Prototypical US Freight Cars

DARTrider

Goofy Fictional RR Owner
Hi! I had a commenter on my YouTube channel give me a very rude comment on an old video regarding the era of freight cars in the video in question. Wanting to improve the accuracy of my videos to the real world, I'm in need of a bit of help. Looking around the internet the only sources for the era of freight cars seem to be a book I need to buy, and there are few images that are good quality that display a full-length train (most are just locomotive roster shots). Therefore, I've got a couple questions to ask you guys.

1. What freight cars were used in the US between 1950 and today? I'm not in need of exact specifications, just more like type, length, number of hatches/bays (for hoppers), number of domes (tank cars) and reference images. Preferably, if they were sorted by era that would be helpful too :)

2. When were most of these freight cars retired? I just need to know the time period, such as the 1980s for 40ft boxcars.

3. Where would I be able to download these freight cars for use in Trainz? All I need is a link to the site.

Your effort is very much appreciated! Thank you so much for helping me and other Trainzers!
 
Hi! I had a commenter on my YouTube channel give me a very rude comment on an old video regarding the era of freight cars in the video in question. Wanting to improve the accuracy of my videos to the real world, I'm in need of a bit of help. Looking around the internet the only sources for the era of freight cars seem to be a book I need to buy, and there are few images that are good quality that display a full-length train (most are just locomotive roster shots). Therefore, I've got a couple questions to ask you guys.

1. What freight cars were used in the US between 1950 and today? I'm not in need of exact specifications, just more like type, length, number of hatches/bays (for hoppers), number of domes (tank cars) and reference images. Preferably, if they were sorted by era that would be helpful too :)

2. When were most of these freight cars retired? I just need to know the time period, such as the 1980s for 40ft boxcars.

3. Where would I be able to download these freight cars for use in Trainz? All I need is a link to the site.

Your effort is very much appreciated! Thank you so much for helping me and other Trainzers!
I run my own YouTube channel, and also post railfanning videos in Trainz. For 1960s-80s rolling stock, I use NARM's rolling stock; specifically mbv67's boxcars, tankcars, open top hoppers, covered hoppers, gondolas and flatcars. They are available here: https://narailm.wixsite.com/narm/rollingstock

Besides that, I'll occasionally watch real footage from the time on YouTube (typically from fmnut, Lee Witten and jackmp294.5), and then look up the reporting marks of the rolling stock on the DLS.
 
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