SF/BNSF Potash Hoppers

[Anonymous]

Hi from England [:)], Several of you may know that from several of my postings I'm attempting to model a portion of the SF/BNSF LA to San Diego Surfline. I recently saw a picture of a unit Pota***rain heading down the line with a SD70MAC on the lead, great pic of the motive power but no good pictures of the cars except they where SF/BNSF mineral brown in colour and very heavily weathered a pale grey colour.
What type of covered hopper would have been used? I have loads of the Intermountain 3 bay covered hoppers lettered for both SF and BNSF but I thought they would be used for grain. I notice that Walthers do a 3 bay covered hopper lettered for SF or would they be a private owner cars.
Any help would be greatful

[ericsp]

You could probably use any modern, non-specialized covered hopper. My guess is they were probably Trinity Rail Group's latest type of covered hoppers that look similar to Center-flow hoppers but are not Center-flows. Athearn Genesis and LBF make models of these. I have also seen hoppers like these (they appear a bit short though) with ASHX reporting marks. They probably also use older covered hoppers and Center-flow hoppers. I think that BNSF takes significant amounts of IMC Chemicals covered hoppers (DGHX and AJPX) to the port of San Diego.

[XG01X]

I agree with ericsp, I'm in the midwest but BNSF delivers potash in just about all covered hoppers. I have seen Santa Fe Cylindricals, BNSF Centerflows, BN 4427's.
I haven't seen Trinity 5161's but they would prob. keep them for higher volume shippers.
Travis