On the trip back from the Cleveland Show in November, I had the chance to visit with Rob Enrico and see his Monogahela Division layout in person. I have to say that I seen his layout in print before but I wasn’t prepared for what it looks like in person. The photographs in print do not do it justice.
It’s actually a very simple layout if you look at the published plans. It’s basically a double track loop around his two car garage with a section across the middle for a yard area. What it may appear to lack because of the simplified track plan design, it makes up for in scenes that are recreated on the railroad. The rail fans on the overpass could have been my brother and me. Notice the fence posts.
Or this simple scene of a crewman walking out to his car at the end of the workday. How many times have we seen that rail fanning? But how many times have you seen it on a layout?
Here is Rob talking with Rich Yoder about freight car truck.
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.
Class
No. of Cars
% of Total
Model Roster based on 50 cars
HTf
334
2%
1
HTh
4214
24%
12
HTj
1831
10%
5
HTl/HTn
3504
20%
10
HTo
995
6%
3
HTp
339
2%
1
HTr
996
6%
3
HTs
1654
10%
5
HTs (steel)
2
0%
0
HTt
1000
6%
3
HTu
749
4%
2
HTv
2000
11%
5
Totals
17618
100.0%
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
