Ford Motor 3 bay hopper traffic

[Anonymous]

I work at a location just to the NorthWest of the Rouge plant. Along the back of my parking lot, a track runs that at the north end, is a wye to the former Conrail (now NS?) main between Detroit & Chicago, along which the Pontiac/Det/Chi Amtrak runs through Dearborn. At the other end, the track crosses the Ford freeway and enters the Rouge property at the Western most (?) corner of the facility.

Several times a day, a single ConRail engine (don't know the type) drags a string of about 30-40 covered 3 bays into the plant, and then sometime later, drags what appears to be the same string out. The engine is always on the point, so he's run around the string. These cars are not for general traffic, quite weathered, rusty & gray colored, and former road affiliation has been painted over. Their information is variable, ??-?X, so they are private and dedicated to this local service. There is no real indication on them as to what might be in them, and they appear in the same condition coming and going...that is, there is no apparent extra stuff like white dust or dark dust on them. There seem to be several of these trains each day.

Does anyone have an idea what their purpose is, what they carry and their non-Ford destination?

Rich

[spekarik]

The hoppers most likely contain polymers and or plastic pellets for the manufacturing of bumpers, dash boards, ect. THe cars could come from anywhere. Most likely from Ohio though. When these cars are placed at the factory, they use a vacuum to unload them.

[Anonymous]

No Scott, I know they are not plastic. There is nothing like that made at the Rouge anymore. All of the interior parts are made either at Visteon's Milan...or Saline plants. All the ip's and bumpers (from Milan) are completed and shipped to the assembly plants. I know that from the scheduling work I do.

I was watching a string being dragged in today, and I think they must be going someplace very local, because I'm starting to recognize this one former scl hopper that's painted over just halfway up the car. It's always in the middle of the string, so where ever they go to and from, the string isn't broken.

I'm beginning to suspect something basic, like gravel or small stones or something. Maybe something used in construction? Or something hauled off to a nearby waste dump? Whatever it is, it's not dusty. Maybe it's sand? I think they might still make glass there. I'll check next week. Sand would make sense...lot's of local source's for that...

Today at the 10:30am inbound, they stitched 3 coil cars on the tail. That's not usual, but I've seen them there before. I came back from a meeting about 12:15, and the coil cars had been left inside the grounds.

Rich

[ericsp]

Any ideas?

[CShaveRR]

Foundry sand?