I am trying to figure out what these cars used to be, and I have a post on the modeling forum, but I figured that I would show everybody on this side as welll. I also decided to throw the rest of the info up here just for fun. Here’s what I have. I actually got stuck at a grade crossing and photographed an entire CSX ballast train, and here are some examples.
The first one is an old PS2 covered hopper with the big open panel in the middle
The second one is a PS2 with the evenly spaced panels
I think this third one is an old 70 ton two bay 8 paneled coal hopper. Does anybody have anything more specific?
I’m not sure about the fourth type. It has 10 panels and isn’t as tall as the rest. Was this a custom made ballast hopper or a convert?
Also, just for fun here is the guy on the right side with a remote control for the gates (there was a guy on both sides).
And the power…
After compiling all of the numbers and sorting them in Excel, I got this:
Here is 2485 (SD50-2) and 8887 (SD40-2) coupled together on a ballast train here in Georgia a week ago (bottom pic although the top one is ballast work as well). Then I saw them together with 2494 (SD50-2). And one of the pictures of it has it doing ballast work as well.
how the times have changed…10 years ago CSX used “pumkins” in MoW service…the only time i ever worked on a U18b…painted orange …also back then most Ballast hoppers were shop built\rebuilt buy the company from obsolete coal hoppers and obsolete “airslide” hoppers…and the gentleman walking with the remote control…the ballast trains i worked as a trainman…them &%^$@& remotes never worked
The smaller cars were silica sand hoppers / roof and top hatches cut off.
Flip-em over and cut off the old doors and weld Miner/MK doors on. Very similar to the ATSF 176000-177000 class ballast hoppers.
Santa Fe also took some grain hoppers, beefed them up and put them into the 178000 Class.
ATSF’s 76000 class were gawdawful coal hoppers with the absolutely impossible center crank doors. BNSF got rid of these in a heartbeat when the RC lease cars came on the scene.
While I was in Folkston a few weeks back, I saw a CSX ballast train with solar panels on all of the ballast cars. I assume they were to operate the bottom hatches?
Thanks for the comments. From what I can tell the solar panels are actually for the electronics that recieve signals from the remote control. The doors are physically opened by compressed air.
Took a while, but my friend Dwight Jones (of caboose research and restoration fame) found a few previous numbers for me. You’re pretty much right about the ancestries. Here are the former numbers of the cars Dwight found:
CSXT 965018 (PS-2, 7 panels): Ex-B&O 631130 (a covered hopper)
CSXT 965289 (PS-2, 8 panels): Ex-SBD 212396 (a covered hopper from an SBD predecessor)
CSX and a number of other carriers have purchased ballast trains that utliize technology developed by Herzog Transportation Services, wherein the trains dump ballast ‘on the fly’ at speeds upto 20 MPH. The opening and closing of the car doors are controled by a computer utilizing GPS technology. The track segment is is mapped prior to the arrival of the Herzog train as to it’s ballast requirements and that info is entered into the computer program, in concert with the specific GPS coordinates. When the Herzog train arrives, it gets dumped according to the plan that was previously developed and the entire train can be dumped out in 30 minutes to an hour. Roadway personnel follow behind the Herzog ballast train to do any necessary switch cleaning or other maintenace that is necessary as regards the depositing of ballast on the right of way.
