Western Railroad Discussion > Sagging BNSF Covered Hoppers?

BNSF appears to be having a skin buckling problems with some of their older red oxide grain train covered hoppers. I noticed that some of the cars appeared to have been cleaned in an odd pattern (actually repainted) and then I noticed that patches had been welded on to stiffen the ends of the cars.

1. Two cars with some distortion or skin buckling at the ends of the hopper section of the cars.

2. A car that has had a stiffening patch welded on (there is also a patch on the other end) and a car that does not seem to have developed this problem yet.

3. A newer car with a slightly different design. Note that the car already has some stiffening or strengthening patches welded in the high stress areas.

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That's the thing about new designs, some problems don't show themselves in accelerated testing at Pueblo.
You have to abuse them awhile before they show up.

Also noticed that the newer-built cars have two chords up top rather than one.

The newer car in your third photo is actually from Gunderson (built in Mexico, IIRC - you can see the white builder's decal), while the older cars are built by Trinity. That might account for some of the minor structural differences. Note the jacking pads/bolsters are different, too.

-Rick

Rick Selby
Redmond, WA
Pacific Northwest RPM