Covered Hoppers

[Anonymous]

Some help from you experts out there. There are several kinds of covered hoppers that I have seen. Some are used for cement. Some for grains and some for powdered products. Is there an easy way to tell the difference? For example, does a PS2 3-bay covered hopper work just as well hauling grains as it does flour? Or are there specific types of three bay hoppers for specific type products?

John in Jax

[thirdrail1]

There are almost as many variations in covered hoppers as there are covered hoppers (Not really, but there ARE a lot.). The first difference is in the size, depending on the density of the product to be hauled (weight per cubic foot). 100 tons of cement, for example, can be hauled in a covered hopper of less than 3,000 cubic feet, while it takes 4,427 to haul 100 tons of wheat, 4,750 to haul 100 tons of corn or soybeans, and 5,100 or more to haul 100 tons of plastic pellets. Commmodities that are flood loaded, such as grain, have single trough hatches on top of the car, while commodities loaded through pipes and hoses are loaded into cars with multiple circular hatches. Then, the unloading gates on the hopper outlets vary according to the flowability of the product and whether or not it is unloaded into to the open or into a sealed system to prevent contamination. Further, the car may be constructed of steel, aluminum, or composite, and may be lined or unlined, depending on the reaction of the commodity to metals or the possibility of contamination. The commodity requiring the most care to prevent contamination is plastic pellets - one off-color pellet can spoil a carload!

[Anonymous]

Thats what I needed. Thanks Gregg. So it would be hard to tell by just looking at a passing hopper what might be in it, unless it had a name on the side, like Wonder Bread, for example. A plain multi hatch covered hopper could have anything inside, from grain to cement, flour to soybeans, corn to plastic pellets..

[thirdrail1]

On the contrary, you can tell from the size and the fittings pretty well what is in a covered hopper if you are familiar with which is used for each type of commodity. No one would load cement in a jumbo hopper, nor plastic in a small hopper, for example. Trough hatch cars are used for grains while on the other hand, round hatch cars are used for chemicals.

[Anonymous]

To every rule there is an exception. Potash is an important component of agricultural fertilizer. Much of it is shipped out of Saskatchewan Canada by unit train either by CN or CP. Many of the cars in this service are second hand that have been repainted a shade similar to oxide red. Until this summer I was under the assumption that all these cars had round loading hatches. After watching a couple of unit trains pass by with an over head vantage point, I discovered that I was wrong. The vast majority of the cars did have the round hatch but some (maybe 10%) of these second hand cars had the trough hatch. Go figure.