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My around the wall model railroad [ca 250 sq ft] is mostly about freight operations.

 

Thought it would be interesting  calculate the distribution of freight cars that are used on the layout.

 

The resilts are:

Cabin cars/cabooses 8%

Box cars 20 %

Covered hoppers 5%

TOFC  10%

Flat cars  6%

Coal hoppers 22 1/2%

Gondolas 6%

Refrigeration  cars 14%

Tank cars 7 !/2 %

Stock cars 1%

 

Have you ever calculated what the distribution of freight cars is for your railroad?

May be interesting to see some comparisons.

 

Last edited by pennsyk4
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I too am mostly Freight on an 11' X 23' figure 8 with Wye's across the center for reversing.
A quick count:
Caboose     8.30%
Boxcars     12.5%
TOFC          0.83%
Flatcars       10%
Gondolas   12.5%
Reefers     13.3%
Tank cars    10%
Stockcars    5.0%
Crane cars    4.16%
Boom cars     4.16%
Rotary Snowplow 0.83%  (1)
Galloping geese   1.6%  (2)
Western Union Telegraph car   0.83%

Non Prototypical ?
Operating Missile Cars 2
Operating Gondolas (Dump) 2
Operating Gondolas (Chase) 1
Phantom and 4 pass cars
Coors Silver Bullet with 5 operating reefers (not included in above count)

Looks like I'm in need of some more Stock cars, and I need 3 or 4 more Tank cars for my planned operations.
These numbers do not include Christmas Layout consists.

Last edited by Russell
Originally Posted by Big_Boy_4005:

Sorry, I didn't mean to mess up your figures Charlie. While my railroad is going to focus primarily on freight (post 1970, like Andrew), there will be two Empire Builders per day. And the occasional fan trip behind Milwaukee Road 261.

Elliot

you did not mess up anything. Just added more data, which was great.

 

Thank you for your input.

Charlie, your post caused me to look at my freight car distribution, which I had never done before. Thanks for the idea!

 

Breakdown: (amongst K-Line, Lionel, Marx, MTH and Weaver)

 

Boxcars 26.3%

Cabooses 21.2 %

Reefers  16.7%

Hoppers 12.8%

Tanks   9.6%

Gons    8.3%

Miscellaneous  5.3%

Cranes / MOW  4.5%

Flats    4.5%

 

Conclusion: I really like boxcars and cabooses.

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