I'm used to seeing endless strings of reddish BNSF covered grain hoppers roll by at work. This morning, a grainer went through with something different. All the cars were visibly shorter than the BNSF cars, are not quite as puffy (?). They were also all really dirty and grimy. Granted, I was looking at them from approximately a half mile away. All the cars were (at one time) white or light gray. Now they look like they have had grease and oil running down the sides and were then rolled in the dust. Could it be that these are the smaller (263,000#?) cars? Is the grain business up enough to pull these dirty dogs out of storage?
Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
Murphy Siding I'm used to seeing endless strings of reddish BNSF covered grain hoppers roll by at work. This morning, a grainer went through with something different. All the cars were visibly shorter than the BNSF cars, are not quite as puffy (?). They were also all really dirty and grimy. Granted, I was looking at them from approximately a half mile away. All the cars were (at one time) white or light gray. Now they look like they have had grease and oil running down the sides and were then rolled in the dust. Could it be that these are the smaller (263,000#?) cars? Is the grain business up enough to pull these dirty dogs out of storage?
Were they BNSF or 'foreign' cars. The planting season is rapidly approacing and plants require fertilizer. Fertilizer cars look 'well used' after several trips.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
I think they were foreign cars, but wasn't close enough to actually see. All the BNSF cars I've seen in the last 6-1/2 years have been the big reddish ones. Fertilizer makes sense. From a distance they looked like someone had weathered them for their HO layout. Do fertilizer cars usually just just dormant in the off-season?
Don't know about dormant, but they do move around the country as the seasons and Ag requirements change. Some, in captive markets, will sit loaded in SIT yards for months in dry country. Get a whiff from some that have not moved in a while and it's toss cookies time.
mudchicken Don't know about dormant, but they do move around the country as the seasons and Ag requirements change. Some, in captive markets, will sit loaded in SIT yards for months in dry country. Get a whiff from some that have not moved in a while and it's toss cookies time.
CSX has hundreds, if not thousands of fertilizer covered hoppers that service an area of Florida known as the Bone Valley. At one time CSX named this area of their operation 'the Fertilizer Business Unit' at a time when divisions were named 'business units'. Needless to say the output of the Bone Valley is sold all over the country - both in carload and trainload lots.
You're right, Balt...I'd say thousands, for now, for CSX.Most of these cars are the ubiquitous 4740/4750-cubic-foot ribbed-side cars of Pullman Standard, and their 4600/4650-cubic ACF Center Flow counterparts. They're no longer efficient in grain service (modern grain cars are in the 5161/5200-cubic-foot category with 263K trucks), and the phosphate loads do take their toll on the cars.But look at the ages of these cars: many are approaching the 40-year age limit for interchange service (there shouldn't be many 4740s out there any more, and 4750s, which started showing up in 1973 or so, should be having their ranks thinned as well. There are plenty of 4750s left, because other carbuilders got into it and flooded the ranks from 1979 through 1982 (but some of these builders' cars looked pretty ratty from the get-go). After 1982 or so, this size of covered hoppers wasn't built in large numbers, so in another five or six years, barring major changes in transport methods, you'll start seeing some of the 5100/5127/5150/5161/5250-cubic-foot cars serving out their time in phosphate service. And CSX, which hasn't invested as heavily as the other railroads in new covered hoppers recently, may have to buy the hundreds, if not thousands, of newer cars necessary to get enough cars to haul bones out of the valley.
Carl
Railroader Emeritus (practiced railroading for 46 years--and in 2010 I finally got it right!)
CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)
Spent a couple weeks in 2005 ? just watching trains in bone valley - great time. Most of the cars were stained almost completely white, many had just barely visible reporting marks.
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.