Big US freight yard, c. 1976

[CraigZ]

Link here cribbed from a freight car mailing list - it's a nice black and white aerial series of photos of the Southern Railway's Inman Yard and adjacent L&N mainline and Tilford Yard, circa mid-1976, with a yard stuffed full of freight cars: http://tinyurl.com/4qsjks7 Click on each photo and download the hi resolution .tif files for a great look at mid 1970s US rolling stock...

 

 

[Pete Piszczek]

That's sweet!

[Jon Grant 4472]

 

jon

[Willy]

Thank you Craig, those photos are certainly worth a closer look.

 

Willy

[Andrew Peters]

Cool link that place is mega and great reference pictures

[Pete Piszczek]

Had another look at these this morning-

 

What I always find interesting about these sorts of aerial shots is the freight car weathering.

 

The weathering looks light or almost non-existent on a lot of cars; What you see is mostly just the lower contrast, overall lightening that occurs from shooting from a distance.

 

When working from a close-up photo, and weathering, the result can often be too strong when viewed from similar distance to that in the linked photos. A light touch is often a better approach.

 

Of course, I model in HO/OO, and the linked photos above are obviously prototypes for N-Scale.

 

Of note too is the scarcity of running boards. A few still about, but they were getting scare by 1976...

 

 

 

[dave1905]

Looks like sand and aggregates are a big business, lots of small hoppers and covered hoppers.

[Barry Ten]

Excellent, thanks for that Craig.

[Barry Ten]

I notice some loaded auto-racks mixed in with boxcars. Would these have run in mixed trains? I've always assumed that they would have run in blocks.

[dave1905]

In the 1970's both intermodal and autos could be mixed in the regular freight train network. Auto trains weren't commonly segregated out in their own network until the late 1980's or 1990's.

[Barry Ten]

In the 1970's both intermodal and autos could be mixed in the regular freight train network. Auto trains weren't commonly segregated out in their own network until the late 1980's or 1990's.

 

Excellent. Now all I need is about a zillion little cars for my auto-racks... B)

[dave1905]

And even worse they are all open or partially enclosed cars so you can easily see all the vehicles.

 

Virtually all the intermodal cars would be piggybacks on 89 ft circus loading flatcars. Most containers would be containers on flatcars, not double stack.

[CraigZ]

Excellent. Now all I need is about a zillion little cars for my auto-racks... B)

 

And there's the rub of modeling 1970s auto racks...the load costs way more than the freight car itself, if you can even find the appropriate vehicle...

[Barry Ten]

And there's the rub of modeling 1970s auto racks...the load costs way more than the freight car itself, if you can even find the appropriate vehicle...

 

...stil, I guess they ran empty 50% of the time, right? Looks like mine will be; even if I could afford enough Classic Metal Works to fill all my racks, the weight would be prohibitive.

[dave1905]

Yes and in those days the tie down systems were unique to the different model cars so each auto rack had to be set up to carry a specific model car and it was difficult to move a car from one service to another. Similarly TOFC cars had hitches located at certain spots and could only handle certain length or combinations of length trailers.

[Pete Piszczek]

And there's the rub of modeling 1970s auto racks...the load costs way more than the freight car itself, if you can even find the appropriate vehicle...

 

Why deal with filling those pesky auto racks when you can Vert-A-Pac...