Freight Car Information

[z4driver]

Hi all

 

Just getting  into US railroads and starting to look at buying freight cars. I'm modelling modern era and was wondering if there is a website and/or a book which gives time periods when particular freight cars were used. I know that roof top walkways and high level brake wheels are not appropriate but looking on ebay and shop websites it's difficult to know whether a particular freight car would be seen on a current railroad.

 

Also which are the good makes of HO cars and which are the ones to avoid? As I'm aiming for a switching layout on a short line rather than a Class 1 railroad, I'd rather have a few good cars than a lot of not so good.

 

Cheers Lee

[Regularity]

25 minutes ago, z4driver said:

Also which are the good makes of HO cars and which are the ones to avoid? As I'm aiming for a switching layout on a short line rather than a Class 1 railroad, I'd rather have a few good cars than a lot of not so good.

Many shortlines are for a limited range of traffics, which is not as restrictive as it might sound as it then becomes a matter of type and road: you can have several hopper cars without any duplicates of road or design type.

You need to be more precise than "modern": and America is a big place, with some traffics confined to small areas, others nationwide. 

 

Have a read of this - sadly not updated for a long while: http://oscalewcor.blogspot.com/

Other than that, you need to cast around the web, read up on various areas, and look at the pictures. Try here: https://www.railpictures.net/

I don't model in HO so I can't speak to the issue of which makes.

[long island jack]

Modern as in now, you'll need 50'- 60' boxcars, 55'-62'covered hoppers, small 2 bay covered hoppers, large mill gondolas, flat cars, various size tank cars, modern freight cars are large which eat up space, these will give you some idea, as to makes depends on your budget any where from £18-40+

 

 

Edited December 9, 2019 by long island jack

[mdvle]

1 hour ago, long island jack said:

 

 

Anyone going to that thread, most/all of the email groups listed have moved from Yahoo to groups.io

[mdvle]

2 hours ago, z4driver said:

Just getting  into US railroads and starting to look at buying freight cars. I'm modelling modern era and was wondering if there is a website and/or a book which gives time periods when particular freight cars were used. I know that roof top walkways and high level brake wheels are not appropriate but looking on ebay and shop websites it's difficult to know whether a particular freight car would be seen on a current railroad.

 

The first question you need to decide is how far you want to go for prototype accuracy.  When first entering the hobby it can be easy to assume that a tank car is a tank car, a hopper is a hopper, etc when in fact the different designs are frequently for specific products.  Easy example, heavier products tend to have shorter car lengths.

 

So if you want to be really accurate, you need to decide what industries you want on your layout and then proceed to research what cars would have been used.

 

If you are more flexible, then you can be more generic and choose any car type that suits your industry.

 

Spend time on the photo sites and YouTube looking to see what cars are used for what industries to give yourself a broad idea.

 

If you want to be specific, then you can also start looking at the data on the sides of the car - somewhere there will normally be a date that will either be the build date or the date of rebuild/repainting - which can set a lower date bound for that car.

 

And if you really want a caboose, it may be justifiable.  While there are many around anymore some have been kept to act as a platform for a crew member to ride on if the train needs to make a long back up maneuver.

 

2 hours ago, z4driver said:

Also which are the good makes of HO cars and which are the ones to avoid? As I'm aiming for a switching layout on a short line rather than a Class 1 railroad, I'd rather have a few good cars than a lot of not so good.

 

It really depends,  The good news is that for the most part almost anything you buy will run well these days, and almost everything should have body mounted couplers.  Differences really come down to level of detail, or in some cases how accurate they (primarily an issue with older tooling, but can also be an issue with whether a given car ever had a certain paint scheme).

 

For highly detailed Tangent, Arrowhead, ScaleTrains (Rivet Counter), Rapido (except the container car), Athearn Genesis are likely the top, with the Athearn RTR generally not being that bad.  Exactrail unsure about but is at least reasonable.

 

[doctor quinn]

Check out Fallen Flags 

 

http://rr-fallenflags.org

 

and Railroad Picture Archives

 

http://rrpicturearchives.net/default.aspx

 

both sites have dated pictures of freight cars and they’re listed by car number.

 

Nick

 

 

[TrainzBrainz23]

3 hours ago, doctor quinn said:

Check out Fallen Flags 

 

http://rr-fallenflags.org

 

and Railroad Picture Archives

 

http://rrpicturearchives.net/default.aspx

 

both sites have dated pictures of freight cars and they’re listed by car number.

 

Nick

 

 

RR Picture Archives is a good one.

 

 

I run centerbeams, gondolas and boxcars on my modern papermill shortline.

[z4driver]

Thanks for all that info. I'll definitely be taking a good delve into those sites. Currently I'm reading the Lance Mindheim books and also found a few Youtuber's who are into switching layouts so more research to do

 

Lee

[Zunnan]

On ‎09‎/‎12‎/‎2019 at 18:31, mdvle said:

 

For highly detailed Tangent, Arrowhead, ScaleTrains (Rivet Counter), Rapido (except the container car), Athearn Genesis are likely the top, with the Athearn RTR generally not being that bad.  Exactrail unsure about but is at least reasonable.

 

 

Exactrail cars come in a range of specs, the Platinum models are right up there among the best. Their PS-2CD hoppers, and similar Magor and Evans variants are absolutely sublime. Some of the boxes and earlier tooled gondolas are a bit on the basic side, but even they compare with Ath Genesis. Another one to consider for good quality rolling stock is Intermountain, I've had several of their cars over the years, boxes, flats and hoppers, and have never been disappointed. Some of the Atlas Master cars are reasonable too, the ACF 89'4" flats scrub up well once you've dealt with the fresh moulded plastic trailer hitches and handbrake gubbins, but if TOFC is your poison the BLMA 89' J is a VERY tasty model.

[Graham Heather]

http://dgcasdor.ipower.com/dgcasdorph/id5.html

For those that are interested in their freight cars.

Fantastic site listing thousands of freight cars by railroad or owner, is the new build tables.

Broken in to two groups, 1980 thru 2000 and 2001 to now.

Once you have the reporting mark, between websites like rrpicturearchives to check the paint scheme

and this one, you can check the validity of a given model.

Graham.