US rollingstock question


AemJaYstrains

AemJaYstrains

Active Member
Hi community

iam looking for a page where i can find, what car is for what in the US?
I mean there are coal hoppers, covert hoppers, gondolas, autoracks and many more. but as iam from switzerland i dont know all the cars you americas have.
so do you know maybe a page where i can find all the infos about american rollingstock?

Why iam asking? Well iam building a US layout, and i want to build some industries that work together, like Lumber to paper.

thank you for your help!

cheers
jaY
 
Also in the US there are hundreds of railroads and shipments travel between railroads so a general freight train may have cars from dozens of different railroads on the train. In the US, the initials of cars owned by private companies or industries end in the letter "X".

A paper mill receives wood in logs (on flat cars), as pulpwood (short logs crossways on a bulkhead flat car) or as wood chips (in very large hopper cars. They also might receive tank cars of caustic soda (used to bleach paper), covered hoppers of kaolin (a clay used to make paper smooth) or boxcars of scrap paper or rags. Outbound paper is shipped in boxcars.
 
Hopper - self-clearing, bottom dumping car for handling bulk materials
Covered hopper - similar, but fully enclosed car body for handling bulk materials that need to stay dry
Flatcar - flat deck open car. Different cars may have end bulkheads, side stakes, chain tie-downs, etc. for specialized services
Autorack flatcar - flat car with permanently or semi-permanently equipped super structure for transporting automobiles. Modern autoracks are enclosed with protective side panels and roofs to prevent damage; early autoracks in the 1960s-1970s were entirely open cars.
Intermodal "spine" car - modified flatcar design specifically for carrying intermodal shipping containers and/or transport truck trailers
Intermodal well car - specialized low profile cars for carrying intermodal shipping containers, stacked two high
Gondola - open car with fixed sides, appropriate for bulky items and/or bulk materials that can be unloaded via the top of the car with unloading machinery or rotary dumping of the car (a lot of what people refer to as "coal hoppers" are actually solid-bottom gondolas that are unloaded by rotary dumper - the entire car is flipped upside down with a large piece of machinery to unload it)
Tank car - comes in many different sizes and configurations for liquid or gaseous products
Box car - Enclosed car with doors for general merchandise
Refrigerator ("reefer") - Similar to box car, but with insulation and refrigeration units for transporting frozen products (usually food stuffs)


Appearance, designs, and size of cars changed significantly over time, even if the function was basically similar.
 
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thank you all for your answers. special thank you to @dave1905 for your explenation about my idea. well now i will digg deeper into that UP Side and maybe i decide to then build other industries on my layout haha.

thnx
 
AemJaYstrains said:
thank you all for your answers. special thank you to @dave1905 for your explenation about my idea. well now i will digg deeper into that UP Side and maybe i decide to then build other industries on my layout haha.

thnx
Click to expand...
Many North American freight cars are very similar to their European counterparts. A tank car is a tank car, but most European tanks are smaller. Most differences are from different rules and not having as much "wide open spaces" for a railroad to operate.
 
yeah maybe its because, from time to time i dont know the german word of the car or the thing they transport, but i guess most of the cars ar similar to our cars we have over here :) i mean we transport the same things most of the time i guess :D
 
AemJaYstrains said:
yeah maybe its because, from time to time i dont know the german word of the car or the thing they transport, but i guess most of the cars ar similar to our cars we have over here :) i mean we transport the same things most of the time i guess :D
Click to expand...
The main difference between North American rail cars and their European cousins is the overall length and total tonnage they can carry, as Terry says the US has far more space which allows for more gradual curves and inclines to be built compared to Europe.

A good example is the North American use of containers, we use 20', 30' and 40' the US mainly have 48',53' and 60' containers, but their containers would be totally unsuitable for our European rail or road systems.
 
Not only length but height and width too.

60 ft containers are more of a Canadian thing.

20 and 40 ft containers are mostly international traffic (between the US and other countries) and 48 and 53 ft containers are domestic traffic (inside N America).
 
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