Do You Run Any Freight Cars That Have No Purpose

[cv_acr]

bluewavecaptain

I have a car ferry on my layout. So technically I can run almost any car type.

 

 

And where do the cars go once they come off the ferry?

[doctorwayne]

Track fiddler

This is my favorite two bay center flow hopper. I only have one, I'd like about six. They're very hard to find. I lost one to another bidder in an eBay auction last month.

That car looks very similar to the old Ramax covered hopper.  It was available, as far as I'm aware, only as an undecorated flat kit:  separate parts for the sides, ends, roof and underbody.  I had several of them when I was modelling a more modern era than I am now.  There are some photos (not mine) to be seen HERE

stokesda

This thread has inspired me to get one of those ScaleTrains carbon black covered hoppers...

This one, from Rail Shop, fits right into my layout's late '30s-era, although it may be too old-style for your needs....

Unfortunately, I couldn't find Columbian Carbon decals, so used those provided with the kit.

Wayne

 

[Doughless]

I'm now more interested in modeling the southeast than the midwest.  Grain hoppers are no longer really needed but I will run them anyway.  Its a switching layout so if there's no elevator or mill, they will have to be handled via staging. 

[stokesda]

BATMAN

 

 

stokesda

This thread has inspired me to get one of those ScaleTrains carbon black covered hoppers... If only they weren't all sold out! (d'oh!)

 

 

 

These ones?

https://www.pwrs.ca/product_search.php?f_Manufacturers%5B%5D=6502&f_ProductTypes=null&f_Keywords=hopper&f_HasSound=0&f_HasDCC=0&InStock=1  

 

 

 

Yup, them's it. I like the newer, smaller capacity ones better, looks like they only have one road name/number in stock of that type. I know they've been sold out at ST for a while now.

I think I'll pass, though. I need another "run through" freight car type like I need another hole in my head. I already have a bunch of crude oil tank cars (thank you, ScaleTrains!), woodchip gondolas, and well cars that don't have an industry home on my (present) layout!

[Track fiddler]

csxns

 

 

Track fiddler

grain hopper cars. Especially the two bay ones.

 

 

Don't think grain shippers ship grain in two bays.

 

 

I stand corrected. Makes sense to me csxns. Still my favorite Center flow Hopper car though.

Maybe that's why Lion was saying plastic pellets or sand. I'm speculating smaller hopper cars are for heavier loads, maybe comparable to 40 ton ore cars opposed to 70 ton coal cars?  I honestly don't know all there is to know about railroad prototypicality but I'm learning all the time. This is what makes this hobby fun.

My layout is based on a wilderness remote region due to the fact I grew up in that neck of the woods and like the scenery.  If these hopper cars are not just passing through maybe they're bringing sand to the area, stocking up for the roads in the winter.  I don't know if they had road salt in the transitional era. If they did, those hopper cars could bring that too.

Thanks for clarifying things,  I'm always willing to learn something new.   

TF

 

 

[BATMAN]

stokesda

This thread has inspired me to get one of those ScaleTrains carbon black covered hoppers... If only they weren't all sold out! (d'oh!)

These ones?

https://www.pwrs.ca/product_search.php?f_Manufacturers%5B%5D=6502&f_ProductTypes=null&f_Keywords=hopper&f_HasSound=0&f_HasDCC=0&InStock=1  

 

 

[bluewavecaptain]

I have a car ferry on my layout. So technically I can run almost any car type.

[csxns]

stokesda

caleTrains carbon black covered hoppers.

I have several and they are great looking.

[stokesda]

This thread has inspired me to get one of those ScaleTrains carbon black covered hoppers... If only they weren't all sold out! (d'oh!)

[cv_acr]

SeeYou190

Unless you model a whole division, isn't  everything "bridge traffic"? 

 

Not really - bridge traffic is by definition stuff that doesn't originate or terminate at any customer on the railroad but passes completely through end to end (or at least from one interchange point to another).

 

Even if you did model an entire division, or even an entire railroad, you could very well have a large volume of bridge traffic.

And if you model a tiny little stub-end branchline terminal with no in-town interchange with another railroad, then none of it is bridge traffic. All of it exists purely for industries on the branch.

