help to identify car

[Nieuweboer]

I have a freight car that I'm not able to identify as to its purpose. It is about 48' long and looks like an elongated cage with three compartments and open at the top. The vertical posts seem to be hinged at the bottom, but are connected at the top. It is D&RGW car # 945 and built in 1948. I can't find the car i Walthers recent catalogue nor in an older edition of 1999. What I'd like to know is for what kind of freight was this car used for.
Thanks for any help.

[cacole]

Do you mean that this car has bars for the sides and ends, instead of being solid, when you described it as being a cage? Does it have a solid floor, or some type of dump hoppers? My first thought was that it might have been specially built to move some type of animal, but your description about it being divided into three sections makes that unlikely. Since the D&RGW ran primarily in the Rockies, that car may have had something to do with mining.

[darth9x9]

A picture would be worth a thousand words......

[Eriediamond]

[#ditto] on what darth said about pictures. However my wild guess is some type of agriculture car like an early sugar beet car or some thing simular to that. [%-)]

[dehusman]

Sounds like a tie car, used to transport and distribute new ties. Railroads still use them today.

Dave H.

[Nieuweboer]

the car has solid ends and section dividers as well as a solid floor
The vertical posts are 2.25' apart, so that rules out sugar beets and other agricultural products. I think cacole has something when he mentions mining. Mines use(d) a lot of timber. Dave may also be correct in mentioning tie transport. Anyway thanks all for trying to help.