FAIRPORT,
PAINESVILLE & EASTERN
FREIGHT
CAR ROSTER
Fortunately for fans of the FP&E, a chronological
record of the railroad's freight car roster up to 1965 can be determined by
examining past issues of the Official Railway Equipment Register (ORER). The ORER is a periodical that has been in
continuous publication since 1884, and whose purpose is, with each new issue,
to give an up-to-date list of any given railroad's freight cars (but only the
freight cars that can be interchanged with other railroads; railcars that are
permanently kept on an owner's rails—such as 'work cars'—are not included in
the ORER).
The FP&E registered their
freight cars in the ORER from 1926 (the first year I found the FP&E listed
in the ORER) until 1965. After the
April 1965 edition, the FP&E entries in all subsequent ORER editions state:
"Freight cars owned are not used in interchange service." From what I have seen in photographs, the
FP&E still had a fleet of hoppers until at least 1972 (more on this below),
but because they were not registered in the ORER, they would have been limited
to use on FP&E rails only (most likely they were used for transporting
limestone from the Diamond Shamrock's dock on the Grand River to the Diamond's
plant, as was the case with most of the hoppers the FP&E owned throughout
its history).
Below are a series of charts
showing the FP&E's freight car roster based on data from the ORER between
1926 and 1965. The dates on the
right-hand columns represent the dates of the data that the FP&E submitted
to the ORER, not necessarily the date of the ORER issue. (For more details about FP&E entries in
various editions of the ORER, see my FP&E Resources
page.) "MCB Type" is a
detailed descriptive code assigned to all freight cars by the Master Car
Builder's Association; "AAR Type" is also a detailed descriptive code
for freight cars developed by the MCBA's successor, the Association of American
Railroads – Mechanical Division. Below
the charts I have included descriptions of the MCB and AAR codes that are
shown; I got them from a master list of codes compiled from various ORER
editions by John Russell on his website
(http://home.cogeco.ca/~trains/rraar79.htm).
Chart 1
|
Road |
Description |
MCB |
Length |
Capacity |
3/26 |
11/26 |
2/27 |
5/28 |
8/28 |
9/30 |
|
200-299 |
Open-top Hopper (4-bay) |
HT |
42' |
70 tons |
100 |
100 |
100 |
100 |
100 |
99 |
|
300-399 |
Open-top Hopper (2-bay) |
HM |
31' 2" |
50 tons |
|
50 |
100 |
99 |
99 |
99 |
|
501-506 |
Open-top Hopper (2-bay) |
HM |
32' 10" |
70 tons |
6 |
6 |
6 |
X |
X |
X |
|
Open-top Hopper (side-unloading) |
HD |
|
|
|
6 |
6 |
6 |
|||
|
507-584 |
Open-top Hopper (2-bay) |
HM |
33' |
50 tons |
46 |
45 |
45 |
41 |
41 |
40 |
|
600-611 |
Gondola (drop-bottom) |
GA |
40' 9" |
50 tons |
|
|
|
12 |
12 |
X |
|
Gondola |
GKA |
|
|
12 |
||||||
|
612-613 |
Gondola |
GB |
37' 4" |
50 tons |
|
|
|
|
|
2 |
|
700-749 |
Gondola |
GKA |
41' 7" |
40 tons |
|
|
|
|
|
50 |
Chart 2
|
Road |
Description |
MCB |
Length |
Capacity |
10/30 |
1/31 |
7/31 |
7/32 |
7/37 |
4/38 |
7/39 |
|
200-299 |
Open-top Hopper (4-bay) |
HT |
42' |
70 tons |
99 |
99 |
99 |
98 |
98 |
98 |
98 |
|
300-399 |
Open-top Hopper (2-bay) |
HM |
31' 2" |
50 tons |
99 |
99 |
99 |
98 |
96 |
96 |
96 |
|
501-506 |
Open-top Hopper (side-unloading) |
HD |
32' 10" |
70 tons |
6 |
6 |
6 |
6 |
6 |
6 |
6 |
|
507-584 |
Open-top Hopper (2-bay) |
HM |
33' |
50 tons |
39 |
39 |
37 |
36 |
21 |
15 |
11 |
|
600-611 |
Gondola |
GKA |
40' 9" |
50 tons |
12 |
12 |
12 |
12 |
12 |
12 |
12 |
|
612-613 |
Gondola |
GB |
37' 4" |
50 tons |
2 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
|
700-749 |
Gondola |
GKA |
41' 7" |
40 tons |
50 |
45 |
45 |
45 |
45 |
45 |
45 |
|
750-754 |
Gondola |
GKA |
41' 7" |
50 tons |
|
5 |
5 |
5 |
X |
X |
X |
|
40 tons |
|
|
|
|
5 |
5 |
5 |
||||
|
755-771 |
Gondola |
GKA |
43' 4" |
40 tons |
|
|
|
|
|
17 |
17 |
|
772-779 |
8 |
0 |
|||||||||
|
1000-1003 |
Boxcar |
XM |
42' 7" |
40 tons |
|
|
|
|
2 |
3 |
4 |
Chart 3
|
Road |
Description |
AAR |
Length |
Capacity |
1/46 |
10/49 |
7/52 |
4/53 |
7/54 |
7/56 |
|
200-299 |
Open-top Hopper (4-bay) |
HT |
42' |
70 tons |
32 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
300-399 |
Open-top Hopper (2-bay) |
HM |
31' 2" |
50 tons |
96 |
96 |
95 |
95 |
94 |
94 |
|
501-506 |
Open-top Hopper (side-unloading) |
HD |
32' 10" |
70 tons |
6 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
507-584 |
Open-top Hopper (2-bay) |
HM |
33' |
50 tons |
2 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
|
600-611 |
Gondola |
GT |
40' 9" |
50 tons |
12 |
6 |
5 |
5 |
3 |
3 |
|
700-754 |
Gondola |
GTC |
41' 7" |
40 tons |
47 |
42 |
