Saw a LONG consist of these hoppers today. The last one was a grain hopper. What are hauled in these?
Looks like a unit coal train to me....usually 100+ cars that stay together and run back and forth between a mine and an end user....usually a coal fired electrical generating plant, but sometimes a manufacturing facility like a steel plant. I see them every day here .......fully loaded headed west and empty headed east back to the powder river basin.
Hmmmm I am wondering if they were carrying garbage? I am not to sure but it's definately a thinker. They also might just have the top on them to keep the coal dryer. I will let you know.
I've seen quite a few coal trains being routed to the south during winter in order to thaw out the frozen coal. I wonder if that is what the covers are for?
Could it be a dusty load? Lead ore is carried in gons with similar lids to protect the load from wind. What could they be hauling that requires a high capacity car, environmental proctive covers, and being hauled in vast quantities?
I've seen this Unit train through Colorado Springs before. It bugged me for a long time untill i was informed that the city who this coal is delivered to orders them to be put on cause their facility doesn't have a place to dry the coal before its burned. Interisting about the grain hopper on the back though.
one other reason for the grain hopper,and I am surprised that nobody else has thought of it... perhaps it had been a "bad order" car which had been repaired and was added to a train going to the same or perhaps intermediate destination as the coal train. This is not unusual. We did it all the time at Eola IL! Add a car or two to an auto rack or stack train. we have also taken off,set out or picked up cars at Eola. No trouble to have an on duty switch engine do that! It could also have been a "hot move" car as well. That is not unusual either. The trick is to keep the car moving since the customer was waiting on it! If there is a train heading that way...put the car on it! CT
This is very interesting. Maybe there will be more trains like this in the future, with the big problem with all the coal dust... Now how hard would it be to make a accurate detailed cover in N Scale. Thinking for the future, maybe make some incase the real rr's do this N could be ready too!
