freight
Freight Cars...
Freight cars are the meat and
potatoes
of any train. More than 90% of the train is freight cars, yet
they
are usually the least targeted part of model railroading.
Locomotives
and cabooses are very popular, but the freight cars that are stuck
right
in the middle deserve some attention too.
Chessie owned just about every type
of freight car imaginable. In an undated roster I have, Chessie
lists 115,701 freight cars owned system wide. They were
broken down into the following: 17,642 Boxcars, 8,027 Covered
Hoppers, 3,136 Coil Cars (includes special purpose gondolas), 10,581
Gondolas, 69,227 Hoppers, 1,986 Autoracks and 977 Flat Cars.
To see pictures of real Chessie cars
look
under the "prototype pics" link at the bottom of this page.
REVENUE EQUIPMENT.
Boxcars
All three Chessie roads had them,
and
they
were all seen system wide. Normal Chessie boxcars were blue with
yellow
markings. 40 foot box cars were rarely seen in Chessie
blue, mostly they were too old to worry about and stayed in thier
predecessor
scheme. 50 foot and larger boxcars were free game for the
painting
crews. Chessie had all types, smooth, ribbed, waffle, etc.
Like all modeling, the best thing to do is find a photo of the real
thing. Chessie
painted their insulated boxcars with blue ends and the sides
yellow. The sides had blue markings, the ends
yellow. The roof was either blue or silver. The predecessor
roads also had yellow sided insulated boxcar paint schemes.
It was normal to see some Chessie and some predecessor paint jobs on
cars
side by side in the same train.
Covered Hoppers
All three roads had
them.
The predecessor schemes were all light grey with black markings.
The Chessie scheme was all yellow with blue markings. They came
in
two main sizes, large (3 and 4 bays) and small (1 or 2 bays).
Large covered hoppers carried low density material like grain.
Small covered hoppers carried high density material like sand or
cement. Both large and small types came ribbed sided
(Pullman-Standard
or PS) and smooth sided (American Car Foundry or ACF). The small
2-bay ACFs are really characteristic of Chessie and any Chessie model
railroad
needs some. Covered hoppers are some of the most
frequent
cars you see on the rails today.
Coil Cars
These cars are technically specially
equipped gondolas for coil service, but are commonly referred to as
coil cars. The coil car for the purposes of this website were
designed from the ground up for the sole purpose of transporting coiled
steel. This type of car was invented with
C&O
help. The C&O had the largest fleet in America. B&O
had the #2 fleet. WM didn't have any. The WM transported
coiled
steel in regular gondolas. Coil cars are very characteristic of
Chessie.
Model quite a few. Walthers offers them. Remember that
those
hoods come off and get swapped around. It is rare to see a car
with
two matching hoods. Usually one Chessie and one from another road
is accurate. They rust like crazy too, so weather them
lots.
You can buy spare hoods and change them around to create lots of new
looks.
Hoods come beveled or rounded on top. Chessie had both.
They
painted their hoods yellow with blue markings and blue with yellow
markings.
You need some of both color schemes to be accurate. Chessie even
had a few yellow fiberglass hoods.
Gondolas
These hard working cars hauled
anything
that could fit in them. Like dump trucks they got pretty beat
up.
Chessie painted theirs black with yellow markings. Predecessor
paint schemes for the B&O and C&O were black with white
markings. The predecessor WM paint scheme is oxide red with white
markings. Most gondolas were plain (with nothing inside of them
for hauling loads like scrap metal). They also can have special
interior fixtures to haul less than car load containers, spent carbon,
bar steel, pipe, mounted wheel axles, tin plate, loose wheels, plate
glass and copper billets. Most gondolas come with fixed ends, but
Chessie rostered some with drop ends for easier loading.
Additionally, some Chessie gondolas came with covers to protect their
loads from the elements.
Hoppers
By far the most common type of car
on the Chessie System. About half of all freight cars were open
hoppers.
Realize
that Chessie was a coal hauling road. Chessie painted them black
with yellow markings.
