Operating empty open-top cars

It occurred to me on a recent trip out of town for an operating weekend, that many layout owners seem to avoid having empty open-top cars. Now of course if you model heavy coal or ore traffic, you naturally have big cuts or even full trains of empties running in the opposite direction of loads. But ordinary flat cars and gondolas are seen empty far less often.

I understand part of this, because a lot of the interest in modeling flat cars and gondolas is that they can carry really eye-catching loads. Heck, I like those too (as you can see in many post posts on this blog, such as: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2023/04/more-3-d-printed-loads.html ). But I like realistic car movements too. This is one of the drawbacks to loads installed permanently in cars: the car can’t run empty.

Statistics from the AAR (Association of American Railroads) in the early 1950s reveal that more than a third of all freight cars moved homeward empty (depending to some extent on car type). Open-top cars should thus be seen with at least one-third frequency in an empty condition.

In a normal cycle on my layout, the most common sequence is a loaded open-top car spotted, for example at a team track. This Western Maryland gondola with a load of pipe is an example, in my location of East Shumala.

In the following session, presumed to be a day or two later, the local switcher picks up the empty, which will be sent to the nearest (off-layout) yard.

But mainline trains should reveal the presence of such cars too. On my layout, the main line that is modeled is the Southern Pacific’s Coast Division, and through freight trains do pass by during an operating session. Here’s an example, using one of Richard Hendrickson’s models with lots of dunnage from the previous load still on the deck.

Of course, the loads in–empties out sequence that I illustrated at the outset of this post isn’t the only event, at least on my layout. The Santa Rosalia Local often spots empty gondolas at the Jupiter Pump & Compressor plant for the shipping of large crates. Here’s the local preparing to spot such a car, which happens to be an SP gondola.

I do try to remember that empty open-top cars ought to be part of the operating patterns, and plan my layout sessions accordingly. I believe it’s a more realistic program.

Tony Thompson