Wondering why certain railroads used 2-bay coal hoppers instead of 4-bay, is there a unique purpose for this? Seems as though it wouldn't make sense to have a smaller car being used for the same purpose as the larger ones. Wouldn't a 4-bay hopper be a little more efficient?
Hopper cars grew over time. I also wonder if legacy loading and unloading facilities had something to do with it. Not only that, but not every coal mine is a large scale operation. There were a lot of smaller operations who only would fill a car or two at a time.
It's probably also useful to remember that until the 1960s or so, coal was widely used as a home heating fuel, and perhaps a four-bay car might be too much for a small retail outlet.
Dan
It is exactly as Dan has said. Mostly the retail coal dealers unloading trestles could not handle a 70 ton car. Some retailers unloaded and loaded delivery wagons and trucks directly from the hoppers. Also some rotary unloading facilities were designed for the 50 to 55 ton cars. Some of the 2 bay 50 ton cars lasted longer then the 4 bay 70 ton cars running with them. Then the larger 3 bay 77 to 100 ton hoppers came along and phased out the 4 bay. One less door to maintain and larger capacity.
Pete
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Oh, ok thanks, makes sense. Would these smaller hoppers be seen mixed in with the larger ones on a unit coal train? Or would they typically keep them seperate? Just wondering for my operation, as I have more 4-bay hoppers than the 2-bay.
mmr1229 Oh, ok thanks, makes sense. Would these smaller hoppers be seen mixed in with the larger ones on a unit coal train? Or would they typically keep them seperate? Just wondering for my operation, as I have more 4-bay hoppers than the 2-bay.
In the time frame you're talking about, unit trains didn't really exist. AIUI, there were some situations where whole trains went from mine to tidewater, or from mine to a power plant or industry. But you would have to find out about those particular operations.
Come to think of it, I don't remember seeing a two bay hopper in a train in at least the last twenty years. So I wold have to guess that the two bay hoppers were gone by the 1980s, and unit train services really began in the 1970s.
There's a good discussion about unit trains here.
A unit train is a train where all the cars are moving on the same waybill. The government didn't permit that until the 1960's or so.
They moved coal with individual carload waybills. Twins could be mixed with triples or quads.
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Cool, i appreciate the information. I still have alot to learn about prototypical railroading, is there a website or some other source of information i may find out more about American railroading?
Depending on the road, region, and era you want to model the historical societies are a great source of knowledge. Books and magazines are another.
dehusman mmr1229: Oh, ok thanks, makes sense. Would these smaller hoppers be seen mixed in with the larger ones on a unit coal train? Or would they typically keep them seperate? Just wondering for my operation, as I have more 4-bay hoppers than the 2-bay. A unit train is a train where all the cars are moving on the same waybill. The government didn't permit that until the 1960's or so. They moved coal with individual carload waybills. Twins could be mixed with triples or quads.
mmr1229: Oh, ok thanks, makes sense. Would these smaller hoppers be seen mixed in with the larger ones on a unit coal train? Or would they typically keep them seperate? Just wondering for my operation, as I have more 4-bay hoppers than the 2-bay.
Generally a true unit train would have all cars the same type, to make loading and unloading easier. Unlike regular trains, unit trains are most often kept together as a solid unit, often with balloon tracks at each end so they can be loaded and unloaded without any uncoupling or switching needing to be done.
Somewhere in the pile of copies I have an article from WW2 regarding a rail to water transfer location (I don't recall where) that could only take 2 bay hoppers efficiently. There was a particular need for traffic through the location in a hurry so a number of three bay hoppers were shopped, altered by having the mid hopper removed and shipped back out as 2 bays. The mid bays were stripped of all their door parts for spares and new cars/ IIRC the remainder was sent off as scrap to be turned into new steel.
AFAIK this was a one off situation but it does shown something of the effcet that pre-existing facilities could have when there was a surge in traffic.