[cv_acr]

Covered hoppers are actually fairly specialized cars. Built with different unloading appliances (plain gravity-dump hopper outlets, pneumatic outlets, air piping for pressurized unloading etc.) and to different sizes based on the weight/density of the cargoes. Small 2-bay hoppers are generally not used for grains as they'd be full (by volume) while still only at about half the weight limit of the car. Different types of grains are most often shipped in 3-bay cars. 2-bay cars like that are used for heavier commodities like cement, sand, salt, etc. Sugar is possible in smaller cars too, but they'd obviously be high-grade cars and you wouldn't mix them into loading other stuff. Flour and other finely-powdered commodities is generally shipped in pressure-unloading cars. Plastic pellets are lightweight and granular and generally shipped in larger capacity 3-4 bay cars with pneumatic outlets that allow the product to be sucked out of the car with vacuum hoses.

[SeeYou190]

Bayfield Transfer Railway

Is the concept of "bridge traffic" really that esoteric?  Most layouts I've operated on have a big chunk of it.

.

Unless you model a whole division, isn't  everything "bridge traffic"?

.

-Kevin

.

[Bayfield Transfer Railway]

Is the concept of "bridge traffic" really that esoteric?  Most layouts I've operated on have a big chunk of it.

 

[csxns]

Track fiddler

grain hopper cars. Especially the two bay ones.

Don't think grain shippers ship grain in two bays.

[MisterBeasley]

I have lots of cars that are just passing through.  Bulkhead flats and log cars come to mind immediately.

[kasskaboose]

Having freight cars passing through provides opportunities for interchanges and making the layout part of something larger.  I like the rationale of having "bridge traffic."  Those with yards can create various consists of such cars.  All of my cars have a purpose on the layout.

 

[Track fiddler]

mbinsewi

 

 

 

 

I'm building a fleet of those too,  HO scale

Good luck with your fleet.

Mike.

 

I'm glad you're doing HO scale and not N Mike. It would be a conflict of interest, you buying them out from under me on eBay

TF

[ATLANTIC CENTRAL]

mbinsewi

Sheldon, I can't for you to get started on your layout, as I'm going to be paying close attention, well at least as close as your progress reports permit.  Sounds like it's going to be quite a project.

For control, you have your own home spun DC, cab control like set up, right?

Mike.

 

Thanks for the interest. The track plan is coming along nicely and will be published in my thread on the subject as soon as it is ready. Work and family do keep me busy at times, but it should not be too much longer.

Yes, I run DC, with my own version of what is known as Advanced Cab Control.

It provides very versatile operation that is actually very much like DCC to the average operator running a train.

I use wireless radio throttles previously made by Aristo Craft.

Just to give you a little taste of what it is like, imagine someone hands you a throttle with only 5 buttons, they are FAST, SLOW, EAST, WEST, EMERGENCY STOP. Then they say "this is your train - just obey the yardmasters orders leaving the yard, and then obey the signals and the dispatcher on the mainline".

The yard master tells you that you are clear to leave the yard and enter the main.

Once on the mainline, you will see signals along the track, you will have to learn what they mean, but we don't use as many different aspects as the prototype, so it's not that hard.

You just control the speed and direction of your train, the dispatcher sets all the turnouts, you don't have to worry about track power, or "block" toggles, you just operate the loco.

The dispatcher and a bunch of relays do the rest, most of it in a truely "semi automatic" way.

If you run a red signal, no worries, we have Automatic Train Control, your train will go into emergency stop, and you will just be a little embarrassed. It will not move until the dispatcher clears the route...... 

Sheldon

[SeeYou190]

riogrande5761

Sir, you contradict yourself.  Isn't enjoyment a purpose?

.

Yes, the very-most-important puirpose of them all!

.

-Kevin

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[mbinsewi]

Track fiddler

This is my favorite two bay center flow hopper.

I'm building a fleet of those too,  HO scale, only I want plain, generic cars, in white or light tan.  I'll strip, paint and decal if nesseccary.

I want to use them for a unit train of refined frac sand, just to run through the layout.

Good luck with your fleet.

Mike.

[BroadwayLion]

Your hopper car could be carrying plastic pellets to a plastics factory, or they could be carrying flour or sugar to a local bakery. Barley might be going to a local brewer.

Of course an interchange track could have ANYTHING on it.

 

ROAR

[Silverliner266]

Jumijo

Non of my freight cars have any purpose, other than to amuse me as I watch them go by.

 

 

Hey that's what manifest frieghts are for. 

[Track fiddler]

Thanks for your comments on freight cars with no purpose. It appears I'm not alone. There are many indirect purposes I hadn't thought of. For amusement only, I like that one. Some very good points in the replies here.

