Four-bay covered hoppers....become commonplace in which year(s)?

[Anonymous]

This is not completely evident from dates on archive photos.

Thanks.

[tstage]

Cisco,

FWIW, this is actually more appropriately asked on the Prototype forum.  You'll get a more thorough answer there, too.

Tom

[rrinker]

 That's because there were OLD 4 bay hoppers and there are more modern ones. And with the advent of just turning the car upside down, many of them aren't even hoppers at all, but gons. No doors on the bottom.

 There are 4 bay designs that go back to the 20's and 30's at least. Some railroads jumped to the biggest car they could as fast as they could, others had huge infrastructure in place to handle the 2 bay 50-55 ton cars, and were slow to add bigger cars because of problems loading and unloading until the rest of the infrastructure caught up.

                           --Randy

[mlehman]

If we're talking covered hoppers, they became prevalent during the 1970s. The Southern's Big John was an early-mid-60s design that revolutionzed grain handling on the RRs. There were still lots of 40' boxcars in grain service in 1970, far fewer by 1980.

That's in the US. Since you're in Canada (I assume) 40' boxes stuck around longer due to weight restrictions on a lot of prairie province track and the export line to Churchill. Several of the provinces also made investments in LO cars to aid the export market, so when they came along it was a more marked shift compared to the way that a steady trickle of orders that filled US RR LO fleets.

[7j43k]

Depends on how you define "commonplace".

 

I would say they never were.  Two bay were.  And three bay were.  But not four.

 

And, yes, I am familiar with ACF 5250's and the UP 5250's.  NOT common place.

 

However.  GN bought 4 bay ACF 5250's in 1965.  And Union Pacific built their 4 bay CH-125-2's in 1969.  I can't find info on CH-125-1's.

 

 

Ed

[dti406]

Since the OP is from Canada it seems, the 4 Bay NSC and other manufacturer's cars became prevelant in the late 1970's in Canada as the railroads due to the Crows Nest Pass agreement would not fund the production of new cars for grain loading as they were losing money with each load of grain transported.  There was a severe car shortage for hauling grain in Canada, so the Federal Government and several Provincial Governments stepped in and financed cars for the movement of grain.  They standardized on the 4 bay 4500CF Covered Hopper as represented my the Intermountain Car.  All the cars are lettered with a CPWX or CNWX reporting marks which determines which railroad is responsible for the repairs.

Most of the 4 bay cars in the US are used for hauling plastic pellets although some are used for grain.

Rick Jesionowski

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks, Gentlemen for all the info.  Yes, I forgot to say covered hoppers.  Always interesting to learn more about my model rolling stock....esp why some Gov't Canada hoppers CPWX OR CNWX....and that bit about plastic pellets.

My father was a grain buyer on the prairies for years and I remember visiting the terminal in Vancouver one summer to be amazed at the rig they needed to take each 40' box car and rotate it more or less in the air to empty it out.  Amusing to think how resistance to converting to dumping hoppers prolonged this odd technology.

RE grain car availability....It may be news to you to learn that the government of Canada levelled serious fines against the two national railways last year for stinting on the delivery of grain cars to terminals....perferring to load up their trains with oil cars for more money.  Farmers were furious.  Needless to say, the crash in oil prices may have a reverse effect this year.

[BATMAN]

 Cisco, have you seen these? They are really, really nice. Dan has them on display in the warehouse, I just wish they were my era. I think there are some more announcements coming down the pipe. Drop Dan a note and ask him if you should hold off buying what your looking for if you don't see what you want already.

http://www.pacific-western-rail.com/main.php

Edit; there is/was a You-tube video showing boxcar dumping in Vancouver. It was a promotional kind of film, you know one of those "Canada leads the world in boxcar dumping technology" kind of things. Makes us cringe.

 

[mlehman]

BATMAN

Edit; there is/was a You-tube video showing boxcar dumping in Vancouver. It was a promotional kind of film, you know one of those "Canada leads the world in boxcar dumping technology" kind of things. Makes us cringe.Tongue Tied

There are worse things to be #1 in, much, much worse, but we'll try to avoid going to P&R since that's a no-no

Yeah, wasn't quite sure where Cisco was coming from on this one, so headed sort of in the Canadian direction since he was talking 4-bay cars. There were a few grain cars like that south of the border and I knew that the Canadian changeover was relatively more compressed in time than in the US.

And it will be interesting how oil and grain are dealt with in the future. Turns out the oil guys were in such a hurry to get it to market because it was losing value even as they were loading it. That freaks accountants out.

[BATMAN]

mlehman

And it will be interesting how oil and grain are dealt with in the future. Turns out the oil guys were in such a hurry to get it to market because it was losing value even as they were loading it.

With the mild winter, we are even more awash in oil. Warren Buffet has a little company hidden away in Berkshire Hathaway that builds tank cars. I wonder how that is doing.

[ericsp]

I think 4 bay Center-Flow Hoppers became common in plastic pellet service in the 1960s.