W&LE Freight Car Fleet of 1926

W&LE single-sheathed box car in Warren, Ohio.

REPOSTED: from June 2010

I have a big interest in freight cars and marvel over the advances made in freight car construction between 1919 and the end of the steam era in the late 1950s. The late 1926 period I am concentrating on for this layout is fascinating as steel-sheathed box cars are just gaining a foothold on the US freight car fleet. The Wheeling & Lake Erie fleet is also quite interesting and a number of freight cars will be challenging to build and produce. A review of a 1925 and 1926 Official Railway Equipment Registers offer a good picture of the W&LE fleet. These ORER volumes are available on disc from two vendors; Donald R.Hensley, Jr., offers the October 1926 ORER, and Westerfield Models offers a 1925 ORER.

Several W&LE Official Railway Equipment Register entries can be reviewed at the Alphabet Route website.

Here is the W&LE freight car data for the late 1926 period. Images or links to images are included to illustrate the prototypes. References to the two John Corns books on the railroad, W&LE V1 and V2, are also noted.

Hopper Cars: all steel

55001-55500 : 497 cars known as Standard Steel Car Company channel rib cars.

Westerfield has produced HO scale models similar to these hopper cars. A prototype image can be found in Corns’ W&LE V2 p119.

FL5001-FL5400 : 301 cars originally from DL&W and very similar to the above series of hoppers.

Westerfield has produced HO scale models similar to these hopper cars. Prototype images can be found in Corns’ W&LE V2 p119.

W&LE 59000 series steel hopper.

59000-59999 : 992 car similar to the PRR GLa style, but with longitudinal hoppers. Prototype  images can be found in Corns’ W&LE V1 p58 and V2 p119. The image above is from an Enterprise Manufacturing ad in the 1916 Car Builders Cyclopedia.  Enterprise manufactured the interesting longitudinal hopper door hardware.

60000-60499 : 494 cars with ORER specifications similar to the previous series of hoppers. No image known.

W&LE 77000 series steel hoppers.

77000-77999 : 1000 cars similar to PRR H21 and B&O W-1 class 70 -ton hoppers, but originally built with longitudinal hoppers. These were rebuilt in the early 1930s with a more traditional sawtooth hopper configuration. Image can be found in Corns’ W&LE V1 p58. An image from the 1919 Car Builders Cyclopedia can be seen above..

Total hoppers: 3284

Box Cars

18000-18305 : 1 car of 34-foot length. Double-sheathed wood construction with truss rods is suspected. No image known.

20000-20251 : 2 cars of 36-foot length. Double-sheathed wood construction with truss rods is suspected. No image known.

21000-21499 : 1 car of 36-foot length. Double-sheathed wood construction with truss rods is suspected. No image known.

21500-21599 : 16 cars of 36-foot length. Noted with steel centersill. Possibly a double-sheathed wood car.

22000-22399 : 287 cars of 35-foot, 8-inch length. A steel centersill and double-sheathed wood car. Images can be found in Corns’ W&LE V2 p114 and 115.

HO scale model of a W&LE steel sheathed box car.

25000-25999 : 1000 cars of the 1923 ARA standard box car design. Images can be found in Corns’ W&LE V1 p59 and V2 p115.

Extensive detail on this box car design can be found in Railway Prototype Cyclopedia Volume 18. The above image illustates this box car design using HO scale models. The W&LE car is on the left while a Pennsylvania Railroad X29 box car is on the right. While similar, there were slight differences between the two box car designs.

W&LE single-sheathed box car, circa 1925.

27000-27999 : 1000 cars built by Western Car & Foundry. Single-sheathed wood construction with staggered doors and Vulcan vertical corrugated metal ends. The above image was taken in the 1920s and is from the W&LE archives in the special collection room of the Michael Schwartz Library at Cleveland State University. Additional prototype images can be found in Corns’ W&LE V1 p58 and 59. A similar box car is featured in the lead image taken by W&LE modeler Dean Payne in Warren, Ohio in 2005.

28000-28034 : 35 cars of 36-foot length. No image known.

29000-29199 : 198 automobile box cars. Single-sheathed wood construction with staggered doors. Uncertain if these cars also sported Vulcan vertical corrugated metal ends. Prototype images can be found in Corns’ W&LE V2 p115 and on the Fallen Flags website.

Total box cars: 2540

Gondolas

40000-40500 : 1 car of 35-foot 7-inch length. Wood construction.

43000-43999 : 5 cars of 36-foot length. Wood construction. Remainder of original AC&F cars built in 1905. A prototype image can be found in Corns’ W&LE V2 p116.

R6000-R6099 : 100 cars of 41-foot length. All steel construction.

52000-53899 : 1900 cars of 41-foot length. All steel construction with ORER specifications similar to the previous series of gondolas. A prototype image can be found in Corns’ W&LE V2 p117.

HO scale USRA composite gondola.

51000-51999 : 1000 cars of USRA composite gondola design. Drop bottom doors. A prototype image can be found in Corns’ W&LE V2 p117. The above image is an HO scale model of a very similar Hocking Valley gondola.

HO scale USRA mill gondola.

70000-70599 : 597 cars of 46-foot length. 70-ton capacity, all-steel construction and 3-foot interior height. Allegedly influenced the prototype design of the USRA mill gondola. A prototype image can be found in Corns’ W&LE V2 p111. The above image is an HO scale model of a very similar New York Central USRA mill gondola.

W&LE 72000 series steel gondola.

