Western Railroad Discussion > RARE...Cylindar Hopper alive in 2025!

Super_C posted a cool shot a week or so ago of a Canadian grainer in 1991...hauling those old Cylindar Hoppers we all remember, and thought were so cool. 

It's many of our understandings that these old cars are beyond their 50 year mark in revenue service and have been removed from service and scrapped. It's been years since I've seen one....but I saw one alive last week...and again the other night at the Louis-Dreyfuss grain facility on the waterfront in Seattle. It looks rough....but she's a survivior. I "just happened to be in the area" and was able to capture a couple quick shots. I couldnt find a build date....but the reporting marks are FSRR 119470...belongs to a Mexican outfit called Ferrosur that serves the southeastern regions of Mexico. 

I'm not sure how she found her way up here and currently sitting on the dust spur at LDC...but she's there. How many more Cylindar Hoppers exist in some sort of capacity? Has anybody seen any others this late in the game? 

If you look close on the car end.....you can see a bunch of Spanish writing....indicating something or another.....

Enjoy,
Tex



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/29/25 22:07 by Texican65.

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I saw one of these FSRR ones (mixed-in with lots of new-ish Ferromex and Ferrosur ones) in Pasco on a unit grain train a couple weeks ago.  Nearly did a double-take!

Did make me also wonder how all those FXE and FSRR grain hoppers got up to the PNW in a unit train though.

I'm not sure when I last saw a TFM ex-N de M cylindrical grain hopper pass through southeast Texas on a KCS grain train headed for Mexico, but for the first time since CP equipment started appearing on these trains, I caught a CP Rail cylindrical hopper passing through Rosenberg (TX) last month.

Matthew

N.B. TFM = Transportación Ferroviaria Mexicana

N de M = Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México (National Railways of Mexico)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/30/25 07:25 by Roadmaster.

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Cool! Good to see some other cylindrical hoppers out there! I wish I had taken some pics of the UP grainers that we used to get up here…they were full to the gills with ‘em!

We still get a decent amount of cylindrical hoppers down here in Central Texas, but definitely fewer than we used to. A few months ago I saw a patched out N de M cylindrical hopper, although naturally it was when I was driving and already late to where I was going, so I couldn't get a picture.

Nice find! Th
ese cars are actually a huge reason why I film every CP grain train I see fully, you never know if an old NdeM or FCP car will pass by! I
saw one last may west of Calgary and as Mexican railroads are of particular fascination to me I was absolutely stunned it was still around.

cylindricals are not all that rare...see them in our motly private car unit grain trains...I do suspect some are near end of interchange...

The black CP cylindrical hopper with the pac man marking is rare, those were from before the huge red 'Canada' build.

The I-5 Corridor grain trains have one or two sets of older hopper cars, many of them are the ex-Canada cars still in red paint, some in the different contract blue and so on. Agree they are on a new owner with intentions of profit. Interesting part of the hobby.

There was also a whole bunch of blue cylindrical hoppers for Pilsbury. Chased a short train of them through Oregon one afternoon, probably not Pilsbury at that moment but an interesting move to see.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/30/25 12:55 by TCnR.

Cylindrical hoppers have long been my favorite type of railroad car, and I consider it a special day when I come across one.  Thanks for raising this topic.

NOT RARE 

Unloaded a whole bunch of black ex-CP Packman cars this spring in Wheat service.  

Ok not rare.

Really surprised, those things have to be very old. Makes sense that they all collect on one business contract though, kinda like renta-wreck with specific criteria.

I guess it depends on where in the country you’re standing as to just how rare they are. They are absolutely rare here on the west coast anymore…especially the PNW, where they used to be everywhere.

Texican65 Wrote:
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> I guess it depends on where in the country
> you’re standing as to just how rare they are.
> They are absolutely rare here on the west coast
> anymore…especially the PNW, where they used to
> be everywhere.
You are probably right Tex. However I noticed in your photo the air reservoir tank is mounted up high and on the CP Rail I shot the tank is down low so you may still have shot a rare car! I see these OFOX hoppers here on the CSX CE&D sub on a semi regular basis BUT I still shoot them as their time may not be long on the rails. Our grain elevator here in Vincennes will get OFOX hoppers so I assume they are primarily for grain service. The Pillsbury car I shot back on May 17th & again on June 29th so it may be leased to Perdue and in use east of the Mississippi. Any time I see these type of hoppers they have the OFOX reporting marks. OFOX belongs to Residco and is a leasing company.
Still a cool catch Tex and thanks for posting!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/31/25 04:32 by CSX2605.

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Wow, Pilsbury lives.
t4p.

TCnR Wrote:
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> Wow, Pilsbury lives.
> t4p
Yes sir! Here is the other side of the same Pillsbury hopper shot on 6-29. 

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Plenty are through Omaha on Iowa Interstate and CPKC both. Dakota Southern leases cars now, seen mostly on Iowa Interstate. They are CP and Candian grain cars but apparently they use BNSF and UP to get to CPKC and Iowa Interstate. Then, CPKC uses Ndem and Canadian cars as well.

fwwr5007 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I saw one of these FSRR ones (mixed-in with lots
> of new-ish Ferromex and Ferrosur ones) in Pasco on
> a unit grain train a couple weeks ago.  Nearly
> did a double-take!
>
> Did make me also wonder how all those FXE and FSRR
> grain hoppers got up to the PNW in a unit train
> though.

I've seen a few ex-NdeM hoppers on the CPKC in southeast Iowa every so often.  Although maybe not as often as I thought, considering how long it felt to find a picture I've taken.  Here's ex-NDEM TFM 81199 on a southbound Mexico-Midwest Express, CPKC 180, back in June 2024.

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