Lets Talk About Freight Cars

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The area that I have chosen to model is rich with open hopper cars. But it also has a few scheduled symbol freights moving through also.

So what does that mean really to my layout? It means I need a lot of open hopper cars. They will make up at least 60% of the traffic on the line.

Next question, how many cars are going to be home road cars? Looking at the photos and reading different accounts of the traffic on the line, you begin to understand that not all the cars are going to be Reading. What percentage are the off-road cars and what roads should be modeled is a topic in and of itself. But let hold that off until another time. Lets talk about what RDG open hoppers were on the roster in 1952.

Going back to the bible (January 1952 ORER) I was able to compile the following list of Reading open hoppers classes and their totals.

ClassNo. of
Cars		% of
Total		Model Roster
based on 50 cars
HTf3342%
1
HTh421424%
12
HTj183110%
5
HTl/HTn350420%
10
HTo9956%
3
HTp3392%
1
HTr9966%
3
HTs165410%
5
HTs (steel)20%
0
HTt10006%
3
HTu7494%
2
HTv200011%
5
Totals17618100.0%50

Look closely at the total number, 17618 open hoppers. Of the 17618 hoppers, only 2 HTs steel rebuilds have been built so far. What do you really think the chances of ever seeing one in a typical train? Not very high.

If you look at the percentage number that will give you an idea of how many cars of that class you might see on average for every 100 RDG hopper cars that run past you.

This is one of the best arguments I know of to NOT model one of a kind cars, unless you know they served s specific customer on your line. An example of modeling a one-of-a-kind car that ran on your line was the PRR X30 which ran out of Elmira, NY where it serviced the LaFrance Fire Engine Company. So when I was going to model the Elmira branch of the PRR I planned to build one.

References:
January 1952 Official Railway Equipment Register
October 1953 Official Railway Equipment Register
April 1956 Official Railway Equipment Register

Why and What?

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The models of Reading open Hoppers that I displayed at the meet.
A few of my Reading open hoppers models on display at a local Prototype Modelers Meet. This was the year I presented a clinic at the RPM on Modeling the Reading Open Hopper Cars in the 1950’s

Why do I model?

I’m a Rail-fan
I know that seems obvious but it’s also the driving force in a lot of the questions that follow. I enjoy seeing trains run in real-life and I enjoy recreating that in the models.

Details Are Important to Me
I am not easily satisfied with good-enough modeling or research. I have drawn prototype locomotives and freight cars for Railroad Model Craftsman in the past. I have crawled all over a piece of equipment to take the notes needed for the drawings. I have also done the research at the museums and with private collections to find the answers needed for projects, that to me is a big part of the fun of this hobby.

What do I want to model?

Model Availability
O scale does not have the same wide-selection of models that HO enjoys. That selection is made even smaller by not choosing to model either the PRR, SP, UP or NYC. Very few of the unique Reading Company prototypes have been produced over the years. I do not want to “have to” scratch build my whole locomotive fleet in order to realistically enjoy a modeled location. I’d like to build a layout and the models I want in this lifetime, not the next three lifetimes.

Small Town Switching
I have a lot of early memories of watching a switcher working in the small town I grew up in. I would ride my bicycle into town to watch and photograph the local freight switch the town.

Open Hopper Cars
My favorite type of freight car. I want to model an area that would have a lots of open hopper car traffic. Turns out that is a large part of the Reading, not just the mine runs themselves.

Sincere Track Design
One where a train only goes through a scene or town once on its trip through the layout. This is a more modern approach to layout design instead of the “spaghetti bowl” layouts of the past that still dominate the O scale community.