I saw an unusual manifest train go by my house this afternoon and some of the cars on the back looked like this:
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=2318411
It’s not my pic, but it the same type of car I saw today.
What is usually hauled in these types of cars?
An Ortner hopper car.
They are most commonly used for aggregates (sand, gravel, crushed rock). They were all over South Texas when I was down there in the 1980’s and 1990’s.
Aren’t these sometime used in MOW service?
Ballast is crushed rock so sure they might be in MofW service. I have seen some Amtrak cars that looked like them.
Anybody notice the damage to TILX 24085 in the photo?
Joe
I noticed it. It looks like it could be easily repaired.
Ortners like this are used for heavy aggregates as mentioned before.
The Georgetown Rail Road (GRR) has a large fleet of these and gondolas for hauling aggregates from the quarry near Georgetown, TX down to the Port of Houston and intermediate points. This is almost the exclusive cargo for this road.
The Florida East Coast (FEC) also maintains a fleet for the same purposes.
Ortner was bought out by Trinity Industries in 1987.
And you can see the TrinityRail builder’s logo on the car in the original post right above the third hopper.