Good day,

I finally took the time to inventory my large scale equipment collection; rolling stock and engines. The next thing is to better understand how I’ll use them on the layout…(other than the obvious "place wheels on rails, hook up to engine, push go…)

I don’t mean to sound elementary, and I apologize if this is boring for most, but I am positive that some will help me out with this. What I’m wanting to get a better handle on is with the different types of cars that I have for the railroad, in a turn of the century small towns shortline railroad, what would these cars be utilized for?

Passenger coaches and combines I get. Passengers and mail, maybe some very small freight if need be. The rest I’d like to type out what I think, and hopefully some of you will educate me on what other uses these cars would have had.

Wooden box cars: I’m sure for just about any type of freight during the era…goods from stores, non perishable foods, grains, furniture…maybe even double as lumber cars if necessary?

Wood Reefers: Cold storage, perishable veggies, fruits maybe? Would the early 1900’s have milk and cheeses delivered via rail? Salted meats? processed meats? Did they start processing meats this early?
Also, would an ice rack be necessary to load the reefers with ice prior to the train departing?

Wood gondolas: This one is a puzzle for me. What did gondola’s carry other than minerals? Coal? Bauxite? Did they start shipping sand in the early 1900’s? What other shipments would gondola’s hold? Any boxed freights? Any lumber?

Stock cars: Other than the obvious, would stock cars double as carriers for anything other than livestock? Would the normal progression be from a small town loading dock or stock pen, to a processing/meat packing plant, then to other towns restaurants and butchers? Would stock cars carry anything else when they weren’t being used to haul livestock?

Flat cars: Mainly for hauling lumber I would assume, but would they carry any heavy equipment for businesses? Any bulk freight that could be loaded onto them?

Tank cars: Were they in use much during this time period? Were they steel already? Did they start refining and shipping oil for burning or cooking this early, or was most of the small town heating done via coal and wood?

Reasoning for this is I’d like to settle on my industry selections so I can start researching buildings to put on the layout. My current ideas are as follows:

1. Meat processing
2. Lumber Mill / Sawmill
3. Coal storage in three towns
4. Manufacturing; furniture? wood stoves? bricks?
5. Graineries/Feed Mills; would these be in effect in smaller towns by this time period, or were farms and families still quite independant where grains were concerned?
6. Cotton Gin: Cotton was HUGE in Arkansas…
7. Brewery: Arkansas was NOT huge in brewing, but this is railroad owners license at work…LOL

Also, what other cars have I not mentioned that I might want to consider adding to the railroad??
So those who would not mind assisting a little and helping me learn more about the best ways and means to utilize my stock, I appreciate your insight, suggestions, advice, and comments.

btw; my current roster has the following:
4 B’mann stock cars
3 B’mann 20’ wood box cars
5 LGB 20’ wood box cars (these are European in look, if I can’t figure out something to use them for, might consider them milk/cheese cars for the first morning train each session?
4 B’mann 40’ wood box cars
3 B’mann Wood Gondolas
4 B’mann wood billboard reefers
2 B’mann passenger coaches
2 B’mann Combine cars
3 Aristo 40’ Steel box cars
2 Aristo steel drop end gondolas
1 B’mann Tank car
3 LGB short passenger cars
1 Aristo short flat car
2 USA 40’ Steel boxcars
5 or 6 cabooses, both bobbers and four axle center copula units

Main operation on the railroad will be the wood cars to go along with the steam engine/ turn of the century theme. The steel cars will run when I pull with the Aristocraft FA/B units…

Michael

Michael,

 I think basically, you have them all listed, for the turn of the century....  Now there are all types of cars, for different commodies, but back then, only a few types of cars were available and used....

Wood gondola’s would have also been used to haul ballast for the track… Some would have been drop bottoms and some side dumps…

Andy

Looks like you already have it figured out.

Boxcars will haul anything that fits in them, from machinery to grain to ore loads.

Reefers will haul anything perishable. They may even double as a plain boxcar if they have to, but they were mainly used for food.

Flat cars can also carry anything. But usually what won’t fit in a boxcar and didn’t need protection from the weather… Take a look on the interstate and see what flat bed trucks haul. Same difference. Any kind of machinery, bulk loads such as lumber, logs, steel beams, pipes, etc…

Tank cars can carry any kind of liquid, from petroleum to vegetable oil. But they were used for that one purpose only. Petroleum cars hauled Petroleum, water cars carried water, they didn’t mix them up. and they were in great use during that time period.

Stock cars tended to get very messy inside, so they were reserved for any kinds of live stock that needed transport. From a stockpen to market, from different grazing areas to other grazing areas.

