the problem of "the pair"

[tom mann]

I usually buy both road numbers for a given release.  That means, if I assemble a grain train today, I will have exactly two of every car, pulled by exactly two locomotives.

 

Stay cool and release three road numbers...

[up1950s]

Thats two cool ! :-[

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I'm ok with even numbers, here's the reason.

In general (but I bet Gregg might shoot me down here), one type of car (car type & RR combo) will be used in a service.

Say I have a factory on my layout that receives paper from Mobile AL. This paper will generally be showing up in either Conrail or Southern 50' boxcars. Once in a while an oddball car will crop up (like a PC green or L&N box), but by and large, it's always going to be one or two cars of paper at a time.

So, on day 1, the local comes along out of staging, drops off a southern 50' boxcar of paper, and goes on about its business.
On day 2, the local comes back with another southern 50' box of paper, picks up the empty, drops off the new load, and goes back to staging.
On day 3, the local drops off the first box (now refilled by the staging yard elves) and picks up the empty.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

This makes it not so much of a problem (as long as your layout is on a 2 day cycle).

[3rdrail]

Ed, it all depends on the era you are modeling. Since the mid-1980's, you're probably right. Except when car supply was exceptionally tight, the paper mill in Port Saint Joe loaded nothing but AN boxcars. But, when cars were tight, and before the IPD era, any and all cars were loaded - any car that might be going past Chattahoochee empty and could be swiped and sent South.

Bruce Smith is doing a series on cars present on the PRR in the steam era and asked me for any yard photos I had. I sent him one taken in Columbus, Ohio, in 1957. Among the boxcars clearly visible are those of CGW, MILW, UP, C&NW, ATSF, NKP, and SAL. Only 2 PRR's are seen.

Now, a grain train is a problem. If in railroad cars, they'd all be from the billing road or its predecessors, i.e. BNSF, BN, ATSF, CB&Q, SLSF, etc. Private would all be the same logo, say Cargill, or unmarked, possibly with mixed private reporting marks from the various leasing companies.

Want a train of like cars? That's what decals are for. BTW, IMRC usually releases 12 numbers of each road, and MTL one. Are you talking about Atlas?

[cv_acr]

Ed, it all depends on the era you are modeling. Since the mid-1980's, you're probably right. Except when car supply was exceptionally tight, the paper mill in Port Saint Joe loaded nothing but AN boxcars.

But... probably a lot more than one at a time. Which means only having a pair of cars (or 4 or 6, depending on how many different paint schemes or similar models are out there) for the service is a bit of a problem if you depend on factory painted models. Hence of course, the need for a larger offering of road numbers, or relettering yourself.

Of course, there's really no simple answer for anything. A railroad might have a large fleet of different series of cars that it considers "the same" in terms of assignment/appropriate service. Like 3rdrail mentioned, also keep private owner cars, IPD, pool cars, and fallen flags in mind. (eg. CBQ, NP, etc. for early BN; BN, ATSF for modern day BNSF; IC, DW&P, CV, WC for modern CN*, SOO for CP)

*If you're making grain trains, keep in mind that in Canada there are also the government operated grain car fleets of cylindrical hoppers - CNWX/ALNX/SKNX for CN, CPWX/ALPX/SKPX for CP.

And of course any inbound cars will be from the railroad of origin, using all the points and caveats mentioned above.

edit: One other thing that can spin things around a bit is car supply agreements (eg, a factory located on a shortline railroad gets all its empty cars supplied by the larger rr that will handle the traffic)

[cv_acr]

Say I have a factory on my layout that receives paper from Mobile AL. This paper will generally be showing up in either Conrail or Southern 50' boxcars. Once in a while an oddball car will crop up (like a PC green or L&N box), but by and large, it's always going to be one or two cars of paper at a time.

Unless you're receiving paper from two different sources in AL, you'll probably get it all in cars from a single railroad, not both of them.

[wm3798]

I'm modeling three different kinds of operation on my layout. 
1.  Coal - Loads east, empties west, with a few on-line users.  I'll also have some westbound hoppers loaded with ore.
2.  Local - distribution and pick up of cars from on-line industries
3.  Bridge Traffic - Blocks of cars that move from one end of the layout to another.  Some get interchanged on the layout and either forwarded off the layout on another train, or get set out for local distribution.

I fearlessly re-number freight cars, so it's no problem for me to have enough individual numbers to go around.

Lee

[Ed Kapuscinski]

That's a good point about multiple cars.

The way I figured on dealing with that would be having multiple similar cars (like you said, 50' precision design cars from Atlas, the 50' FMC (I think) cars from Athearn, etc... Or just grabbing more numbers from follow up runs.

I was just kinda laying out the basic premise.

[Robbman]

Message deleted

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I think it's probably because of the limited amount of grain that the eastern roads carry (compared to a road like BNSF).

It makes much more sense for NS to use them when they need them, and let someone else foot the bill when they don't.

[Iain]

I see the same Foster Farms hopper going to or from the port at least once a month.  However, I don't think it hauls grain anymore because grain hasn't been hauled out for at least five years.  Most likely it is in aggregate service, and it has been re-stenciled.

[Robbman]

Message deleted

[Sokramiketes]

I see the same Foster Farms hopper going to or from the port at least once a month.  However, I don't think it hauls grain anymore because grain hasn't been hauled out for at least five years.  Most likely it is in agrigate service, and it has been re-stenciled.

Highly doubtful it's in aggregate service.   

Can't you read?  He wrote agrigate.

[3rdrail]

I see the same Foster Farms hopper going to or from the port at least once a month.  However, I don't think it hauls grain anymore because grain hasn't been hauled out for at least five years.  Most likely it is in agrigate service, and it has been re-stenciled.

Highly doubtful it's in aggregate service.   

Can't you read?  He wrote agrigate.

Whazzat? Can't find it in the dickshunery. 

[Robbman]

Message deleted