These pages contain information about the prototype LVRR freight cars, with notes on available models. Links are provided to articles on modeling specific freight cars which can be found in the Modeling Freight Cars pages.
References to photos of the prototypes are provided wherever possible – either to photos on the web, or those published in books or magazines. In general, I will not publish photos on this site unless they pertain to a particular modeling article (for instance as done on the LV’s 52 Foot Mill Gondolas page), and even then I will limit these so as not to compete with the many excellent web sites that specialize in prototype photos.
Cars are arranged by type, and reporting numbers within types. Descriptions from the Official Railway Equipment Register (ORER) are supplemented with commonly used railfan and modeler descriptions, as appropriate. The number of cars on the LV roster is taken from the ORERs for that month (“-” means the cars were not yet on the roster, and “0” means all had been retired by that date).
As with other equipment, it’s up to the individual modeler to decide how much accuracy is “good enough.” My own approach is to find out what needs to be done to make a really accurate representation, then weigh the cost in time and money against the impact each change will have when the car is seen on the layout. This usually means that I am not too fussy, especially if I need a lot of a particular type of car! Kits that purport to be models of prototype LV cars, but in fact are inaccurate in a significant way, are listed in yellow italics. Kits that don’t even have real prototypes are listed on a separate page, titled “LV Fantasy Models!”