Here is an interesting car, a gondola with plug doors. I wonder what the story behind it is.
Woodchip hopper perhaps,made from old boxcar. It could also be for high and wide shipments also…
Patrick
It was a box car that has had its doors welded shut and the roof and some side ladders, removed. It and many old woodchip gons, ore hoppers, coal hoppers and gons are in service. Large quanities of mostly demolition debris are being moved west to fill in old open pit mines and near surface underground mines. most of these cars still have their old “fallen flag” markings on them, with only a patch for the new IDs.
I know Larsen Farms uses them for something as I will occasionally see these cars with Larsen Farms tarps.
I’ve seen a few cars around here, old box cars with roofs cut out and heaped up with woodchips.
Sorry, folks, it’s a woodchip gon, but it was built that way–doors and no roofs. UP had 300 cars like that, number range 147425-147724, built during 1969 and 1970.
I would assume that there was a consignee somewhere that preferred to unload the car that way (some companies preferred end doors so they could unload the cars by tilting them upward–I think UP had some of those, too, but not as many as BN).
Back in CNW days, we used to ship loads of chips to Thilmany Paper in Kaukauna, Wisconsin–they were always this type of car.
It was in the late 1990s that UP unloaded (edit: sorry about that!) a bunch of these in the direction of Helm-Pacific Leasing, and they were relettered HPJX, same numbers.
Eric, how do you do a link like that? I can’t see it in the forum code.
Matthew
If you are refering to the photograph, it is {img}address{/img} but replace the braces with the appropriate brackets.
If you are refering to the Larsen Farms link, it is {url=“address”}Title of link (whatever you want it to be){/url}, again replace the braces with the appropriate brackets.
I thought some of the ribs extending below the floor was a bit odd for a boxcar. I wonder if the cars with Larsen Farms tarps are carrying Alfalfa.
All
You are correct in stating this is a woodchip car. The tarp and Larson Farms indicte a load of Cottonseed, most likey from Mississippi. Cottonseed is used as a cattle feed, mostly for dairy cattle as opposed to beef cattle.
Mac
In the steamship industry it would be called a open top container [:I]
[quote]
Originally posted by ericsp
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Like one of these:
(These CofG cars WERE converted boxcars. You can see where slope sheets were welded inside, and a large hole cut in one end to access brake gear.)