Home road vs. foreign road cars for a layout?

[Texas Zepher]

Burlington Northern #24

Since the GN and NP are considered home roads(as well as the Q since the GN "owned" them), would I have to reconsider the freight car fleet difference 85 to 15 percent in favor of the home roads or is that too much?  with the 15% being dominated by neighbors UP, SP, and WP with the occasional eastern road car.

There are all the coast to coast loads that would have been in the mix.  NYC even had run through with the CB&Q.   Don't forget Milwalkee and Santa Fe, to a lesser extent also Rock Island,  Missouri Pacific, and Rio Grande that would have cars in the mix.

Does anybody have any input? From what I've garnered between my two SP&S books, the SP&S trains were often dominated by SP&S cars.

Well, pictures are your best source!  Hard to argue against that.  I've always wished people would have taken more pictures of the lowly freights back then.  I have videos of the locos coming by, then as the freight cars start coming they cut to the caboose.  sigh.

[ndbprr]

A railroad that generates the traffic wants to use its cars to maximize the revenue. It also wants to maximize revenue by keeping the car on its rails for as much of the mileage as possible. The one exception is pool cars in dedicated service like auto parts that have racks for things like body parts and can't be used for anything else.

[angelob6660]

Here's my percentage of freight cars on my layout running a 18-20 car train. The railroad varies by UP, BNSF, CR, when in operation.

9-10 home cars, 5-6 private lines/leasing co. and 4 competitor cars.

You could use this ratio if you want too if you can't decide.

[dehusman]

The mix is highly dependent on road, era and location. 

The generic answer  for steam era general freight operations is usually something along the lines of :

1/2 home, 1/4 interchange roads, 1/4 other.

Or

1/3 home, 1/3 interchange roads, 1/3 other.

I have researched the roads represented on a 1910 era midwestern road and those generally match.

The more open top equipment is involved, the more home road equipment is used.  The more tank cars used, the more private equipment.  If you are modeling the N&W in the coal mining regions you will mostly see home road hoppers. 

For a modern road it is more like 1/2 private, 1/4 home and 1/4 other. 

[jrbernier]

  The SP&S was a 'thief' in that they were many times short on cars.  The owners(GN/NP) usually provided older equipment that they had replaced, or when they did allow them to order new cars - the numbers were small.  One of the problems for railroads operating in the NW was car supply.  Good  cars that were suited for lumber loading often moved around in lumber diversion circles in the Midwest, waiting for a high bidder for the lumber.  Some of the shipper specified routings were quite challenging.  The net result was that the lumber car did not return as fast as a normal car.

  I am looking  at a Jan 1951 ORER right now.  The SP&S only owned 1774 box cars, 149 flat cars, and 100 gondolas(and a handfull of tank cars in 'company service').  Grabbing 'perspective empties' and loading them back via thier arriving service route is normal operation.

  Modeling the SP&S - you may need to change the usual balance of freight cars seen on a layout.  The usual 'mix' is 50% home road, 25% direct connections, and 25% distant railroads or private owner(like reefer cars or tank cars).  I would suspect the the SP&S would be heavy in cars that support forest products, and a high % of  those direct connections would be GN/NP cars.

  On my Milwaukee Road  'Pecatonica Div' layout, I have a higher % of open hoppers(zinc mine tailings) and covered hoppers(zinc loading).  I have no use for the small ore cars, even though the Milwaukee Road was deep into Lake Michigan iron ore mining.  I have lots of 40' Box Cars - they were everywhere in rural agricultural areas.  This 'mix' of freight car types and roaded really depends on the traffic you layout will be supporting.

Jim

 

[wojosa31]

if I understand your question correctly, you are trying to determine the ratio of home road ownership freight cars operating on the prototype road (SP&S), vs. foreign ownership, and private ownership (NATX, GATX, UTLX etc).

That is a somewhat difficult question, as it varied day to day. and even though SP&S was a subsidy of the GN and NP, cars from those roads, would be considered as foreign ownership, for accounting and reporting purposes.

I model a branchline of the PRR, in the mid - late 1960s. Most cars are foreign ownership, New England/Canadian  roads serving the paper industry; Southern and Western ownership serving the lumber industry, private ownership serving the flour and oil industry, Home and connecting carrier coal hoppers serving a power plant. The only other home road ownership cars are gondolas and flats serving the local scrap and steel industry.  So my ratio would be approximately 65% foreign and private ownership, and the balance home road. Home road cars would be about 60% flat and gond, and 40% coal. mix on other lines varied depending on traffic mix.

By car type on my layout, Box cars would be mostly foreign, Tank cars and covered hoppers, private ownership, flats and gondolas mostly home road, and coal hoppers about 60% home, 40% B&O (foreign).

Your experience will be different, based on the SP&S traffic mix, but it would break down similarly.

 

Joe

 

[Heartland Division CB&Q]

I'm not sure how to answer. Part of the answer would pertain to whatever industries you might have on the layout. The originating cars would be mostly the home road (SP&S), and the terminating cars woul be mostly cars of the railroads serving the originating industries. Also, it would make sense if the SP&S, GN, NP, and CB&Q pooled some oftheir freight cars. That said, it's your railroad, and you can probably think of reasons why certain cars are on your trains.

[Burlington Northern #24]

I'd like to revisit an article published in one fo the recent MR's about how to realistically model a car fleet. I believe Jim said 50/50 home vs away cars, If I'm remembering correctly. 

The thing that has caused me to revisitthis topic is that I recently picked up the SP&S guide to freight and pasenger cars in color. In the book it states that the SP&S was known as a car thief so it could meet it's revenue needs, it also states that the parent roads also didn't want the SP&S to have a very big car fleet so that they could meet their own revenue needs.

This has caused me to look over my small fleet which is currently dominated by SP&S cars, with 3 GN cars, 3 NP cars, and 1 Q cars at this current time for freight cars. while my SP&S car fleet consists of 12 freight cars and 5 cabeese.

Since the GN and NP are considered home roads(as well as the Q since the GN "owned" them), would I have to reconsider the freight car fleet difference 85 to 15 percent in favor of the home roads or is that too much?  with the 15% being dominated by neighbors UP, SP, and WP with the occasional eastern road car.

Does anybody have any input? From what I've garnered between my two SP&S books, the SP&S trains were often dominated by SP&S cars.