If you’re going 2-foot wide, and if you’re making 2 tracks, the larger radius, usually 11″, will take you right to the edge of the table or board you’re using, too near where the train could easily fall off onto the floor. To remedy this, cut two one-inch by 6-foot boards, and secure them on each of the two sides where you have a 6-foot run. That gives you an inch on each side to catch the train if it falls, especially if you fill the one-inch widths with rocks, trees, ground cover, etc. If you want to, you can make two trains – two ovals of track; 11″ Radius on the outside and 9-3/4″ Radius on the inside.

As an example of freight car types, where I lived in Wayne, New Jersey, when Conrail was in its heyday, there was a line that belonged originally (1950 is printed on the rails) to Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western, then Erie Lackawanna, then by their successor Conrail and NJ Transit for passenger service. Conrail used the line to run short freights, and I used to see box cars, covered hoppers, a caboose or two, a Wisconsin Central, Ltd. hopper that looked very new, and black-painted tank cars handwritten with white paint for maple syrup.

In the early-1990’s, at one end of Wayne Township, earth had to be taken from the area and moved at night to Jersey City.To do this, Conrail used a bunch of old open-top hoppers painted black and sporting a lot of rust and bare spots. Upon examination on a weekend afternoon when nobody was around and the hoppers were parked, I found that the hoppers were painted for Penn Central, with the aqua green paint showing through the bare spots on the black overcoat. As a train nut I was glad to see these cars still working, but I must have been the only one in the vicinity to see the job end. Those long strings of old hoppers made a rumble at night that sounded like an earthquake!