tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6866440360591370825.post3199650229229165385..comments2024-02-02T03:23:11.768-05:00Comments on Randy's Layout Blog: 36' Double Sheathed Box CarsRandyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08691379750144833461noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6866440360591370825.post-51310686488628036822014-07-29T08:09:37.587-04:002014-07-29T08:09:37.587-04:00Hmmmmm. How is it that a number of us over the pas...Hmmmmm. How is it that a number of us over the past year have independently stumbled onto the importance of double sheathed cars of the 36 ft. length? In my case part of it was from concluding that their use makes a train "look" longer because it may be a car or two longer but still be the same actual length as one with fewer 40 ft. cars.<br /><br /> Part of what led me to the 36 ft. cars was recognition of the fallacy in John Nehrich's and Jeff English's orignal conclusions about the percentage of each car type we should all have in our freight trains. The fallacy is that they provide a good starting point but one that probably fits very few roads. In modeling northern New England roads years of viewing good action photos, where good portions of a train are shown rather than only the locomotive, has taught me that the vast majority of through freights in the region were composed of roughly 80% house cars, mostly box cars but with blocks of reefers as well, at least in the late 1940's period I am interested in. The same seems to be true on New Haven lines. I suspect the reasons for this are due to the way products were handled. Coal, for example, came in a few cars at a time with those cars being amongst the other 20% of the cars in each through freight. We must remember, however, that there were very few unit coal trains, if any, in New England in those years. Study has also shown that hoppers owned by New England roads did not stray far from their home road. Instead they were loaded at New England seaports with coal brought there by coastal steamers. This coal was being delivered to on line customers and, thus, interchange of such cars was very rare. Coal was also transfered from foreign road cars to home road cars to keep car costs down. The Rutland did much of this at their Alburg, VT yard. This tells me that one needs almost as many home road hoppers as they do foreign road cars for coal. Then, too, the make up of a local freight was usually very different from that of a through freight. In this case the mix of car types was usually higher, depending on the variety and number of customers each local freight might serve.<br /><br /> Look at the commodidties that we received in New England in house cars. Anything that was bagged instead of shipped in a covered hopper as many things are today, even bulk grain for feed mixing plants, came in box cars in those years. Cement was about the only product carried in the region in any quantity in covered hoppers so we don't need many of them in that era. Tank cars should be more important than covered hoppers for that time frame. Our food products came in meat reefers, again 36 ft. cars, and regular 40 ft. reefers. The latter could and did go out with loads of New England products as well, especially potatoes from Maine. And many of the large numbers of boxcars that arrived loaded headed toward home as empties. This was a chronic issue with New England roads as the higher value goods produced from the raw materials that arrived in many of these boxcars took up far less space to be shipped out in. The big exception to this was paper, an important and large commodity originating on all roads in northern New England except the litte Rutland. These are just some of the factors those modeling New England roads need to consider when determining their freight car fleet needs.<br /><br />Don ValentineAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com