Gondolas were used for ores, coal, ballast, anything loose that wasn’t affected by the weather. Valuable ores such as gold and silver ores were bagged up and placed in boxcars. They tended to be heavy so the cars weren’t filled up but usually piled the bags over the bolsters on each end of the car.

There wasn’t much else available at that time period. Logging railroads used all different kinds of log cars, Skeleton, disconnects, flat cars, etc…some also tended to build whatever they needed.

Stock cars also hauled bark or tanbark for making tanic acid used to cure hides. When they got real old the stock cars would also be used to haul hides to the tannery. Think rotting meat stuck to the inside of the hides. Now imagine the smell. Stock cars were also used to move livestock from lowlands to the upper ranges in the summer and back in the fall. Plus many cash crops like pumpkins and bails of hay or ears of corn.

Gondolas were the major source for hauling coal. This is before the dropped bottom hopper and it was shovled out by hand. As Ken said for ballast and many times that was from cinders from the engine ash pit. Once again shovled in and out by hand.

I think you might be underestimating the combine and the passenger car. The passenger car was the bus, streetcar, automobile and pickup all rolled into one. The combine was the trunk.

The combine was also the UPS truck and the delivery van, plus hearse. Carried many things besides baggage and mail. Remember all the train robbreies? The combine was also the armored car and it was not just for the stuff you ordered, but also for the stuff you were shipping.

Just a couple of additions…

Reefers: How about carpeting? A warehouse I worked at in my youth got most of its rugging via refrigerator cars. Besides being more weatherproof they were also much cleaner and less ragged inside. One interesting reefer that was in use around 1900 was the Hanrahan reefer. This car had four doors serving two separate compartments that were divided by the ice bunker that was in the center of the car.

Stock cars; were used for barrels, coal bags and many other bulk types of commodities that wouldn’t fall through the slats. Since stock cars were very seasonal for the most part there were always large numbers idle except during Fall and Spring stock rushes.

Boxcars; were widely used in the lumber industry, probably as much as flatcars. I’m talking about finished lumber and wooden boxes from the mill’s box factory. Wooden boxes were widely used even into the 1950’s in spite of the encroachment of cardboard boxes.

Gondolas; both wood and steel hauled a lot of scrap metal and pipe and came in lengths from around 40 feet to 70 feet for a mill gondola. They also were frequently used for logs when they had to be transported over a mainline railroad.

In the early 20th Century there were more specialized types of cars than you might imagine. Ventilated boxcars widely used in the south that could haul melons, etc., or be used as a regular boxcar. There were 50 or 60 foot high cube wooden boxcars used for hauling carriages which while light as a load were bulky and space consuming. There were poultry cars in which live chickens were transported with space inside for a caretaker to feed & water them. There were barrel cars that resembled a stock car except that they were usually larger, perhaps 50 feet or so. There were pickle cars that hauled pickled products (maybe even my ol’ Uncle) in vats of brine. There were also wine tank cars although I’m not sure when these came into use. They were much smaller than most other tank cars.

Since shortlines used mostly interchange rolling stock most any kind of car could appear on a shortline at one time or another. Narrow gauge was a bit more restricted since there was never the extensive interchange between narrow gauge as there was for standard gauge. Indeed most were isolated from one another so they had to use their own home road rolling stock. Interchange to the standard gauge required a transfer shed or similar where freight could be transferred from one gauge to the other. In rare occasions such as on the EBT standard gauge cars were hoisted up, trucks removed and narrow gauge trucks added to continue the trip.

Don’t forget the milk cars, and the express cars, especially the REA brand. Box cars used in grain service had boards across the doors, perhaps 7/8 of the way up to hold the grain in and to allow for filling. Those went out of favor in the late 40’s as purpose built covered hoppers came into service.

Bulkhead flatcars were found in use even then

Billboard reefers and even billboard boxcars were used a lot around the turn of the century. USAT makes some fine billboard reefers that work well in just about any scale.

Thanks for the replies gents. This will really help in planning the consists and industries on the PO’d line.

Believe it or not, the Florida East Coast RR used unused stock cars to ship boxed citrus fruit to new York & Chicago. They were cleaned out first. The open sides helped to keep the fruit cool as soon as the cars got north enough to cool down.

Small shortlines used all their cars for anything that would fit in them, with some exceptions, such as the tankers.
When I thumb thru my library of rr books, you can usually see a picture of a car with something in it that shouldn’t “normally” be.
So, Michael, it really doesn’t matter. If it fits in the car, load it up!