) battleships, I suspect that model railroaders yet unborn will model loose-car operations just for the fun of it.  As long as John Armstrong's books keep getting updated and reissued, the information and incentive will be there.

Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)

[jbinkley60]

Yes, modern era boxcars are generally 60' or 85' hi cubes.  I model modern era and stick primarily with 50' and 60' high cubes but I have more 60' TTX flats with loads (thank you Athearn) and intermodal units.  I am just so thankful that they haven't standardized on 60' or 85' hopper cars.  I'd have to speak to my wife about a larger house to have a layout big enough to run 85' cars.  A string of 50' hoppers behind a set of Dash 8 or 9's can still be done on a reasonably sized layout.

 

[jecorbett]

Very much my observations on a cross country Amtrak trip this past summer. Since we stayed on the main trunk lines the whole way, there was probably even less variety than what you saw on your branch line. Virtually everything was unit trains of one type or the other. Tank cars, covered hoppers, container flats, etc. Very few box cars. This is one reason why I choose to model in the 1950s. Much more variety in the rolling stock and the types of trains. Service to small customers who might only take a few cars a week. LCL boxcar shipments. Modern railroading makes sense from a business standpoint but it sure makes things less interesting from a modeling standpoint, at least to me. I don't mean to sound critical of those who choose to model modern railroading. We all have different things that appeal to us. For me, it's the transition era with the variety of locos and rolling stock and passenger train operations.

[Dave-the-Train]

You think you've seen a change?  we've gone from 16 - 20 ton opens to 100 ton hoppers in fixed rakes.

But they are all trains!

[joseph2]

During World War 2 we had to ship crude oil in tank cars because the Germans were sinking our tanker ships on the East coast. Remember there used to be unit trains of livestock also.    Joe

[obermeyern]

What would the car mixture percentage be in 1979?  I model a granger feeder line.  I would think the vast majoirty for me would be covered hoppers for grain and then misc. for other uses.  My prototype by the way is the Mopac in Northern Kansas. 

[Metro Red Line]

Intercity rail travel has been massively reduced since the '50s, but regional commuter rail service has boomed in nearly every metro area for the past two decades. What was once only limited to NYC, Chicago, Philly, Boston and SF is now seen in many cities and their suburbs. Terminals like Los Angeles' Union Station, a virtually empty place 15 years ago, are now bustling with passengers daily because of commuter traffic.
And since most commuter lines share ROWs with freight trains, it's worth it to model them. Athearn knew this when they released their Bombardier coaches and F59PHIs in HO and N scale painted in various commuter line roadnames.

Metrolink (Los Angeles)

 

Trinity Railway Express (Dallas/Ft. Worth) 

 

[NS2591]

I'm going to Disagree with you Jennifer, I see hundereds of boxcars everytime I railfan. Refers not so much, But I also see lots of gondolas. And if you get down around Gary Ind. You'll see lots of Flat cars and Gondolas. Most of the Boxcars I see are 60' and up. I do see alot of Tank cars and Alot of Covered Hoppers, becuase I live in the Midwest, and Also by a RR that serves a Dow Chemical. But Around here Boxcars and Covered Hoppers are the Majority.

[Anonymous]

There is nothing to disagree about. It seems pretty clear that different regions are seeing different distributions of car types, reflecting the needs of the local / regional industrial customers.  As little as 15 years ago I used to see a lot more boxcars on the branchline near our home then in recent times.   If we go across town to the UP and BNSF, we see more of them as they pass through on their way to where ever, but  the big thing out  here in Portland on the mainlines are the container trains, by far the largest single rail car type. Gunderson [who builds rail cars] is in Portland OR, and once in a while we drive by the RR yard they are located near. We can see their outgoing tracks from some of the side streets.....those container unit-trains they make are BIG part of production.  Even though we mostly model in the 40s and 50s, and a little bit into the 60s, we have some modern cars in our collection. Atlas O makes some nice 5 unit container stack units...Mike has been thinking about collecting one, sort of a nice contrast to our other stuff. They are visually quite interesting. 

 

Cheers to all! 

[BRAKIE]

First the 50 foot box car is far from being dead I see hundreds in a weeks time by being time side or looking out my kitchen window.As far as reefer there are modern reefers operated by several railroads and Cryo Trans.

As far as "modern" railroads they are STILL in the every day railroad business to include local freights,operating urban industrial branch lines and the standard branch line.In fact todays railroads are stronger then the past years like the 60,70 and the early 80s when railroads was in fair to poor shape especially those that served the "rust belt" areas where steel mills and heavy manufacturing cease.Recall several of the Mid West and East coast railroads was operating in the red and on Government bail outs.Recall during these years we saw the demise of the Rock Island and The Milwaukee Road as well as the formation of Conrail that saved several  East Coast railroads from certain doom.

While today's railroads are "leaner" then those of the so called "glory years" they are still a mover of freight and can put on quite a track side show.