Eastern Railroad Discussion > Big Black Hoppers

Noticed yesterday that big black, outside braced hopper/boxcar like cars are being loaded at Oak Island NJ with what appears to be scrap metal. The cars resemble wood chip cars and appear brand new. I couldnt get close enuf to see reporting marks.

Anyone know anything about this? Is this CP, NS,or CSX traffic? What is it and where is it headed? Thanks.

Just happened to see a cut of these cars on NS 457 the other day, so guess they are heading south on NS, however where I've been unable to determine so far. They've only appeared in the last few weeks, so it is either new business or new cars for old business...

Kevin Burkholder
Eastern Railroad News On-Line Magazine
<a href="http://www.eastrailnews.com&quot;&gt;http://www.eastrailnews.com&lt;/a&gt;

Could this be NS hauling away scrap from the World Trade Center? Remember they offered to haul away 1000 (I think) cars of scrap rubble at no cost.

I have to admit that thought (scrap metal from the WTC) crossed my mind when I saw the loading activity at Oak Island.

Metals Management is loading cars out utilizing David J Joseph cars (DJJX/RLMX/JTIX) and some of their own leased cars (FURX and NORX marks) - these are going to a mini-mill in the Carolinas on CSXT. The DJJX/RLMX/JTIX cars are mainly old steel-bodied coal gons that have been modified to haul scrap. I believe the FURX/NORX cars are in fact old woodchip cars modified to haul scrap. As info, DJJ operate roughly 2200 scrap gons thought the country - about 3/4 are old coal gons - balance are traditional gons and 65ft gons.