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
Numbers

Description

MCB
Type

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
Numbers

Description

MCB
Type

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
Numbers

Description

AAR
Type

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
Numbers

Description

AAR
Type

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.

 

 

 

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Created by Scott Nixon

July 2009