Model Railroading > freight car home districts

Is there an online map somewhere that shows the AAR home districts where freight cars should be routed towards "home"? I know they were revised over the years. Any year will do..

When you bothered with the car rules the car was sent to the nearest interchange.  If you didn't forget the car rules their was no penalty.

Bob Wilcox
Charlottesville, VA
My Flickr Shots

Here is how I remember this situation   (in the 1970s).  A loaded car leaves it's "home road" to a conaignee on a "foreign road".  Once the car is unloaded, if the"foreign road" can find a load to a consignee on the "home road", they can route it as they please.  If they cannot get a load for the car, the "foreign road" must return the car to the "home road" via the "reverse route", meaning that the car must return home via the same route that it took getting to the consignee.  

lynnpowell Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Here is how I remember this situation   (in the
> 1970s).  A loaded car leaves it's "home road" to
> a conaignee on a "foreign road".  Once the car is
> unloaded, if the"foreign road" can find a load to
> a consignee on the "home road", they can route it
> as they please.  If they cannot get a load for
> the car, the "foreign road" must return the car to
> the "home road" via the "reverse route", meaning
> that the car must return home via the same route
> that it took getting to the consignee.  

Certain assigned cars can't be reloaded, but must be reverse-routed.

Take a look at this:

MARK IRF Glossary of Terms (railinc.com)

The Regional Car Utilization Map can be found in an issue of The Official Railway Equipment Register.

I don't know if the map can be found online.

 

Where it concerns captive cars...those leased by a particular customer....crews near that customer recognize those cars by dealing with them regularly...but I don't know how any return rules are handled far afield. I do see that some loaded paper cars we handle go east to a particular unloaded point for export, the mtys do indeed return on the reverse route...in fact they have to return or the loading customer won't have enough to do their work. Vagaries of mty availability is why they sought a small lease fleet in the first place. 

engineerinvirginia Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Where it concerns captive cars...those leased by a
> particular customer....crews near that customer
> recognize those cars by dealing with them
> regularly...but I don't know how any return rules
> are handled far afield. I do see that some loaded
> paper cars we handle go east to a particular
> unloaded point for export, the mtys do indeed
> return on the reverse route...in fact they have to
> return or the loading customer won't have enough
> to do their work. Vagaries of mty availability is
> why they sought a small lease fleet in the first
> place. 

And there are plenty of lease fleets these days because the railroads weren't providing enough cars to shippers, among other reasons.

Nathan

There are two situations like this where a sheet rock plant has a fleet, and a swamill has a fleet.  All the same cars, but they can't be cross loaded.  So we get empty center beam flats going east and the other fleets empties going west.  seems it would be nice if they could empty the lumber, and go over and load some sheet rock, and vica-versa!  A lot of wasted switching and fuel to see empty cars going each way.

RR

Try to find an Official Railway Equipment Register for the era you model. They have the Car Hire rules and home road maps.

Generally an empty car, that was not restricted in some manner, could be loaded to or via the owning road. It could also be loaded to the owning road's region(s). If unable to be loaded, it would then return via reverse route. Any intermediate carrier along that route could also load that car under the same rules.

Posted from Android

ts1457 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> lynnpowell Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Here is how I remember this situation   (in
> the
> > 1970s).  A loaded car leaves it's "home road"
> to
> > a conaignee on a "foreign road".  Once the car
> is
> > unloaded, if the"foreign road" can find a load
> to
> > a consignee on the "home road", they can route
> it
> > as they please.  If they cannot get a load for
> > the car, the "foreign road" must return the car
> to
> > the "home road" via the "reverse route",
> meaning
> > that the car must return home via the same
> route
> > that it took getting to the consignee.  

That's the thoery..  But, from a practical point of view, the route the car used to get to its ultimate destination could not readily be determined.

So, every yardmaster kept a list in his back pocket (or memorized) of where to send empties to their respective home roads.  So, unless the car was moving on a "Regular Waybill"  (rare for empties) it would always go to the  closest interchange point with the owners road.

-LD