Step 1 :We can model the situation as a Markov Chain with two states: 'Home' and 'Pool'. Each month, 7% of the boxcars transition from 'Home' to 'Pool', and 73% of the boxcars transition from 'Pool' to 'Home'. We want to find the steady state probabilities, which represent the long-term proportions of boxcars in each state.
Step 2 :Let's denote the long-term proportion of boxcars at 'Home' as \(h\) and at 'Pool' as \(p\).
Step 3 :We can write down the following system of equations based on the transition probabilities:
Step 4 :1. \(h = 0.93h + 0.73p\) (since 93% of the boxcars at 'Home' stay at 'Home' and 73% of the boxcars at 'Pool' move to 'Home')
Step 5 :2. \(h + p = 1\) (since the total proportion of boxcars must be 1)
Step 6 :We can solve this system of equations to find the values of \(h\) and \(p\).
Step 7 :The solution is \(h = 0.9125\) and \(p = 0.0875\).
Step 8 :Final Answer: The railroad can expect to have \(\boxed{91.25\%}\) of its boxcars on its home trackage in the long run.