72000-72999 : 1000 cars of 46-foot length. 70-ton capacity, all-steel construction and 4-foot 4-inch interior height built by Standard Steel Car Company. I’ve seen only a couple images of these gondolas, one can be seen above. I believe these were built for the double duties of hauling coal and finished steel shapes. The above image is from the W&LE archives in the special collection room of the Michael Schwartz Library at Cleveland State University.

Total gondolas: 4603

Flat Cars

2001-2100 : 1 car of 37-foot length and 40-ton capacity.

2200-2699 : 112 cars of 36-foot 5-inch length and 40-ton capacity. These were possibly converted from the 43000 series gondolas. Or possibly converted from 54000 series stock cars?

Total flat cars: 113

Stock Cars

54000-54099 : 18 cars of 36-foot 5-inch length.

Cabooses

104 on roster with no details offered in ORER. Here’s a W&LE caboose preserved at the Mad River Railroad Museum in Bellevue, Ohio.

These details help me as a modeler to understand what will need to be built to best reflect the 1926 W&LE fleet. Take note that the totals of W&LE hoppers, box cars, and gondolas comes to 10427 freight cars. A small fleet of cars can be built as a representative proportion of the three main W&LE freight car types. For instance, if my fleet needs 20 W&LE cars it should include nine gondolas, six hoppers, and five box cars. These 20 cars may only represent a third or a fourth of the full fleet of freight cars on the model railroad. The remaining portions will be filled with common cars of other railroads, many of which were some of the larger of the eastern railroads; NYC, PRR, B&O, ERIE, NKP and more.

Understanding the home freight car fleet is a good first step. Along the way I’ve also taken note of many other common freight cars of the mid-1920s. More detail will be shared here soon.

14 thoughts on “W&LE Freight Car Fleet of 1926”

  1. Hi Eric. I like your focused compilation of freight car info. I’m currently studying and modeling various eastern Pa. prototypes. At the moment notably Reading Co. and Lehigh Valley quad hoppers. I referenced you through a RPM meet pic of someones model of a 77,000 series W&LE 10 panel re-build, that looks easy enough to bash a unit of for my collection eventually. Do you know of any other pics or dwgs. of these hoppers? -sincerely, Bill W.

  2. Thanks for stopping by, Bill. The W&LE 77000 series 70-ton hoppers were similar to the PRR H21 class of cars. The Wheeling cars were originally built with longitudinal discharge doors, as seen in the image further up this page. These were rebuilt in the early 1930s with the more common sawtooth hopper doors. YOU can probably bash this from a Bowser HO scale H21 hopper kit. The center sets of hoppers will need to be rearranged. Dean Payne did this bash using a Westerfield kit and it turned out very nice. Here’s an image of his work at the 2011 RPM-East event. You will need to copy and paste this link into your browser.
    http://www.pbase.com/ehansmann/image/133620238

    The W&LE books by John Corns contain a few images of these big coal hoppers. – Eric

  3. Eric, I’m modeling the Chagrin Falls branch of the W&LE, Nickel Plate Road, circa 1950. Found your article in LDSIG and would love to pick your brain about your research. Have got an appointment at the Chagrin Falls Historical Society to peruse their records plus a trip to CSU’s library to go over their photo archive. Looking to add your treasury of knowledge to accurately portray the Branchline. Thanks in advance.

  4. Thanks for dropping by, Jim. I just sent you additional details via email. Keep me up to date on how your plans come along. – Eric

    1. William, I’m not familiar with the practice you mentioned. I do know the W&LE and the P&WV were both owned by the Gould interests and under Wabash control 100 years ago. Gould also controlled the Western Maryland at that time in an attempt to string several railroads together in connecting the mid-west and the Atlantic coast. – Eric H.

        1. William, these decals look like they follow 1940-1950 freight car lettering. I suspect they were packaged together because they were part of the Alphabet Route. – Eric H.

  5. this here set of decals reminded me of such mentioned above i gather it was somehow connected maybe prior to or around the 1930]s maybe, I was just trying to figure out how the decals might of been placed esp the wle
    I also thought this was interestinghttps://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2F4.bp.blogspot.com%2F-Z_MTY4ZLpaA%2FVkOxuZ0jHeI%2FAAAAAAAAGF4%2FmsIW_QzEaso%2Fs1600%2FWLE%252B43357%252Bcomposite%252Btruss%252Brod%252Bgondola%252B%252BBrewster%25252C%252BOH%25252C%252BDec%25252C%252B1925.jpg&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fadenarailroad.blogspot.com%2F2015%2F11%2Fwordless-wednesday-49.html&docid=9pKHmLm0xUIM_M&tbnid=luZ-7QxhT3iqEM%3A&vet=10ahUKEwinn-mmwqDYAhUL4IMKHTTGAtcQMwgtKAYwBg..i&w=1200&h=695&bih=769&biw=1600&q=old%20wheeling%20%26%20lake%20erie%20%20box%20cars%20and%20gondola%20railroad&ved=0ahUKEwinn-mmwqDYAhUL4IMKHTTGAtcQMwgtKAYwBg&iact=mrc&uact=8

    1. Those were neat gondolas but nearly all were off roster by 1926. Anyone modeling the Cleveland area in the Teens would need several. – Eric H.

    1. Hey Charlie! I did catch that image. It’s interesting the Wheeling rebuilt their USRA composite coal gondolas with steel sides earlier than many roads. The car has a 1928 weigh date stencil. I think they began that program in 1926. – Eric

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