Subject:
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Re: And a new hopper car
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.trains
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Date:
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Thu, 9 Sep 1999 16:15:54 GMT
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Reply-To:
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lpieniazek@novera.com#SayNoToSpam#
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Viewed:
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828 times
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Hmm... not sure I agree. At least not totally. It's muddy, and different
railroads use different terms, as do different car manufacturers. I
spent some time chasing my tail starting from www.nmra.org but didn't
come up with anything definitive.
I KNOW some old Trains mag or another has a glossary but it's not
definitive.
I would say that a basic gondola, unmodified, has low sides and no
bottom openings.
I would say that a basic hopper, unmodified, has high sides and dump
chutes (that is, not just openings, but sloped sides to ensure complete
discharge).
But there are so many variations that it's impossible to strictly
classify.
Prior to the advent of unit trains, high sided cars without dumper
openings were very rare as they were essentially useless. Very labor
intensive to empty them.
Gondolas with any sort of bottom openings have ALWAYS been rare. But the
low sided gondola itself, no matter how modified, is becoming rarer each
year, as is the generic box car. Both are no longer all that useful.
General freight moves in containers. Bulk loads move in specialized cars
such as grain cars (a kind of covered hopper), coil steel cars (a flat
or gon with a cover), and so forth.
Keeping up can be confusing.
--
Larry Pieniazek larryp@novera.com http://my.voyager.net/lar
- - - Web Application Integration! http://www.novera.com
fund Lugnet(tm): http://www.ebates.com/ Member ref: lar, 1/2 $$ to
lugnet.
NOTE: I have left CTP, effective 18 June 99, and my CTP email
will not work after then. Please switch to my Novera ID.
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: And a new hopper car
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| KCS (?) used these cars in coal fields in Kansas and Arkansas and presumably intended them as dual-purpose equipment. They were built in the company shops in Pittsburgh, KANSAS and were used in service until the '80s. As for other lines using this (...) (25 years ago, 9-Sep-99, to lugnet.trains)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: And a new hopper car
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| (...) The most definitive thing I see as characterizing a gondola v.s. a hopper is that hoppers are tall and gondolas are short. Gondolas with bottom doors/chutes are usually refered to as drop bottom gondolas. (25 years ago, 9-Sep-99, to lugnet.trains)
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