ballast cars?

[cwclark]

open bay hoppers or side dump gondolas are or were used as ballast cars...I remember watching the train behind my house replace ballast as a kid...the open bay hopper would dump the ballast and a special spreader machine behind the train would spread it over the rails and then a tamping machine came along to tamp it down...it was pretty cool to watch as a kid...chuck

[Anonymous]

Drop bottom and GS gons... absolutely for certain... much more likely than any hoppers for the period from what I've seen in proffessional journals of the period... with the possible exception of the RICH roads... mainly the coal roads... where they needed to do the maintenance fast between heavy traffic.

I have seen stake side flats fitted with ballast boards from way back.


I'm not sure of the dates (I suspect 1900 + but don't know an end date) but I have seen stuff on unloading...
Now the fun part about unloading these was that the MoW crews could,
detach the loco,
screw the car brakes on hard,
lay the end boards flat between cars,
take off the side boards on one or both sides...
pull a plough (like a bulldozer blade) along the cars with the loco
and unload the ballast.
Would probably have been wise to screw the cars down before detaching the loco...
As I say, I don't know what date this was last used.
Would make a great model though.

Some drop bottom Gons could have the floor configured to different hopper shapes... centre drop or side... as well as be flat bottomed.

Certainly before 1900 some Boxcars could do this too... mainly (I think) for grain traffic... the main aim of convertible cars was to maximise loaded running... even at a cost of higher tare weight. This died as cars became more specialised and pooling arrangements spread. (The specialised cars tended to be dedicated while general cars in interchange traffic had had the conditions of use and repair increasingly sorted out).

Connected with this... I've seen stuff about early steel Gons being stencilled with orders prohibiting the practice of whacking holes in the steel plate with axes in order to provide tie-down points...
There was at keast one patent taken out for a gusset plate design to solve this problem. the plate could be added in the side panels to provide a strong hole that wouldn't run. It looked a bit like the sort of plastic eye ring that you can add to tent fabric.

Oh yes, and side dump cars.
At least one design had two dump bodies on a 2 truck frame... to solve the problem of shifting the weight by screw before cars used compressed air to dump. the alternative was to place the load box high so that it could rock... but this gave a high centre of gravity which caused problems... the whole car could tip over... sometimes on the move...

[icmr]

I would use standard hoppers.



ICMR

Happy Railroading.[swg][swg]

[GN-Rick]

The Intermountain drop-bottom composite-sided gondola would be good
for that era. It is also a great model. As others have said, old 55 ton hoppers
are also appropriate. GS style gondolas from Red Caboose or Detail Associates
are also excellent, iand well detailed, therefore somewhat time consuming to build,
especially Detail Associates'. Two other great models. Hope this helps.

[cacole]

Many roads just use old hoppers that are no longer suitable for revenue service, since ballast hoppers will never be out on a mainline running at track speed. The larger and richer railroads have special built ballast hoppers that dump the ballast out the sides instead of all the way across the bottom, because they perform a lot more ballast maintenance than a smaller line, but I don't think such specialized rolling stock existed in the era you're modeling.

[Janafam]

Use a standard hopper.

[Anonymous]

Probally drop bottom gons or basic hopper cars from that era will work.

[jguess733]

what models should i use a ballast/gravel cars for my railroad. i'm assuming something with a drop bottom. i'm setting it in the late 20's just before the stock market crash. i appreciate any suggestions. thanks.