Predecesor paint jobs for B&O and C&O were black with white
markings. The WM predecessor paint scheme was oxide red with
white markings (though they did have some that were light grey with
black markings). Coal cars never
get
washed so model yours with plenty of coal dust (oversprayed dark grey
and
black). Bowser makes a great 100Ton Hopper and Stewart
makes
a great 70Ton Hopper. Chessie also had a neat way of turning a
coal
hopper into a covered hopper. Yellow plastic lids called "hopper
toppers" were put on them to provide a surge capability for the fall
harvests
and lulls in coal traffic. Chessie only used its newest hoppers
for
this service. I have never seen a hopper in a predecessor paint
job
with a top on it. McKean offers the "hopper toppers". They
are out of business now, but you can still find them occassionally on
eBay.
Flat Cars
A good for everything
car.
These usually hauled strange loads that didn't fit in boxcars or
gondolas.
Chessie painted them black with yellow lettering. Predecessor
C&O and B&O paint schemes were black with white markings.
The WM predecessor scheme was oxide red with white markings. Flat
cars come in either general or specialized service. Specialized
flat cars are for pulpwood, lumber, auto frames, wallboard, aluminum
sheet, castings or trailers. Concentrate
on the top of the flat car, the sides are too small to get much
attention.
Auto Racks:
The C&O was all over
Michigan
and with that comes automobile traffic. Auto racks came initally
in unenclosed
or open carriers. Eventually in the Chessie Era, sides were
added, and
finally
the all enclosed auto rack came about. These cars are pooled
through a jointly owned company called Trailer Train. This means
which ever railroad needs cars, (UP, Santa Fe, etc) they take
them from a pool.
So, a C&O auto train may only have a few C&O labeled racks on
it.
Mostly it is an even distribution of road names. Additionally,
this means that B&O and C&O autoracks do not come with B&O
or C&O road letters, but rather ETTX or BTTX letters for Trailer
Train. Just the upper rack is painted for the B&O or
C&O. These cars are
very
long, so if you have tight corners in your layout, stay away from
these.
Accurail offers good two and three level open autoracks and enclosed
autoracks.
Walthers offers enclosed autoracks too.
TOFC:
Trailers on flat cars (TOFC) was the
first
way intermodal transportation was done. Today there are specific
rail cars designed to handle semi-trailers and containers. But in
the Chessie Era it was still TOFC. Some TOFCs carried just one
semi-trailer,
but most carried two. These cars were also owned by Trailer Train
and did not have B&O, C&O, or WM reporting
marks.
Chessie ran unit trains of TOFC. That means the whole train was
just
one type of car. These "Trailer Jets" as they were called ran a
very
high priority route across the system. Nothing on these cars
shows B&O or C&O ownership, but I include them here since the
intermodal train was important on the Chessie System.
NON REVENUE EQUIPMENT:
Maintenance of Way:
MofW cars are usually the
oldest
cars on the railway. They are used to haul stuff for work crews
to
repair track, ballast, and everything else of the physical plant.
Gondolas, flat cars, coal hoppers, and passenger cars were used
for
MofW. Very few of these pieces of equipment got painted into
Chessie
paint. But those that did were either green or red. The red
was a B&O specific color that was a hold over from pre-Chessie
days.
Most MofW equipment was restricted to their home rails and not allowed
to switch or interchange to another railroad. Most MofW equipment
in the Chessie Era dated from the 40s and 50s. If you model a
specific
piece of Chessie line, stick with that line's MofW equipment.
Safety Cars:
The
Chessie System was big
into
safety. They painted several passenger cars and boxcars in a
special
safety green scheme. These are really unique cars, and finding
decals
for them will be nearly impossible. The best bet is to make your
own decals. I haven't modeled any of these since they are so
unique.
Click
here to see the model
safety
cars (No link, none modeled to date)
Passenger Cars:
The
Chessie System ran
a
few special trains behind steam engines. The cars for the
"Chessie
Steam Special" are very colorful. They would make great models in
their yellow with orange and silver trim. Also, Chessie had track
geometry trains that ran passenger cars in a black with orange and
yellow
stripe scheme. The B&O also had some dark blue Chessie
passenger
cars for special trains. Again, these are very unique, these
aren't
everyday sort of trains.
Click
here to see the model
passenger
cars (No link, none modeled to date)
RETIRED EQUIPMENT:
Retired:
As my modeling skills improved and
my standards evolved, certain cars were no longer needed. Listed
here are the cars that I have retired from service, with a quick bullet
why these cars are not used any more.
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