Ok so I know what these cars carry and who the owners are, but what type of Covered Hoppers are they and why are they different looking?
- different product being carried, different uses 2) different loading and unloading procedures 3) different manufacturer 4) one adapted from other use.
I think the difference you may be looking for is that these cars have sides of aluminum, not steel, construction. Although aluminum has become common in coal cars, it’s still fairly rare in covered hoppers. However, sodium chlorate (as in the stuff carried by the OFOX cars) is almost always carried in aluminum cars. The STLX car is intended for grain; and there are a few series of aluminum grain cars out there–but they haven’t caught on.
Cargill has a fleet of them, don’t they? CRGX, and one more reporting mark I can’t recall CGOX?
i remember we got a string of empties of them one night. It was memorable since we hardly ever had inbound empties.
Ive seen the second covered hopper type in Canadian Pacific Coke trains…maybe even that same car.
Right you are, Zug, but they’re CGAX: Lower 9000s built by Trinity, upper 9000s by Johnstown America.
The STLX cars were built by Johnstown America: only 280 of them, as opposed to close to 1000 for Cargill.
JAIX Leasing Company (Johnstown America’s leasing subsidiary) had similar cars in JAIX series 95001-95100 and 96101-96359 (first digits indicate the year built). These have been dispersed among other leasing companies, and lettered TCMX, CEFX, and SIRX, among others.