no one answered my question!

[locomutt]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Mookie

Will my new Rebel have a memory card? If so, it will be one up on Mook!

Should,most digitals that I know of have them.[:)][:p]

[Overmod]

FURX is First Union Leasing.

Is it possible that the 'hole' is behind an externally-mounted transponder of some kind, with equipment normally mounted either behind the sheets or on the endsill but with a cable or other connection between?

It would help to know how the 'edges' of the hole were finished: rough or smooth cut, painted or not, beaded or grommeted edge. (Better ask the driver and sandwich guy for 12x50s, or while he's at it a good reflector telescope! ;-} )

[Mookie]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Overmod

FURX is First Union Leasing.

Is it possible that the 'hole' is behind an externally-mounted transponder of some kind, with equipment normally mounted either behind the sheets or on the endsill but with a cable or other connection between?

It would help to know how the 'edges' of the hole were finished: rough or smooth cut, painted or not, beaded or grommeted edge. (Better ask the driver and sandwich guy for 12x50s, or while he's at it a good reflector telescope! ;-} )

The new ones are pretty powerful - just a little late for the FURX. But the hole, from where I could see it, looked plain, smooth - very dark on the inside, so I am sure it didn't go all the way through. Reminded me of when you do your lawn and take plugs out of it or plug cheese - just a perfect round hole - driver sez about 6" in diameter - not sure but probably pretty close to that.

With all the eyes on this forum, surely someone has seen them!

[edblysard]

Mookie,
Next chance you get, see if you can take a peek inside the "hole"..
Bet you see the end of a air hose connection, like the one the gas station has.

We have a bunch of ECRX hoppers down here in a captured coke service, they have this hole also, always seems to be on the left hand side of the car.
Designed for a worker to stab or hook up a air hose, which in turns uses the air to open the bottom dump doors...

Ed

[Modelcar]

"CATX has my paw print on it"....Careful now, that is Garfields icon. Meow.

[Modelcar]

...Jen, you had question on Rebel....Are you talking about a new Canon Digital Rebel....? For sure it will have memory card....Don't know how much MB's. Digital we purchased recently had 16 MB's of memory and I increased that to 64 MB's....Should take about 50 pic's.

[BaltACD]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Mookie

Nice hole Dan! The hole looks to be about that size, but as Brother Carl sez - it is on the side panel - the first or sometimes the last side panel on the car. Don't remember why the difference - I was watching the cars go by pretty fast and fascinated by the holes!

On your picture - it would be below the BNSF and in the lower left-hand corner of that first panel.

I would take pictures, but by the time I developed them, we would forget what they were for!

Moo

Digital cameras don't need 'developing time' for pictures.

[Mookie]

QUOTE: Originally posted by BaltACD

QUOTE: Originally posted by Mookie

Nice hole Dan! The hole looks to be about that size, but as Brother Carl sez - it is on the side panel - the first or sometimes the last side panel on the car. Don't remember why the difference - I was watching the cars go by pretty fast and fascinated by the holes!

On your picture - it would be below the BNSF and in the lower left-hand corner of that first panel.

I would take pictures, but by the time I developed them, we would forget what they were for!

Moo

Digital cameras don't need 'developing time' for pictures.

I still live in the world of take your pictures to Walgreens for developing.

Have digital camera on list. List is long...

Moo

[Mookie]

QUOTE: Originally posted by edblysard

Mookie,
Next chance you get, see if you can take a peek inside the "hole"..
Bet you see the end of a air hose connection, like the one the gas station has.

We have a bunch of ECRX hoppers down here in a captured coke service, they have this hole also, always seems to be on the left hand side of the car.
Designed for a worker to stab or hook up a air hose, which in turns uses the air to open the bottom dump doors...

Ed

Dear Ed: To get a peek inside, Mookie will have to learn to run very fast!

Driver and I have racked our brains trying to remember whether these were bottom or rotary dump. Didn't work. The train was headed east, we were on the south side and the holes would have been, well, right there in front of us! So not sure if that is left or right! And they weren't always on the same side panel. Some were under the # and right above the trucks and others were at the other end, right above the trucks.

But.....if they are rotary is there any way these could be either air hose holes or.....
here comes the tricky part......if rotary - something to fasten the floor and the car together so they can be dumped together? Make sense? A right-angle post that fits in that hole to secure the car? No probably not. Probably like you said - an air hose hole.
Well, give me c for creative!

Mook

[edblysard]

Mookie,
Even if they have a rotary coupler, they can still have dump doors..
One dosnt exclude the other....lets them be used in different services.
I will keep my eyes open, and if I find some of your cars, I will just take a look...
Ed
(dont mind the sheetrock dust, it vacumes up)

[CShaveRR]

Hey, little sister!

I thought I mentioned that they were hoppers, and there might be something to do with the unloading devices behind that hole. (As Sheetrock Ed said, they might still have a rotary coupler.)

We can scratch the possibility that this is a new design: from what I could find out on the computer at work, these cars were built in 1990, and were relettered FURX in early 2001. I tried to get a line on their ancestry, but that will have to come from someone with full access to UMLER records.

Forgot to ask: were these aluminum, or steel? My screen at work shows steel, but it isn't always right about such things.

Since then,

[Mookie]

QUOTE: Originally posted by CShaveRR

Hey, little sister!

I thought I mentioned that they were hoppers, and there might be something to do with the unloading devices behind that hole. (As Sheetrock Ed said, they might still have a rotary coupler.)

We can scratch the possibility that this is a new design: from what I could find out on the computer at work, these cars were built in 1990, and were relettered FURX in early 2001. I tried to get a line on their ancestry, but that will have to come from someone with full access to UMLER records.

Forgot to ask: were these aluminum, or steel? My screen at work shows steel, but it isn't always right about such things.

Since then,

Sorry BC - I read so fast, I read right over that part.

Ok - they were hoppers and were not aluminum. They were a dull brown-red color, didn't look very new and went by pretty fast. He was going out of town, so had picked up quite a bit of speed by then and they were about 3/4 of the way back. I was sitting there daydreaming and suddenly noticed the holes! Looked like someone had come along with a big punch and punched a nice round hole in each one. Like they would put them on a big round key ring and hang them from a nail.....(gotta get more sleep!)

SJ

[edblysard]

Did it look like they had a little extra steel around the hole, as if the car body was "thicker" there?
If , you might be looking at the tow loop, or tow eye, where the car has a eye or hole designed for the tow chain to be hooked to...

Ed