What type of car is this?

[Anonymous]

http://www.railarc.com/imagefetch.cgi?filename=csxt-660319-mulberry_fl-[7-may-2002]-000-960x640.jpg . What type of car is that?

[BNSFNUT]

Link seems to be not working. Get a message about file being to big.

[locomutt]

QUOTE: Originally posted by BNSFNUT

Link seems to be not working. Get a message about file being to big.

[#ditto] on link not working,file too large,contact staff@[:(]

[Overmod]

I found CSXT 660319 at the following link:

http://www.railarc.com/imagefetch.cgi?filename=csxt-660319-mulberry_fl-%5B7-may-2002%5D-000-960x640.jpg

(the original link as posted not working, but the site promptly directing me to this one)

Note the construction of the car immediately to the left of the one in the picture; considerably heavier but with the roofwalk extensions in alignment.

Hmmm... covered, extended-height, heavy construction. My first immediate thought was 'garbage', but none of the pix of CSX tra***rains I see appear to use this type of car. My next guess would be some type of wood product, possibly treated or impregnated with something --

[JoeKoh]

my guess would be some fine fiberglass powder that is used to make insulation.well keep checking back
stay safe
Joe

[Junctionfan]

My thought was garbage too but it could be for some sort of aggregate that requires covering.........maybe phosphate rock.

[Anonymous]

It must be for something that is heavy, because those cars look rather small.

[Junctionfan]

Maybe cement but I can't see that happening because their is no pnematic unloading. Whatever it is, it must require it to be covered up. Could it be for bauxite or even finished aluminum coil? Could it have something to do with Alcoa or Alcan Aluminum?

[Allen Jenkins]

CSXT660319, is a rotary-dump only, using rotary couplers on both ends.
The hatches open for top loading, and the entire top opens to dump, as the car is rotated, the roof slides and is held by the top side sill. It may be unloaded, on either side.
The car dumper is like the Walthers rotary dump, an was invented right there at the CSX(Seaboard Air Line) Port Tampa facility, for the Florida Phosphate Industry.
The car to the left, is the same design, albiet with angled ends. It's probably an old ACL car, as hundreds of cars of the fallen flags are still in service. That's why some hoppers have bottom doors, however CSXT660319 does not.
The product hauled in this car, rated 100 short ton capy(USA), is dry rock processed phosphate, hince the name "Dry Rock Hopper." Dry rock is used all over the world in phosphate fertilizer. China, Russia, India, and other nations, load out of Port Tampa, 24/7. Regardless of embargo status, because of the food production dependancy. Politics plays no games here.
The shipping channel, has a maximum draft of 34 foot deep. Huge freighters port in Tampa Bay. Their crews move about the city, on foot, or by cab, and might not speek a word of english. Ybor City, the cigar capital of the free world, is a popular R&R spot, known all over the world. Ybor is just west, of Uceta, Home of the Uceta GP16.
Because of the double rotary couplers, this type of car is used with strings of single coupler hoppers. It may be the only one in the string, always hooked up to the fixed coupler end of the train. The car may or may not be loaded, because most of the time, it's brought to the cut, from the Mulberry Yard, by the power. The cut of cars is weighed and billed to fill an order, and anyway the empty "idler" car absorbs a lot of shock when the slack runs in, or out.
As an idler car, it will stay with the cut, at the Port of Tampa, Florida, rotary dump, to give the car-haul winch cable somthing to hook to, to permit the last car to be spotted in the dumper...no, really!
Depending on where the pic was taken, along Highway 60 I presume, between Mulberry, and Bartow, because the three bay Ortner cars in the background ex-SCL cars, are now owned by Farmland Industries, these beige shorties may or may not be in phosphate service,spotted, awaiting further dispatch, because of their dual-rotary status.
Enjoy Trainspotting, In Florida! ACJ.

[CShaveRR]

I'd say that, given the Florida location of the photo, phosphate is the commodity for which these cars are intended.

Note that this car (as well as the one next to it) was rebuilt with a substantial increase in height. I just happened to pull out a late-1996 Equipment Register, and it shows a smaller size for the car than the current height and cubic capacity, so the rebuilding took place between late 1996 and the 2002 date of the photo. Gross rail load doesn't seem to have been increased, so something else (different production process, perhaps?) must have prompted the rebuilding of these cars.

Carl

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Allen Jenkins

CSXT660319, is a rotary-dump only, using rotary couplers on both ends.
The hatches open for top loading, and the entire top opens to dump, as the car is rotated, the roof slides and is held by the top side sill. It may be unloaded, on either side.
The car dumper is like the Walthers rotary dump, an was invented right there at the CSX(Seaboard Air Line) Port Tampa facility, for the Florida Phosphate Industry.

The Official Railroad Equipment Register (ORER) lists the cars as a steel rotary gondola with a hinged roof and used for Phosphate.The sequence for the CSXT cars is 660000-660419.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for all the information.

[Junctionfan]

QUOTE: Originally posted by NJMike

Thank you for all the information.

Thankyou for the topic, it was fun to speculate. Any other cars you'd like to ask about?[:)]

[Anonymous]

I will look around and see if I see any other intresting cars.