Super long CN trains.

[railohio]

CSX manifest

Bad example. Outside of intermodal, articulated freight cars are rare.

The DMIR, LSI,and BNSF have in the past run 3 or 4 ore jennies semi-permanently coupled together with drawbars.

Out of more than 1.3 million freight cars in service in he U.S. in 2010, they would still be considered rare.

[JStryker722]

1=3 truck loads
1.3 million freight cars replace 3.9 million trucks or more at any one time
1.3 million freight cars=articulated cars still rare lol

Just thought I'd sum the argument in a goofy way lol

Anyway back to the CN trains,huh?

(Sorry for repeating you RailOhio)

[Standard Railfan]

Out of more than 1.3 million freight cars in service in he U.S. in 2010, they would still be considered rare.

Unless you are standing in the CN Ore yard in Two Harbors MN where there is nothing to see but ore cars.

[railohio]

But we're actually talking about the probably of seeing articulated cars in a CSX manifest in Marion, Ohio, as was mentioned in the thread.

[Saturnalia]

I have logged a 162-car NS Intermodal Train at Porter, and of course the 189-car monster mighty Marquette manifest they barged home from Grand Rapids.

Are you counting tubs/hitches or actual couplers? Big difference between the two.

I count each "tub" as a "car". It is more accurate to count that way than counting 3 and 5 tub sets of wells/pigs, at least from the railfan perspecitve.

[MagnumForce]

Those are platforms not cars

[CAT345C]

There are old coal gons in scrap service that are draw bared in sets of 2s. If it is stuck together and has one car number it's one car end of story.

[Saturnalia]

There are old coal gons in scrap service that are draw bared in sets of 2s. If it is stuck together and has one car number it's one car end of story.

I think we all get that, some of us are just trying to say we count articulated by the piece for railfan counting purposes.

[Mr. Tops]

If we're talking "super long trains" why are we even talking about articulated cars or number of cars? Does it matter? It's the length of the train that matters. When I get on my train, I really don't give two sh!ts about how many cars it is or if I have any articulated equipment. I look at the length and tonnage and the makeup. You could say, "I saw a 200 car train!!!!11!!!1 WOW!!!1!!!11!" Okay, well what if they're all 42-foot 2-bay hoppers? Including a 3-unit consist, that's not even 8700 feet long. Which is still big, but not really the kind of big we are talking about here. A manifest train with 200 cars, averaging 60 feet per car, is a different story...now over 12,000 feet with a 3-unit consist.

[Typhoon]

There are old coal gons in scrap service that are draw bared in sets of 2s. If it is stuck together and has one car number it's one car end of story.

I think we all get that, some of us are just trying to say we count articulated by the piece for railfan counting purposes.

Why would a railfan want to use a different way to count cars?

[Saturnalia]

There are old coal gons in scrap service that are draw bared in sets of 2s. If it is stuck together and has one car number it's one car end of story.

I think we all get that, some of us are just trying to say we count articulated by the piece for railfan counting purposes.

Why would a railfan want to use a different way to count cars?

It is more accurate for train length. A 100-car intermodal train counted tub-by-tub is more or less equal to a 100-car manifest. But is the 100-"car" intermodal train was counted literally car-by-car, then it would be only 20 cars if they were all 5-piece sets. It is just a better estimate of overall length when a figure from say a Defect Detector is not available. Also, it takes out the variability of having some cars of 1, some of 3, and some of 5 tubs each. Again, it gives a better estimate of overall train length.

This isn't to say I'm ignorant of the way railroads count the cars, which of course generally counts draw-bared cars as one. I just prefer to measure trains in the above way for the above reason.

[Y@]

Jesus on a freaking bike...

[Mr. Tops]

On UP at least, it doesn't necessarily count "drawbars as one". Most 3 or 5-pack wells, even though they all share the same reporting marks, are counted singularly. Each tub is assigned a letter, with "A" and "B" being on either end in regular boxcar fashion, having an A-end and B-end (handbrake is on the B-end on boxcar, but on both ends of an intermodal set). So it would be A-C-B for a 3-pack or A-C-D-E-B for a 5-pack. For an articulated tub set, my list will not actually show "DTTX 723510". It will say DTTA 723510, DTTC 723510, DTTB 723510 with the containers listed on their respective tub and it counts it as THREE cars.

Articulated spine cars are counted as ONE car, so a 5-pack spine will actually show up as TTAX 653647 on my list, followed by the containers/trailers that are on it. There is no TTAA, TTAB, TTAC, etc. for spines as far as paperwork goes, though you would still classify them as such in identifying them.

Here is a breakdown of ZMQG4 17 for example:

6 5-pack spines
7 single tubs
11 3-pack tubs

The "short count" of this train is "46" cars. Not "24" as many young foamites may want to believe. The 6 5-pack spines are counted as 6 cars and not 30, whereas the 11 3-pack tubs are counted individually as 33 cars, not 11 as they would be if they were spines. The "long count", counting each unit individually is 70 cars.

Not as simple as many apparently think. At least on UP...I don't know how other railroads do it...

No, you don't know everything...

[AARR]

The "short count" of this train is "46" cars. Not "24" as many young foamites may want to believe. The 6 5-pack spines are counted as 6 cars and not 30, whereas the 11 3-pack tubs are counted individually as 33 cars, not 11 as they would be if they were spines. The "long count", counting each unit individually is 70 cars.

"Short Count" and "Long Count" are the terms I was trying to remember. Thanks for explanation, Tops.

[Saturnalia]

Why do spines count differently than wells?

[Mr. Tops]

Why do spines count differently than wells?

You mean...you don't know??

[Saturnalia]

Why do spines count differently than wells?

You mean...you don't know??

Yeah, I don't know...why aren't they counted like Wells?

[StupidFlee​t]

Why do spines count differently than wells?

You mean...you don't know??

+1

[MagnumForce]

Can I say "plattforms vs cars" again?

[midland sub]

Ever seen a double stacked spine car MQT...?