the MRH Forum

Covered Hopper Hatches and Commodity Locos and rolling stock
Reply
Regular poster 331 posts Pirosko Regular poster 331 posts
Pirosko

With regards to the type of hatches on similar type covered hoppers, were they specicfic to the type of commodity being transported? There were/are square hatches, round hatches and the car length rectangular hatches.  In modeling  various dry chemical/plastic pellets, fertilizers, grains and sand, what is the appropriate style, if any, for the hatches? I am not sure that once a car is used to carry chemicals it can be cleaned to carry grains. I need to be educated in this aspect and would like some information or links to information on how covered hoppers are used. Based on this I can make sure my traffic flow of hoppers is justified. Thanks

Steve.

 

 

 

 
Reply 0
CAR_FLOATER Regular poster 385 posts
CAR_FLOATER

Hopper Hatches

Steve - I am far from an expert on this, but I alwasy suggest the following resources when it come to these kind of things - Google and Wikipedia - THEY ARE YOUR FRIENDS! I also suggest the following Yahoo Groups - The Steam Era Freight Car discussion group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/STMFC/, and the Baby Boomer Freight Cars discussion Group at http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/bbfcl/.
 
Now, to try to answer your question as best I can, early covered hoppers were used to haul chemicals, ore, cement.....Esentially, non-food products. These cars were small (less than 40 ft) and of 70 ton capacity, IIRC. The hatches were either circular or square. As I said, I am no expert on dates and usage (once again, Google!) but the Wiki page says that roughly speaking, 2-bay hoppers are for heavy, bulk materials (cement) and 3 and 4-bay hoppers are for light materials (plastics, grain). Personally, I would think that if you are concerned with era, that the smaller 34ft ACF-type hoppers like the ones Bowser makes (all my model references will be to HO products, btw) are good for 1930 to the 1970's, the PS-2 made by Atlas for 1950-1980 eras, the Airslide or Centerflow hoppers arrived on the scene in the 1960's, and the larger 3 and 4 bay hoppers were around in the late 1960's and are still in use today. There are most certainly smaller covered hoppers on the rails today, but I am sure they are of a more modern design, like the ones made by Athearn.
 
Oh, back to hatches quickly....As I said, square and circular are found on the older cars, but the trough-type hatches are primarily a grain or plastics type hatch, from what I can tell. There are many kinds of hatch spacings and types between the different builders, regardless of weather or not the car looks the same from ground level, so it's always best to consult photos.
I hope this helps you out some, I am sure there are far more knowledgeable sorts out there on the forum.
RAH
 
 
Reply 0
Russ Bellinis Prolific poster 3,335 posts
Russ Bellinis

I'm not sure, but I think the different shape hatches are more

the result of who the car manufacturer was than comodity hauled.  If you sign up on the Modern Freight Car List at yahoo, there are some very knowledgeable modelers on that list.  Generally, I think that covered hoppers probably are used in pretty much dedicated service.  Plastic pellets and grain might be used in the same cars, since both products are relatively easy to clean out.  I suspect that cement hoppers and most hoppers used for chemicals are probably in dedicated service since powdered chemicals may be more difficult to clean out of any nooks and crannies, and you not only don't want food products contaminated, but you also don't want cross contamination of dissimilar chemicals.  Certainly, a car could be thoroughly cleaned for a change in product service, but would they do that as a part of regular maintainance and just use the cars in a pool, or keep them in dedicated service?
Reply 0
Chris VanderHeide cv_acr Super User 2,354 posts
Chris VanderHeide cv_acr

Plastic pellets and grain are

Plastic pellets and grain are most definately not shipped in the same cars.

Grain cars are typically 3-bay with full-length trough hatches. Other commodities can also be shipped in these types of cars, but then the car will likely be pretty much assigned to a specific commodity. The smaller round hatches are easier to seal than the long trough hatches and that's probably why they're preferred for dry bulk cement and chemical shipments. (I've seen cars with sheets of plastic under the closed hatches to really seal them up nicely.)

Plastic pellets are shipped in 3-4 bay cars with pneumatic discharge outlets. The product is basically vacuumed out of the car for unloading. Cars assigned for plastics pellets are not used for anything else and have special interior coatings as the pellets can be very easily contaminated.

Sand, salt and cement are heavier and typically shipped in shorter 2-bay cars. Potash is shipped in 3-bay cars typically with round hatches. An industry near me ships out crushed glass for recycling in 3-bay trough-hatch hoppers all with SIRX markings.

Finely powdered material like fly ash, powdered clay, fine powdered cement, etc. is usually shipped in 3-bay pressure unloading hoppers, although I have seen some pneumatic hoppers (like the plastic pellet cars) that are obviously assigned to mineral companies and in powdered bulk service.

Chris van der Heide

My Algoma Central Modelling Blog

Canadian Freight Car Gallery

CPR Sudbury Division (Waterloo Region Model Railway Club)
Reply 0
Rio Grande Dan Prolific poster 2,307 posts
Rio Grande Dan

Plastic Pellets are also

Plastic Pellets are also shipped by Box Cars in Plastic sealed sacks. Rubbermade has its biggest plant here just south of town and they get 15 or 20 Box Car Loads of 50 lb Bags of their Plastic pellets every week. I just went to their open house last night and it's really cool how they make stuff.

Dan

Rio Grande Dan
Reply 0
Reply