Question about road names

2-8-2

Member
I'm back after a long hiatus! Since winter is approaching, I figured it was time to finally get some track laid and get some things rolling! I'm not really sure how to word this question...I don't have all the "lingo" down yet. So I'll just be firing from the hip here:

Most rolling stock have road names on them. How prototypical would it be for a loco to haul freight with other names? IE: If I'm modelling NKP, is it realistic for a B&O (or others) boxcar to appear in the train?
 

60103

Pooh Bah
Suggest you go down and look at a day's worth of trains somewhere.
One of the selling points of the railways is interchange. Any car can travel on any railroad. Most trains would be largely home road; the next largest blocks would be for neighbouring roads or end-on connections.
However, there are exceptions. Often there is a train of only home road cars. Some roads would run, at the end of the day, a "per diem" special to collect all the empty foreign cars and get them onto the next railroad before they had to pay any more rent for them. Pacific Fruit Express trains would be solid reefers mixed of the two owning roads (SPFX and UPFX) (Am I right?)
Some traffics would have a fixed multi-road route and the multi roads would each contribute a share of the cars. (e.g. automobile racks).
Oh, and tank cars were almost all privately owned. Railroad tanks were usually in work service.
 

2-8-2

Member
jim currie said:
are you modeling a road or are you free lancing and what era?

If you had asked me that a month ago, I would've said I was modeling the Nickel Plate Road...but now I'm unsure. I like the idea of a freelance road, but I haven't done much research on creating one. Personally, I think it would be fun to make up my own road and detail locos/rolling stock with my own logo and colors...but that could get expensive as well.

I want to model the 1940-1950s era because it would allow me to run both steam and diesel. I've always been a big fan of steam, but the PA-1 is a favorite as well. During this era, having both of these types of engines on a road is possible.
 

Ralph

Remember...it's for fun!
You betcha! Due to interchanges you will see trains composed of several "foreign" road names. I guess you'd expect to see lots of cars with road names for lines near your area and a few for more far flung roads. As a boy I recall seeing Santa Fe box cars rolling along Penn Central freights in NY.
Ralph
 
Top