I’ve been trying to indentify what kind of hoppers would go on my 1940-1960s layout. I’m aware of the uncovered black type that are typical for coal hauling. I’m looking for grain type/covered hoppers; did any of these exist during this time period? I do have a NYC car that is covered that says it was built in 54. Although this will work for my time period, it leads me to wonder what types of hoppers (if any) were built before WWII. I’ve searched it and didn’t find much.
grain cars have been used since trains figgered out a way to transport them, IE in the 1800’s. Chicago had a huge grain terminal downtown till the ole great fire in the 1880’s wiped it out, but there was a grain elevator in chicago rebuilt anyways. They might not have been c overed hoppers, standard box cars were used to move grain that were adapted inside.
Construction of covered hoppers did not mature until the 1930s. Pretty much all such “modern” covered hoppers were built for bulk shipment of cement.
Prior to covered hoppers, bulk (loose) cement was shipped in box cars. For instance, the first covered hoppers SP acquired for hauling cement was in 1946. (Some railroads converted older box cars to covered hoppers by installing metal bins, top-loading hatches, and bottom-dump hatches.)
Covered hoppers designed for lighter lading such as sugar and flour did not become common until the 1950s, particularly with the introduction of the Pllman-Standard PS-2 covered hoppers. Still, boxcars were still the usual carriers of bulk grain for some time after.
I’d suggest you use boxcars for hauling grain on your layout.
Edit – Hauling cement in boxcars “spoiled” their use for other purposes, so they were usually marked for cement use only. On the other hand, one needed a clean interior for hauling grain. Be sure to have a supply of (interior) grain doors for your boxcars at grain-loading sites.
Up until the 1960’s the vast majority of grain was moved in 40 ft boxcars. Pre-1960’s it was pretty rare for grain to be in covered hoppers. Virtually all the covered hoppers were used for cement, sand, carbon black, some flour and other materials. Covered hoppers were built all the way back to the early 1900’s but weren’t common until the 1930’s or 1940’s in cement service. Starting in the 1960’s they were used for more commodities and by the 1980’s teh boxcar was no longer used for grain. The last boxcar grain moves I remember were in the early 1980’s to Mexico.
If you are modeling the 1940’s to 1960’s, I would say move your grain in 40 ft boxcars. In the 1940’s-1950’s virtually 100% of grain moved in the US moved in boxcars. If you are modeling early 1960’s, then maybe 10% was in covered hoppers. By the end of the 1960’s probably 50-75% was in covered hoppers.
My post earlier has a link with a history showing the covered hoppers starting in the late 30’s. The bowser units they’re pushing are modeled after prototypes around 1944 acording to the write-up.
That CoG write-up was misleading. It starts out talking about covered hoppers and their 1930s development, but then describes the 1944 prototype as an open-top hopper used for hauling coal. The write-up is less than useful.
There were covered hopers back into the 1930’s. But they were NOT used for grain. Grain hoppers didn’t become common until the late 1960’s, early 1970’s. If he is modeling 1967-1969, then a few grain covered hoppers might be seen if he’s modeling the midwest. If he’s modeling the east coast before 1960, then there won’t be a grain covered hopper to be found.
For example the Reading didn’t buy grain covered hoppers until 1970.