Odd Loads

[Anonymous]

I stopped at a food proccessing plant. There was a group of workers unloading a hopper type rail car. It looked like the type used for hauling cement. They were unloading of all things, Salad Oil, from these hopper cars. They also get jelly and Pickle juice in the same way. They line the hopper with a big plastic bag and fill up the bag. When the car arrives at it's destination they open the bottom doors and use a knife to open the bag. The product flows into a funnel, then to storage vats.
I do not work for the railroad so this struck me as being a odd cargo being hauled by a odd method. Has anyone seen cargo odder then this being hauled? Or odder cars being used to haul different types of cargo?
TIM A

[joseph2]

That sounds interesting.In Indiana corn and soybeans used to be shipped in hopper(coal)cars back in the 1970's.

[Anonymous]

Wow, never heard of that. I see alot of Coors concentrated beer shipped by tank car from Golden, Co.

[dknelson]

Not so many years ago Milwaukee had a pretty intense interface between the the animal slaughter / meat / pet food /leather / glue / fertilizer / gellatin dessert industries all of which had rail service at one time. I remember the "gut cars" (open gondolas) which had the most awful remnants of slaughtered animals being taken to the Peter Cooper Glue works in Oak Creek WI on the C&NW. The smell and the flies -- unbelievable. Bits of leather, untanned hide, and raw flesh would be taken to the nearby fertilizer plant in open gons -- also a smelly operation. I understand that on really hot days the gasses would build up in the gut cars and now and then there would be a volcanic eruption, spilling raw guts over the side of the car.
How to model a gut car? Well I am reluctant to suggest how the smell could be recreated -- but I imagine putting some Chef Boy-Ar-Dee spaghetti in the blender would come pretty close to the contents of a gut car in appearance. I pitied the crews on those C&NW locals back then.
Dave Nelson

[bigboy4024]

as one of my many hobies i like to play with antique farm machinery and the weardest that i have ever seen was when i was railfaning kansas city mossury when a BNSF mixed came by heading for california with three antique steam tractors that came from maine by far that was the weardest for me. big boy

[Anonymous]

I've heard of "gut cars", also latrine cars haulng sewage back in the good old steam train days. I saw in a magazine grain being hauled in open hoppers in the US in the '70's due to car shortage. Coal used to be hauled in box cars, just pile the coal up inside. I may have heard of oranges being hauled in covered hoppers.

[csxns]

Pulp wood in boxcars when they were not enough woodracks.My brother works in a warehouse and he said they got a 60 ft hi cube loaded with condoms.

[edblysard]

Dave, they still ship rendered fat (raw lard) in tanks, and they are not to careful about how they load it. Its runs down the side, and man o man, do the skeeters and flies love it. On nice, hot days, the smell can just about knock you out. Try riding on the end of one of these.
Yark...
Stay Frosty,
Ed

[dknelson]

let's not forget grain being shipped in stock cars (!) presumably cleaned first (!!) and with wood sheets covering the slats. There are some good shots on the internet of Rock Island stock cars being used for this service.
Years ago Swift donated a meat reefer to the Illinois Railroad Museum, and one year during the grain ru***he BN leased the car from the museum to use to haul grain. A nice bit of revenue for the museum and probably the BN did a bit of work to bring the car up to snuff. One hand washes the other.
Dave Nelson

[Anonymous]

I switched grain loaded in Milwaukee Road open-top hoppers back in the 70's. They were covered with plastic sheet to keep lading dry. The PRR Octoraro Branch served mushroom producing areas. Mushrooms grow in manure, so the PRR hauled it in from the midwest in old steel-bottom wood sided gondolas mixed with straw. The stuff had a habit of bursting into flames account of spontaneous combustion. The various fire companies on-line all got tired of coming down to the tracks to put out the burning manure, so notified PRR they would no longer respond to calls. The PRR removed tarrifs for hauling horse manure in the late 50's.

[dknelson]

Heh heh -- funny that Lionel never had a "Burning Manure" car to go with the missle launch and helicopter cars.
dave nelson

[AltonFan]

QUOTE: Originally posted by dknelson

Heh heh -- funny that Lionel never had a "Burning Manure" car to go with the missle launch and helicopter cars.
dave nelson

I have a feeling the erupting guts car would also have been popular with the kids.

[zardoz]

dknelson-
My first few years on the CNW were in the Milwaukee area, and I frequently worked the "Oak Creek" and the "Cudahy" jobs, both as a brakeman and then later in the engine. Switching the Glue Works was the most awful job, especially in the summer. The stuff would slop over the ends of the cars causing the making of air hoses a most unrewarding experience. As a brakeman, I really appreciated the engineer that would control the cars such that the crap did not slop all over, and as engineer i did my best to return the favor to the train crews.

I also worked the Kenosha yards, and there were a lot of hide cars shipped from the Kenosha docks. I think those cars would come in third behind the Glue Company cars and the lard cars Ed wrote of.

What was even more amazing, was when switching the Glue factory the workers had to stop so we could access the cars. So while we switched the cars, the workers would sit right at their workstations and EAT LUNCH!!! Here we were, trying not to puke while switching the cars, and these guys were eating. YUCK! Seeing them eat would cause us to come even closer to hurling. I suppose one can get used to about anything.

Maybe we could do a mini-poll from railroaders:

What is the worst car / load you have experienced?

