Used to model steam and now I’ve switched to diesel in modern times. I’m originally from NC and I have a HO Aberdeen & Rockfish Geep 7 #205 and I need to know what modern rolling stock would the short line be hauling.
Chemicals - liquid chemicals in various tank cars, dry chemicals in covered hoppers. Cars would be privately owned/leased.
Animal Feed - covered hoppers, leased or RR owned
Grain - covered hoppers, probably RR cars but could also be owned or leased by grain shippers like Cargill etc.
Animal By-Products - depending what the by products are, tanks, covered hoppers (leased/privately owned) or boxcars (RR or pool cars like RBOX)
Building Supplies - centre beam flatcars or boxcars
Fertilizer Solution - tank cars
The hoppers would mostly be standard 3-bay cars in the 4000-4800 cuft range, normal gravity unloading (except if any of the chemicals are fine powders they could be in pressure cars). The grain service cars are more likely to be RR owned (but could be shipper owned/leased), leaning heavily towards which railroad originated the shipment (if it's being loaded on the shortline, the direct connecting interchange RR is likely providing the cars). The chemical service cars are more likely to be shipper owned or leased, but that's not a hard "rule", just probability.
