Trains during WWII

Very common indeed!  Back in that era there was a whole lot of cooperative effort exerted in industry and transportation to keep things rolling.

Interchange is the name of the game. 

Almost any freight car could wind up far from "home" in the normal course of railroad commerce, war or no war.

Rusty

For a WWII theme, the only thing I would pay attention to is the type of car. One of my favorite eBay searches is "Composite". It reliably returns with WWII era rolling stock.

Gilly

During the winters of 1943/44 and 1944/45 the DM&IR leased some of its 2-8-8-4's to the D&RGW and NP.

Stuart

When building freight consists for your favorite road, it is fun to know what the mix of cars would have been in a particular train.

Overall, the US freight car fleet in 1948 had the following percentages:

36% Boxcars (mostly single-door 40-foot)

31% Hopper Cars

8% Tank Cars

7% Refrigerator Cars

7% Gondolas

3% Stock Cars

3% Flat Cars

3% Automobile Boxcars (mostly double-door 50-foot)

1% Covered Hoppers

1% Other

Some large adjustments must be made for different regions of the country. For example, most of the hoppers were on eastern lines like the PRR, N&W, VGN, B&O, C&O, LV, etc. Western roads had only about 10% of the hoppers during this railroading era. Let’s ignore seasonal shipments such as fruit, vegetables, and cattle and focus on typical railroad consists.

Now, what road names do you include in your consist? How many "home road" cars should there be? It depends a lot on the railroad. I have some information listed below from 1944 that details the percentages of the home road and other road cars that were mixed in with the following railroads:

Erie, Wabash, CNJ, ACL, Southern, Rock Island, SP, and MoPac ran a mix of 25-30% home and 70-75% others.

D&H, B&O, IC, C&NW, CB&Q, and UP ran a mix of 35-40% home and 60-65% others

.

PRR, Milwaukee Road, GN, NP, ATSF, and D&RGW ran a mix of 45-55% home and 45-55% others.

The champion is N&W, which ran 78% of its home road equipment. The runners up in second and third place are C&O and L&N with 68 and 66% home road freight cars respectively.

At the other end of the spectrum are NKP and B&M with 16 and 17% home road cars. Boston & Albany came in last with only 5 percent (although technically NYC cars should probably also be counted as home road).

About three-fourths of the "other" cars should be from roads that interchanged with your railroad. The right regional mix of cars can really make your train look realistic.

If you primarily model one railroad, like I do with PRR, then freight car purchases can be made with the above data in mind. You can limit what you buy to the cars that will "fit" your region of the country and the time frame for the railroad. You can buy less and yet have more fun.

Oh, by the way, in the steam era the Pennsylvania Railroad owned about 30% of the entire nationwide interchange fleet, so you cannot possibly go wrong with having some Pennsy on your roster (a shameless plug). B&O and C&O owned about another 35% of the nationwide interchange fleet, so they were widespread as well.

Now, just how long should that consist be? If there are grades on your railroad then the answer is, "Shorter than you think!" The C&O had to negotiate Cheviot Hill outside Cincinnati, which was at a 1.9-% grade westbound. C&O K-1, K-2, and K-3 Mikado’s, which were some of the heaviest 2-8-2s ever built, could each pull only 11 loaded 50-ton hoppers (these are the short 2-bay hoppers like those made by Weaver) up the grade. This required 50-car hopper trains to have five 2-8-2s, one or two on the lead, one or two cut in the middle, and two trailing pushers. These were not the only locomotives that labored as they pulled the steep grades common to the C&O railroad. Their mighty H6 2-6-6-2 articulated locomotives were only capable of pulling 16 to 17 loaded hoppers up the 2.5% grades common in the coal country of West Virginia. If you have 2% or 3% grades on your layout, then trains should not be very long unless they have multiple engines.

For diesel fans, most first-generation diesel units like the FT, F-3, FA, and RS-3, could only handle about two-thirds of the load of a typical 2-8-2 steamer. The FT diesels used by the Santa-Fe were rated at one loaded car per axle when traversing the Cajon Pass grade. This loading factor limited a FT ABBA set to hauling only 16-cars up its grade. Both steam and diesel motive power could handle about 3 or 4 times as many cars on level terrain as they could on a 2% grade.

If you are interested in replicating a prototypical consist on your layout, fewer cars in the train and less variety in road names can both be very realistic.

Source Bob Bartizek

--Greg

Thanks for the tip.

I also search on "outside braced."

Generally, steam locomotives had to be serviced every 100 to 150 miles. Running them on different railroads in pool service like modern diesels wasn't feasible. The Reading and Jersey Central pooled Pacifics on passenger trains between Jersey City Terminal, Reading and Harrisburg but not freight locomotives.

The Reading and the Western Maryland pooled 2-10-2's and 4-8-4's in freight service on the jointly-owned "Dutch Line" between Hagerstown and Lurgan. The Reading's Philadelphia, Harrisburg & Pittsburgh Branch extended to Rutherford Yard between Harrisburg and Hershey. But that doesn't qualify as long-distance pool service.

I wish the Western Maryland would have saved one of a huge Potomac 4-8-4. To me, they looked like a condensed version of a C&O Allegheny.

I model the Boston & Albany in the war years. Not a lot of choices in motive power. K-Line offered 2 different Berks and Lionel recently the Legacy version. The NYC with more power needed for the war effort provided Mohawks for the B&A. I have a pic of one double heading with a Berkshire. Lionel offered the L2a in 4 rd. nos. over the years. It's pretty easy to assemble a fleet of freight movers. Not for everyone having the same engines with different rd. nos. . But your RR rensembles a fleet like in real railroading rather than a collection.

 Jim, the box cars with the war bond logos are the way to go. You may want to check out the atlas coal hoppers. I have a few Pennsy ones that have Coal Goes to War

Greg Houser - Thank you for the informative comment about Cheviot Hill in Cincinnati. I lived in the "Queen City" 1985-1989, and recall old heads talking about the tough fight C&O trains had, up Cheviot Hill. The property occupied by the C&O engine house, on Queen City Boulevard, had long since been turned into soulless retail shops and the enormous C&O bridge that swept across the former B&O freight yard (now Queensgate Yard) was long gone, with only a pier or two to indicate where it had stood. It's fun to contemplate all those cinders that must have rained down on the roofs of such notable Western Hills residents as Doris Day, Andy Williams, Nick Clooney (father of George), Rosemary Clooney and Pete Rose!

Cheviot yard:  http://www.cohs.org/repository.../cogh/web/cogh-9.jpg

http://www.cohs.org/repository.../cogh/web/cogh-8.jpg

High trestle leading to CHeviot Hill:  http://www.cohs.org/repository.../cogh/web/cogh-5.jpg

http://www.rrpicturearchives.n...cture.aspx?id=599076

http://indianarailroads.org/bo...x.php?topic=10666.20 (click on the photo)

Chevoit Hill was THAT steep?

Now the ratio of home to off on the SP should have the * because the SP was a major stockholder in the Cotton Belt!

Thanks for the pics!  Wish I could have seen that area in person back in its heyday!

--Greg