Saw boxcars - BNSF 468397 and 468915 - holes revisited!
The holes for towing and jacks, etc - I found those. They are on (usually) a bracket separate from the sheet metal. The few holes I originally found - on FURX and now on BNSF - are bottom dump coal hoppers - no kick plates on them and the hole is right in the sheet metal itself - so going to buy the story that they are for fixing something inside the car itself - in that empty area, or a nozzel goes in there to open the dump doors - until someone comes up with a new explanation I like better.
Saw some covered hoppers - they have EXW 10-6 H 9-8 and EW 8-6 H15-6
CU Ft 5161 on them. Someone want to enlighten me?
Saw BN 466257 - had AAR Test Wheels printed on the side?
Saw RWSX Coal hoppers - with the # printed on the trucks…mind you…the same as on the side of the hopper. Pretty cool eh? Figure that way when they shop these babies, they put the right feet back on? Right?
Saw 6128 SD9 BNSF - that is one interesting engine! Definitely built a little different that the rest of the SD9’s we have running around!
And the last “saw” was - watch the pigeons. Don’t they look like like short bankers running around in grey/blue suits looking for another nickel? They just bustle around like they have the weight of the world on their shoulders!
Back to work - it is a busy time of the year for schools, and we are no exception.
Will check back for all the answers to the above pop quiz.
Sounds like the dimensions of the car. EXternal Width 10’ 6", Height 9’ 8" (sounds short, maybe this is the body only), 15’ 6" sounds right when it is on its trucks (as measured from the top of the rail) and 5161 is the capacity in CUbic FeeT, which sounds typical for covered hoppers.
The holes you were wondering about are provided to give the hoboes a safe place to ride. No, really. Honest.
Ever see a drunk pigeon? First, some grain leaks out of a hopper. After a suitable period, the rains come. Depending on the temperature, this slop starts to smell like, what, class? Correct. Corn liquor. Because? Right! The stuff is fermenting. About this time, subject pigeon partakes of this bounty. Now, I know some fellers who can hold their liquor, but pigeons can’t take too much. After a bit, the critter is stumbling around between the rails and falling on his [her?] chin. Er. Beak.
After a few minutes of this, the pigeon finally manages to climb up on the rail. Only problem is, a train is passing overhead. The bird hops up right behind the passing wheel, and then…POOF! End of pigeon and story. What does the Bible say about drunkards? They have…“wounds without cause…”
BTW, the informal “sour mash” quickly turns rotten and begins to sell like something else. This entire report is true, Moo. Really.
I wish I could see that much foriegn power out here, usually only one out of 15 trains has something besides NS Black [xx(] thanks to the cab signal restrictions.
Whatttt? No response but “huh”? The putrified poultry is TRUE! I was sitting in the lunch room watching out the second story window as the carrier p. met his fate on top of the hump. It was a yard move that got him. Ask some of the railroaders out there in Lincoln. I bet they’ve smelled enough sour mash between the rails. Er. Wait, let me rephrase that.
…About 2 hours ago witnessed 6 engines moving westward on the CSX double track here in Muncie…Only about 2 of them were CSX, the remainder were of foreign engines…No cars, just engines.
Skeets: It is only Tuesday - but I am taking an hour vacation before work - (How about that) just to answer your posting!
You know, I have never gotten over the porches for the crew to sit on while the Big Boys (sorry Elliot) traveled through the country…
The other states must have very selective pigeons. Our Nebraska ones - barely wait for the train to cross the tracks and they are after the grain. We must have the cleanest tracks in the whole US of A. And some rather large pigeons, which the hawks find very …icky…can’t go there. Too many feathers!
Hobos - you know - those must be Tom Thumb hobos to fit in that hole.
No I am more of the opinion that is where they take the new hires and tell them to stick their hand. And I don’t even want to think what the old heads put in there before that!
EXW is the Extreme Width of the car; the height number following it is the height at which this extreme width occurs.
EW is the width of the car at the eaves, again the height is where this width is measured. The extreme height of the car isn’t shown on the side.
That CUFT figure is significant to a freight-car watcher–that number is an indication that it’s one of the most common modern covered hoppers, a curved-side design built by Trinity Industries. More often than not, this figure is unique to a given carbuilder (an exception was the 4750-cuft car, which seems to have been built by four or five different companies during the 1970s and 1980s). Believe it or not, there was a time when the most common covered hopper size (another one built by many carbuilders) was 1958 cubic feet (those were used for cement and other such things, though–not grain).
You didn’t get a number off one of the BNSF hoppers with the holes, did you? I have had no luck at all determining the story behind those FURX cars.
Those test wheels were a completely different profile from prior wheels, something designed to better dissipate heat (from braking). This profile was later adopted as a standard.
It works better when the right trucks are put under the proper car (if a 110-ton car suddenly found itself on 70-ton trucks, there could be problems!). I quite often watch these numbers in my freight-car research, as they’re occasionally missed, and thus betray a car’s former owner and number. But I have seen times when the trucks from a different car are put under the car in question. A couple of days ago, I saw a 50-foot or 60-foot UP box car with a truck carrying the number of a MoPac 86-foot hi-cube car!
(Larry, take a breath–you made this thread wider than my screen!)
Those are covered hoppers; in this case the round hole is below the side, and is used for lifting or pulling. Those are some of the newest cars of that 4750-cuft size I mentioned; they were built by Trinity Industries but based on Pullman Standard’s design. (I think)
BC - these are not those holes - I have seen those holes by the - well many of them. These are actually into the sheet metal - in that area just below the rivets - remember bottom dump.
The lift, pull ones - are lower and are usually actual brackets and I can see through them. I can’t see what someone hid in these. And these cars are so few and far between.
That’s more like it, kid! I didn’t look too carefully at which holes you were talking about. I thought you referred to the larger holes over the end sills on the ends of the hoppers. I didn’t do too well in my brief college career. Seems I spent too much time daydreaming while gazing out the windows. Now I’m PAID to look out of windows. I found my niche!
As to your remark about the Big Boys, I don’t know what you mean. Every word of that was true. Honest.
And another thing, young lady! Fallen grain on the ground will ferment, just as I said.
We have hawks back here in the East, too. I’ve seen 'em power- dive…must be clocking 60mph…WHAP! The pigeon is gone in a cloud of feathers…NEAT. The pigeon I watched in a drunken stupor probably enjoyed himself more. [Or was it “herself”; I can never tell.]
Okay, Moo. I’ve picked on you enough. I’ll go away now.
Skeets - went home last nite and while in my time-out corner - I ran through our conversation. Thought of a slick comeback and burst out laughing. Now I can’t remember it at all. As they say - Old Age is not for Sissies!