This is my favorite two bay center flow hopper. I only have one, I'd like about six. They're very hard to find. I lost one to another bidder in an eBay auction last month.

Maybe the next train show if I'm lucky.   

Thanks  TF

[BroadwayLion]

Whale look. LION builds SUBWAY LAYOUT. There are hopper cars, flat cars, tank cars, both diesel and elsectic locomotives. There is no 'big hook' but we also have revenue cars (for money collection), trash trains, signal repair trains (called the signal dolly) there are all sorts of inspection machines, a pump train to evacuate water from tunnels, and finally THE SUPER SUCKER or vacuum train. We have snow removal equipment that consists of a real jet engine monted on a fuel tank!

talk about ROARING

EWE on da otter hand can move your grain cars across the railroad from an elevator that is off layout.

Here in Richardton ND, we sea coal trains going east and unit hoppers going west, we have grain trains going in both directions, some east to Minniapolis for domestic use and some west to Seattle for shipment to China. We have sand trains for the Frack-Sand transfer plant here in town, and our ethanol plant has empty tanks in and ethanol tanks out, they have corn hoppers in and Yeast hoppers out (not the same cars of course, unless they have been cleaned in between. The Ethanol plant used to be fired by coal, but they switched to gas which is far cheaper at the moment. They also have a long set of sidings, they switch back on themselves in a wide loop, because they could not buy the land further east, Here the store mostly empty ethanol tanks, but also some grain cars.

Yesterday I saw one of their locomotives out at the end of the loop. Looks like it is going bye bye. The DMVR railroad does locomotive inspections for many private owners up and down the BNSF line. Maybe this locomotive will go to their shops for a major repair.

Speaking of the DMVR, the have the only trains of COVERED COAL hoppers. They carry lignite from North Dakota to elsewhere, and that stuff is so dusty that wayside people complain. The tops of the cars lift on and off, and the cars can be dumpped  in a rotary dumper or from the bottom.

 

ROAR

[mbinsewi]

Sheldon, I can't for you to get started on your layout, as I'm going to be paying close attention, well at least as close as your progress reports permit.  Sounds like it's going to be quite a project.

For control, you have your own home spun DC, cab control like set up, right?

Mike.

[Eilif]

Jumijo

Non of my freight cars have any purpose, other than to amuse me as I watch them go by.

Roughly my point of view too for much of my collection.  I'm still building the layout but I've got my various industry kits purchsased and locations planned and yet I'm already buying and running cars that will not have any connection to those.  

 

Notable among these are my covered hoppers which don't have any related industries.  I already have dreams of someday expanding the layout laterally and possibly incorporating such but the reality is that I like them simply because they represent something I see every day and wanted to run around my layout.

[ATLANTIC CENTRAL]

mbinsewi

Right Larry, your ISL is one the end points, or very beginning points for the run through and bridge taffic that the rest us model.  Your that far away destination, that's off my layout.

No wonder your so busy!

Mike.

 

And my new layout will have three, ISL's "within" the bigger layout.

Nearly all of my industries are served by two belt lines, which can be worked without that crew ever taking their train out on the mainline and which connect directly to the main yard.

The third belt line will be a seperate waterfront layout that may be connected to the staging of the main layout for interchange.

I expect to only have one or two industries served along the mainline, and they will be served at places where a siding is available, so the local can get off the main to do most of its work.

It's a busy mainline, like the Northeast corridor once was. Here were I live, back in 1947, there was a regularly scheduled train on the PRR every 8 minutes.....

Sheldon

[riogrande5761]

SeeYou190

I run all kinds of cars that have no purpose. They are my toys and I enjoy them.

Sir, you contradict yourself.  Isn't enjoyment a purpose?

[SeeYou190]

Jumijo

None of my freight cars have any purpose, other than to amuse me as I watch them go by.

.

.

I run all kinds of cars that have no purpose. They are my toys and I enjoy them.

.

I have covered hoppers and TOFC cars, and no where to put them. Sometimes I will take them out of one train, then put them into another train just so they can sit in the yard.

.

If all this really bothers you... I have a nice work-around... the car float!

.

Anything can go onto the car float, so it can be a destination for all of your amusing and enjoyable freight cars.

.

-Kevin

.

[Jumijo]

Non of my freight cars have any purpose, other than to amuse me as I watch them go by.