ACF Hoppers

[Anonymous]

Greetings,

I was always curious if there was a difference between the small round hatches on the ACF hoppers and the longer hatches?

Is it for different kinds of loads? On my Athearn grain ACF hoppers there was always a choice of what hatches you wanted to put on.

Just curious?

And whats more popular the smooth hoppers or the ribbed 3 bay?

Mark in Texas

[Anonymous]

The smart aleck answer would be that the small round ones are small and round and the long ones are long! Seriously, in the 20 years or so I lived in western Kansas grain country where most of the trains were strings of covered hoppers I don't remember seeing any with the little round hatches. Doesn't mean they weren't there, it means I don't remember seeing any.

Ed

[Anonymous]

I've always heard that the troughs(long) are for grain & the hatches for chemicals(salt, cement, soda..) .
In the Richmond Va area I'd say the smooth (AFC, Trinity...)& ribbed (PS, FMC...) as far as grain goes are close to even.
RayE

[Big_Boy_4005]

I would think that it would be easier to fill the ones with the long hatches.

One day I was at this McDonalds that is situated across the tracks from a grain elevator. As I ate my lunch, I watched carefully as a whole string of cars slowly, but continually, moved along. From time to time a guy would come out from the shed, walking along the tops of the cars and open the hatches. When a car was full, the guy would come out of the other end of the shed, and make sure there was no traffic on the street, and release the car allowing gravity to carry it away, and the whole line would move up about 20 feet, and the process would start again.

Maybe that explains why certain customers would want cars with long hatches.

By the way I have both types of cars on my layout.[:D]

[Eriediamond]

The great hatch debate. Let me join in and stir the pot. Ok, it ain't a debate just opinions, so here is mine. The difference between square and round hatches mean nothing more then their shape and really have nothing to do with whats loaded into the car. A car could be loaded with wheat in western Kansas, unloaded in Maine, reloaded at a north-eastern sea port with chemicals and unloaded in Kansas City and the cycle goes on. What determines the content of a covered hopper more then anything is the bottom of the car. If the car had pipes on the bottom, this would indicate the car is used for products such as cement, plastic pellets, chemicals,etc. that would be unload by a pneumatic process rather by gravity. These type hoppers are sometimes called pnuematic tankers even though they are covered hopper cars. Anyhow, having square and round hatched cars serving your railroad is perfectly fine. Just means some were hatched from square eggs and others from round eggs.[(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D]