Model Railroading > What all commodities would these Covered Hoppers haul?

Walthers has just put the N Scale Trainman ACF 3560 Center-FLow Covered Hoppers on sale. I plan on getting some as they look cool but interested in knowing what all commodities would these haul? I may already have industries planned that use these but can always use more. They have the undecorated, ACFX, Norchem, Gardinier, NS and Southern versions on sale.

http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/751-50001882

Thank you in advance.

Jim

I have seen cars like those in fertilizer, potash, and limestone service.
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/20/15 09:05 by toledopatch.

Any dry bulk material that you don't want exposed to the elements. With the round hatches, these would be very early grain cars.

Paul Liddiard
Spanish Fork, UT

Those are generally used in mineral service that loads heavier than grain and requires less space to achieve weight limits. You won't find them in grain service. Most grain cars of this era are 4000~4750 cuft.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

lizzard_45 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Any dry bulk material that you don't want exposed
> to the elements. With the round hatches, these
> would be very early grain cars.

Round ones are edible like sugar, so they can be sealed in plastic. Trough hatches are grains and fertilizer

WAF Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Round ones are edible like sugar, so they can be
> sealed in plastic. Trough hatches are grains and
> fertilizer

Round hatches are also preferred for dry bulk cargoes that, while not food grade, need some protection from moisture, such as salt (and, previously noted, potash) that will cake up if it gets wet.

Agree, though, that only the very earliest grain hoppers had round hatches.

WAF Wrote:
> Round ones are edible like sugar, so they can be
> sealed in plastic. Trough hatches are grains and
> fertilizer

Not always, stuff like cement, Lime, Kaolin, ect is loaded into round hatch cars as well, and needs to be well sealed to keep moisture out.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

Great information as always guys. I had a buddy who was designing a fly-ash loading platform for a coal-burning power plant. The design required that they make provisions for both types of roof hatches. This was about 25 years ago, but it sounds like not much has changed.

funnelfan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> WAF Wrote:
> > Round ones are edible like sugar, so they can
> be
> > sealed in plastic. Trough hatches are grains
> and
> > fertilizer
>
> Not always, stuff like cement, Lime, Kaolin, ect
> is loaded into round hatch cars as well, and needs
> to be well sealed to keep moisture out.
Those are loaded in small cars under 3000 cubic foot. I was referring to 4750 and larger cars

Technically this car does not exist for either Southern or subsequently NS. Atlas has lettered the car for the HCS62 and HCS63 class cars, both of which have trough hatched and are 4,000 cf cars, though with three bays. The HCS61 Class cars also match the HCS62&63 classes.These are used in medium density commodity service.

Southern also rostered two other classes that are closer in capacity, the HCS38 and HCS40 class cars. These two classes are 3,300 cf cars, but they are two bay cars used in cement and fly ash service. I plan on using this Atlas model and removing the center bay and using them in cement and fly ash service. These two classes are slightly shorter than the 3560's from Atlas but are significantly longer than the ACF's in the 2,700-2,900 range from Atlas, Intermountain and Athearn.

Russ

Posted from Android

WAF Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> funnelfan Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > WAF Wrote:
> > > Round ones are edible like sugar, so they can
> > be
> > > sealed in plastic. Trough hatches are grains
> > and
> > > fertilizer
> >
> > Not always, stuff like cement, Lime, Kaolin,
> ect
> > is loaded into round hatch cars as well, and
> needs
> > to be well sealed to keep moisture out.
> Those are loaded in small cars under 3000 cubic
> foot. I was referring to 4750 and larger cars

It was the blanket statement about "round ones are [for loads] edible like sugar" that was being addressed here. For the most part, this thread is about cars smaller than 4000 cubic feet, given that the Atlas car is a 3650 prototype.

I have some mixed into a cement train.  I've seen these cars used mixed with cement hoppers (smaller ~3000 size) they just don't fill them as full to keep from being overweight.  Makes for a little visual variety.

For more exotic service, Corning had very similar cars that hauled high-silica sand.

 

Thank you all for the replies. I had an idea of what these would have hauled but thought it would be intersting to learn of more stuff. I especially like the idea of sugar and salt since these would be used on a layout depicting Saskatchewan. A food packaging plant may be in my distant future. I will probably order some from my LHS Saturday.

Jim