Cylindrical Hoppers, have they gone away


tlark

Member
My son was at a BB tourney this weekend by a NS line near KC. I noticed I was not seeing this type of hopper at all. Forgive my ignorance but are these now being phased out or did I just miss them. Running 1990's to near present day and have about 20 IMRC type and was just wondering if they are now retired from service, when did they go.
 
I see a few on rare occassion. Since it is an older design, the 20 (?) year rule usually is enough to kill off most of them. The newer designs usually have more capacity.
 
that raises the question, would they have been around in the 90's and early 2000's ?

when were they being retired ? and where can I find more info on them ??

Thanks
 
There's no shortage of them here in Canada and the Northern states.
Here's one website with lots of pics with dates: http://freight.railfan.ca/index.html
I know there are way more sites but this was right there.

Trivia time! These cars can not travel at 17 mph due to the harmonics involved with the cars wheelbase and length of jointed track. They start whipping like a snake at that speed.
 
that raises the question, would they have been around in the 90's and early 2000's ?

when were they being retired ? and where can I find more info on them ??

Thanks

most definitely. I have a pic (somewhere!) of a Canada Wheat Board (?) cylindrical hopper sitting in a siding in Crawford, TX (does that sound familiar?) sometime between 98-02. The Canada Wheat Board hoppers are ones I know I've seen recently, they are very distintive. And a long way from home.....
 
I see hundreds of them every day sitting near Transcona shops in Winnipeg. There are just as many old rib sided hoppers as well. I also see them on the CN and CP main lines every day, pretty much.
 
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Local UP freight, San Antonio, TX, 9/25/2008

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NB UP freight on ex-MKT track, north of New Braunfels, 11/4/2008

I have seen some more recently, but haven't had the camera with me.
 
Lots of them locally, in potash service. Here's a part of a string that I shot this past Sunday:

Potashcars.png


The string extends the same length in the opposite direction too.
 
These were taken in Bottineau, ND in the summer of 1991:

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I have a few other photos from that time, but these at least prove that they were around back then. In fact, most of them looked pretty well-used by that time, so you could easily use them for modeling the 80s if you like.
 
Lots of them locally, in potash service. Here's a part of a string that I shot this past Sunday:

Potashcars.png


The string extends the same length in the opposite direction too.

Bob, those cars are all brand-new centreflow type cars. Not quite the same as the cylindricals that are being asked about.
 
were not PS2's built around the same time and still in service, yes the cylindricals are fewer. Is it the capacity or is there a 30-40 year rule on the life span on these hoppers.....
 
Bob, those cars are all brand-new centreflow type cars. Not quite the same as the cylindricals that are being asked about.

The cars were not the new centerflow covered hoppers. These were definitely cylindrical hoppers. They looked just like this, different reporting marks of course:
http://www.atlasrr.com/Images/HOFreightCars/ho36baycylin/72506/1945-3TQ.jpg

And they had a bad case of metal mites(rust). Some of the reporting marks were so rusted over, you couldn't read them. There were literally thousands of them. They were in drags, on sidings.....EVERYWHERE!!!

Bob
 
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Canadian Pacific still employs a handful of the 383XXX and 383XXX numbered cars for cement service....in fact I was down in the Albany/Schnectady area last weekend, and one of the OLD critters with the CP script lettering was in the yard...too far away for pics tho...UP has dumped all the cylindricals that originally belonged to the CNW, so they have been picked up by leasors for a second life...I've seen one heading up to Newport VT for feed service; it is now lettered RRRX, and there's a handful of private owners like Pillsbury that are seeing their last legs in salt service on the NECR.
 
What is the true definition of a "cylindrical hopper"? I've always considered them to be covered hoppers that look like a cylinder laying on its side. All the government of Canada grain hoppers being what I generally think of. The hoppers in Bob's photo, I think of as smooth side covered hoppers and not cylindricals. Is there a technical definition to what makes a cylindrical hopper?

As for the CNW car that started this thread, that style car is based on a Canadian prototype designed in part by the Canadian Government. I don't think very many were made for the US market to begin with, so they would be getting more rare in the US. There are still tons of them in Canada, mainly in grain service. The days of seeing solid trains of government cylindrical hoppers are long gone as newer smooth and rib side hoppers have joined the grain fleets.
 
The cars shown in the Potash Corporation scheme are ACF Centerflow hoppers. This is a patented design by ACF and has been around for at least 40 years now. The "cylindrical" hopper car is a patented design of Hawker-Siddeley of Canada. It has been made in several different styles and licensed to several different car makers, including National Steel Car. This is a picture of the Hawker-Siddeley cylindrical hopper in the same Potash Corporation scheme. You can see it looks considerably different than the ACF Centerflow.

cglx1051.jpg
 
Most of the cylindrical hoppers I've ever seen were for Canadian railroads which is why you probably don't see too many down south. Conrail also had some cylindrical hoppers as part of their H42 and H44 classes which they inherited from Penn Central and Erie Lackawwanna. And while NS did buy part of Conrail, Conrail's fleet of them were built between 1962-1964 which means they are no longer legal for interchange service due to the 40 year limit. Although when you're running in the `90s they should still be ok. I have no idea when the Canadian ones were built though.
 



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