I'm stoked to see some PRR boxcars over at the SN Shafter yard, I just downloaded one of those the other day so it's nice to see that I'm not being random there. I'm also going to be forever a partisan for anything Chicago. - ThreadSky

jimgress.bsky.social • 13 hours ago

I'm stoked to see some PRR boxcars over at the SN Shafter yard, I just downloaded one of those the other day so it's nice to see that I'm not being random there. I'm also going to be forever a partisan for anything Chicago.

1 / 3

Comments

jamesdmcdonald.bsky.social•11 hours ago

Every modeler modeling any interchanging railroad in North America 1880-1970 can justify *at least* 1 PRR car. Realism prolly demands more than 1. The PRR fleet size dwarfed other railroads. PRR had more X29s (just 1 class of boxcar) than all USRA single sheathed boxcars built.

spitfire.bsky.social•10 hours ago

What PRR boxcars are available for 1890s?

jamesdmcdonald.bsky.social•10 hours ago

Presuming in HO:
BTS offers the XA built 1870s+ but still in service into early 1900s.
Westerfield offers the XG built 1895-6 and the XH built 1898+ (over 17K built).
(Westerfield has XG/XH in ventilated versions too)

jimgress.bsky.social•9 hours ago

Neat! Has anyone ever made just a list of the single most common rolling stock to appear in other railroads due to production numbers? Or by decade? I'm always not certain until I find photos and it seems like a rather complex question.

jamesdmcdonald.bsky.social•8 hours ago

It is complex. The production info generally exists. The hard part is mapping it to interchange patterns, which were not stable over time. Some statistical models, most famously Nelson-Gilbert, are attempts to map the likelihood of foreign road cars but these don't apply universally. 1/4

jamesdmcdonald.bsky.social•8 hours ago

I feel like I’ve downloaded some fleet proportion tables over the years but I’d have to check what they are and who made them. Most folks that do this analysis are concerned with their road’s likely foreign cars in a specific year range. Like https://designbuildop.hansmanns.org/bo-freight-car-fleet-of-1926/ 2/4

jamesdmcdonald.bsky.social•8 hours ago

Likelihood of a car can be influenced from production numbers, traffic flows, geographic proximity, and other factors like RR rivalries. The aim of a lot of prototype modelers is trying to model the commonplace, not the exceptional. Just about any car can show up once. 3/4

jamesdmcdonald.bsky.social•8 hours ago

Ultimately fleet building rests on plausibility and how much you care about realism (and it's your RR--you needn't explain your choices to anyone). But if you want help locating specifics on fleet building for your RR let me know. I work with that data daily. 4/4

astruckpersonn.bsky.social•10 hours ago

south shore 4 lyfe

Comments

Posting Rules

Reply