Jim Betz says:

"Having said that - I personally do not think it makes a big difference
whether you take the national percentages and try to match them for your
layout. I -do- think it is important to have enough 'foreign road' cars
that things "feel right" ... but I think that taking it to the nth degree
with respect to the research is ... well to put it bluntly ... totally
nutso and missint the point. That approach is not for me. But that's me.
And that's my opinion."

Which is as good as anyone's. The real value...to me...in the hypothesis put forth by Dave Nelson and Tim Gilbert is that it has driven us away from over populating our layouts with home road cars...as Jim says. I will admit, however, that I get a bit of interest when I see something unusual...like the 8 at least Mopac hoppers laden with coal sitting on Santa Fe tracks in San Bernadino in around 1950 as shown in the Warbonnet, First Quarter 2008. Richard has explained this...the Kaiser plant received such coal. Still...unexpected at first glance. Hmmm. Wonder what they would do to the hypothesis...let alone the pool of cars being used by a modeler of Cahon Pass. Yahoo...Andy Sperandeo, Ted York?

Mike Brock