Number of cars in Consist

[Mike Trent]

I'll take a whack at Christian's question in a new thread, in case this becomes confusing in the new tank car thread.

The number of cars in a train are dependent on how much tonnage is involved, which is related to how many engines are used.

On the C&S, the largest engines were rated at five loaded cars, the smaller engines at four loads on the ruling grade, which was usually 4%. Empty cars weighed about half of loaded cars.

The number of cars in a mainline train would be fifteen to twenty or so, with three or four engines.

The mix would be mostly boxcars, coal cars (gondolas), and one or two refrigerator cars, a tank car, maybe a flat car, and stock cars common in the spring and fall. Any combination is possible.

On the Clear Creek branch, maybe ten cars with two engines. But again, it depends on tonnage.

Usually, any train would have a number of empty cars returning for concentrate or coal, or whatever. So the number of cars would vary.

I hope this helps.

[Mike Trent]

Search this site for tons of information, as I just did for "freight car ratios". You'll be amazed what you can find. On this or almost any subject. Not that it isn't OK to ask any questions, but there is a vast amount of information here. Locations, various freight and passenger cars, locomotives, depots, anything you can think of.

http://c-sng-discussion-forum.254.s1.nabble.com/Freight-car-ratios-td205.html#a298

[pizlinard72]

Thank you Mike
I meant the tank cars themselves in a consist. I have only seen one picture with two cars in the same train.
https://digital.denverlibrary.org/digital/collection/p15330coll22/id/42966
From other threads I assumed that the cars usually were towards the head end  of the train or directly behind the engine. Any restrictions to their postion in the consist, like hazardous material, weight limitation? Were the consists reshuffeled in Como to put the tank car in a certain position for the climb over Boreas?
Best, Christian

[Mike Trent]

No, not on the C&S. On the D&RGW, steel framed cars were usually on the head end, but the C&S had many steel framed cars. So they usually put them in anywhere that suited them.

[Keith Hayes]

Oooh, silver cars too in 1932!

I may be going out on a limb, but it looks like the forward tank is #8 and the second car is one of the ones San Juan is importing?

Mike, we have done a lot of good work here over the years and folks have uncovered some remarkable things.

[Mike Trent]

Like this photo! Of course dates can be off In the DPL, too.

[Chris Walker]

I think I was told Otto Perry's photo dating was gospel: transcribed from his notebooks. So the DPL should be right on that notation.  Others, not so much.

[Jim Courtney]

Photos of the CONX tank cars in C&S NG trains are pretty rare. Besides the one linked above, I know only of these:


Near Grant, dated 1929. Otto Perry photo. Black tank car in the early lettering scheme.



Grant again, also 1929, Denver Water Board Special photo.



Waterton, 11-1935, Otto Perry. In the silver tank car era.



Baileys, clean-up train, April, 1937, Otto Perry. Final black CONX scheme.


FWIW, the sparse photo data might suggest:

1. The South Park crews liked to bury the tank cars in the consist of the train, keeping flammable liquids away from both locomotive and caboose, to better protect the crew.

2. The position of the tank cars in the train is all coincidental, from insufficient sample size of photos.

3. If the C&S NG had contracted with CONOCO to run empty tank cars all over the South Park, for advertising purposes, perhaps the contract included "framing" the tank cars between red freight cars for a better optical effect.


On the isolated Leadville/Climax segment, after 1937, there is this photo of tank cars directly behind the locomotives:



As the train is arriving in Leadville, the tank cars are likely empty, their volatile contents having been unloaded at the Climax mill.

Other photos show that CONX tank cars delivered petroleum products to various branch locations, like Alma, Black Hawk and Morrison. Unless they were set out empty, as static "bill boards".

Seems to me that I've seen some Clear Creek photos with a CONX tank car, usually number 8, both in the middle of trains and directly behind the locomotive. But Clear Creek is not my forte . . .