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

I don't know if this could be considered an odd load, but I would consider either of these: Slag thimbles from Wisconsin Steel Works in Chicago being shoved from the mill to the dump site by a CWP&S switcher, the move being outside the mill property and over several grade crossings; or: Bottle cars with molten iron being moved from Interlake Steel's blast furnace plant in Chicago to the finishing plant in Riverdale. This move used PC and CR power ranging from SW9's to GP15-1's.

[Anonymous]

This really isn't an odd load but an un-nerving one. A 40 car train of 86' flat cars with 2 20' containers each of amunition. [:0] Didn't like being around that one at all[V]

[mudchicken]

drailed: and you haven't seen any of those USN & USA mustard yellow 55' boxcars? (The ones with the "Explosives A" placards???)

Nobody seems to have seen schnabel cars or AECX Pantex Specials (the glow in the dark stuff) running around either in special moves....

Dirty Iron Feathers

[dharmon]

QUOTE: Originally posted by drailed1999

This really isn't an odd load but an un-nerving one. A 40 car train of 86' flat cars with 2 20' containers each of amunition. [:0] Didn't like being around that one at all[V]

My advice......don't "kick" those cars in the yard.

[Anonymous]

I was living in Sacramento when the UP moved a load of spent nuclear fuel rods thru the center of the city. 3 GP60's , the special car and 2 old SP police cabooses. I don't think i'd want to ride shotgun on that one!!!!!!!!!!!!! [:0]

I used to see the yellow box cars all the time but they only moved them thru 5 or 6 at a time. I think they were afraid to blow up the Roseville yard again[:D]

[JoeKoh]

big parts for a electric generating station here in Defiance.
stay safe
Joe

[Mookie]

3 airplane bodies and little sheds for their "parts" - 3 engines and about 12 cars. Wonder where they finally ended up.....

Mookie

[Anonymous]

The Reading had a set of open hoppers semi dedicated to move raw sugar from the docks to the refinery in Philadelphia. The cars had removable lids, so the cars were rotated back and forth from sugar to coal service.

[AltonFan]

Saw two piggy-back cars, each having a trailer loaded with eight Bobcats.

(There were two CSX loco on the point; a C40-9 and a SD60. Unusual for my neck of the woods. They were heading toward Deval Crossing {eastbound, I guess) on what I think was former Milwaukee Road trackage.)

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Mookie

3 airplane bodies and little sheds for their "parts" - 3 engines and about 12 cars. Wonder where they finally ended up.....

Mookie

It was either in the trains mag or on a website (can't remember which) but I saw what you are talking about. They were Boeing jets and I think they were headed to K. C., MO.

[Mookie]

QUOTE: Originally posted by jhhtrainsplanes

QUOTE: Originally posted by Mookie

3 airplane bodies and little sheds for their "parts" - 3 engines and about 12 cars. Wonder where they finally ended up.....

Mookie

It was either in the trains mag or on a website (can't remember which) but I saw what you are talking about. They were Boeing jets and I think they were headed to K. C., MO.

Driver said the bodies looked like Boeings, but they had come from the south (maybe KC and were headed west. Where would they go if they went west?
We do have Duncan Aviation that works on planes here in Lincoln and they are out that direction, but if they went on through Lincoln, where would they end up?

Jen

[mudchicken]

Boeing-Douglas/St. Louis to Boeing/Wichita to Boeing/Seattle

[Mookie]

QUOTE: Originally posted by mudchicken

Boeing-Douglas/St. Louis to Boeing/Wichita to Boeing/Seattle

Hey - birdie - I got your answer this weekend - I saw the "do not hump" cars - only different marks. They were bottom-dump coal cars - JHMS 99-1969,
99-507, 99-1767, 99-1037, 99-1787, and 99-986. There was a whole train of them, but figured that many would keep you busy. I nearly ran over the guy in front of me trying to write and holler and find pen, paper. You really do miss a show when you don't railfan with me! The neighborhood finds me very exciting!

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Mookie
[The neighborhood finds me very exciting!

[:D] Are you sure they think your exciting or a little off your rocker????? [:D][:0] Sorry sweety, I couldn't resist. [:o)][:p]

[Mookie]

QUOTE: Originally posted by drailed1999

QUOTE: Originally posted by Mookie
[The neighborhood finds me very exciting!

[:D] Are you sure they think your exciting or a little off your rocker????? [:D][:0] Sorry sweety, I couldn't resist. [:o)][:p]

Hiss!

You live in California and call the kettle black?

Hiss...[}:)]

Actually, people do go by and wave and the train crews? Well, they kind of casually look but don't make a big show of it. But that cute conductor that almost tripped over the rail trying to look cool - and checking the chix....

Mookie

[Anonymous]

Darlin' I know I'm off my rocker and it takes one to really recognize another!!!!!!!!!!! ROFLMAO [:p][:D]

Just remember, I'm old enough to be your son and you can't spank me any more [:D]

[Mookie]

QUOTE: Originally posted by drailed1999

Darlin' I know I'm off my rocker and it takes one to really recognize another!!!!!!!!!!! ROFLMAO [:p][:D]

Just remember, I'm old enough to be your son and you can't spank me any more [:D]

[}:)] Hide and watch and take a number, Sonny! [}:)]

Mother Mook!