36 |
35 |
31 |
22 |
|
755-771 |
Gondola |
GTC |
43' 4" |
40 tons |
17 |
16 |
16 |
16 |
14 |
7 |
Chart 4
|
Road |
Description |
AAR |
Length |
Capacity |
10/60 |
7/61 |
10/62 |
10/63 |
1/64 |
1/65 |
|
300-399 |
Open-top Hopper (2-bay) |
HM |
31' 2" |
50 tons |
94 |
94 |
94 |
94 |
94 |
94 |
|
507-584 |
Open-top Hopper (2-bay) |
HM |
33' |
50 tons |
2 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
|
600-611 |
Gondola |
GT |
40' 9" |
50 tons |
3 |
3 |
3 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
|
700-754 |
Gondola |
GTC |
41' 7" |
40 tons |
20 |
19 |
19 |
16 |
15 |
0 |
|
755-771 |
Gondola |
GTC |
43' 4" |
40 tons |
7 |
7 |
5 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
MCB & AAR Codes
MCB Types
HD = An Open Top Self-Clearing
Car, having fixed sides and ends, and bottom consisting of two or more divided
hoppers with doors hinged lengthwise of car and dumping outside of rails. Doors
each side of car arranged to operate in more than one unit.
HM = An Open Top Self-Clearing
Car, having fixed sides and ends, and bottom consisting of two divided hoppers
with doors hinged crosswise of car and dumping between rails.
HT = An Open Top Self-Clearing
Car, having fixed sides and ends and bottom consisting of three or more divided
hoppers with doors hinged crosswise of car and dumping between rails.
GA = An Open Top Car having fixed
sides and ends and drop bottom, consisting of doors hinged crosswise of car to
dump between rails.
GB = An Open Top Car, having fixed
sides and ends and solid bottom, suitable for mill trade, but not having
sufficient cubic capacity to carry its marked capacity of bituminous coal.
GKA = An Open Top Car, having
fixed sides and ends and solid bottom, not suitable for mill trade and having
sufficient cubic capacity to carry its marked capacity of bituminous coal.
XM = A Box Car; a house car for
general service and especially for lading requiring protection from the weather
and equipped with side or side and end doors.
AAR Types
HD = An Open Top Self-Clearing
Car, having fixed sides and ends, and bottom consisting of two or more divided
hoppers with doors hinged lengthwise of car and dumping outside of rails. Doors
each side of car arranged to operate in more than one unit.
HM = An Open Top Self-Clearing
Car, having fixed sides and ends, and bottom consisting of two divided hoppers
with doors hinged crosswise of car and dumping between rails.
HT = An Open Top Self-Clearing
Car, having fixed sides and ends and bottom consisting of three or more divided
hoppers with doors hinged crosswise of car and dumping between rails.
GT = An Open Top Car, having high
fixed sides and ends and solid bottom, suitable for unloading coal on dumping
machines only, but not suitable for mill trade.
GTC = An Open Top Car, having high
fixed sides and ends and solid bottom, equipped with coke racks, suitable for
unloading on dumping machines only, but not suitable for mill trade.
Notes
As mentioned in my FP&E History page,
between 1917 and 1919 the FP&E acquired about 50 hoppers, which would have
been the 500-series; then in 1926 they bought the 200-series hoppers from
Diamond Alkali.
If data I
found about early standard hoppers (compiled by James David Thompson) is
reliable, then it looks like the 300-series hoppers were bought new by the
FP&E.
According to some pictures I
have—as well as a couple pictures by Dave McKay in Trackside Around
Cleveland and Trackside Around Eastern Ohio (for more about these
books go to this
page)—the FP&E had hoppers with road numbers in the 800s circa 1970 to
1972. These hoppers had been stenciled
for the FP&E, indicating that they were 'hand-me-downs' from other
railroads. It looks like there were at
least two distinct hopper models that made up the 800-series: some were
two-bay, 50-ton, 8-panel hoppers with peaked ends, and others were two-bay,
50-ton, 8-panel hoppers with flat ends and the middle rib painted yellow. I am pretty sure the former are ex-N&W
hoppers due to a photo in my collection of hopper #872 which is labelled
"H-9"; according to Andrew Dow, author of Norfolk and Western Coal
Cars: From 1881 to 1998, the H-9 series was retired beginning in 1966,
meaning this would have been the earliest that the FP&E could have acquired
them. As for the hoppers with the
yellow stripe, I do not know where these could have come from. My current theory about the 800-series
hoppers is that the FP&E acquired them to replace the 300-series—which were
probably retired/scrapped immediately after being replaced—and that the
800-series 'hand-me-down' hoppers were all scrapped after Diamond Shamrock
closed in 1976.
Created
by Scott Nixon
July 2009