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July 22, 2020 at 8:15 pm #6376princessclyne69Participant
I picked up these three prints from eBay. The prints are dated Dec. 1965. This car is from the series 86400-86999, originally built 1947.
This is car 86915, from a group which are noted in the ORER as “Wood Chip Cars”, 12’2″ interior height, height to top of running board 16′-8″, capacity 5795 cu. ft, AAR classification XAP. This group of raised-height cars are not in the 1955 ORER. In 1959 there are 39, and by 1965 there are 27 still in wood chip service. There are also 13 that by 1965 have been re-assigned to polyethylene service.
The original special assignment “Return To” stencil was located halfway up the side, at the leftmost end of the side in MoPac practice, and that stencil has been painted out. There is a new special assignment stencil above and to the right of the weight data, and the car was reweighed and, apparently, restenciled, in Coffeyville 7-63. The stenciling is unfortunately not clear enough to read on the print. Fortunately for us, the unidentified photographer walked around and shot the car from three angles, capturing both sides and the B end.
According to the ORER, though, this number belongs to one that’s still in wood chip service. The cars reassigned to polyethylene service are classified as LC and have four hatches. There is no sign of (roof) hatches on this car. Interestingly, the door openings and door tracks appear to have been moved, because the doors are now centered on the car, while the original doors would have been staggered like a typical automobile car.
[attachment=2:3o3wn0wh]MP 86915.jpg[/attachment:3o3wn0wh]
[attachment=1:3o3wn0wh]MP 86915 (2).jpg[/attachment:3o3wn0wh]
[attachment=0:3o3wn0wh]MP 86915 (3).jpg[/attachment:3o3wn0wh]
July 22, 2020 at 9:31 pm #9827peggyrothschildParticipantRon
Thanks for the interesting posting. Would be interesting to see how the wood chips were loaded and unloaded. Assume the doors were coopered somewhat like a grain car but I’m only speculating.July 22, 2020 at 11:47 pm #9828princessclyne69ParticipantI’m wondering where the wood chips were shipped from and to. It certainly wouldn’t have been my neck of the woods.
For the cars that went to polyethylene service, I’m sure that meant those little round pellets (nurdles). There, the traffic pattern is easier. The production of PE was commercialized during and after WWII, so several of our favorite petrochemical facilities in MoPac territory would have been producing it, in relatively small quantities at first. It’s a fairly light material so those very large boxcars would have been well suited, until the development of large volume covered hoppers. I’ll bet they would have had to tape the doors.
RG7
July 30, 2020 at 3:25 am #9837Mike VanaParticipantProbably was moving wood chips to a paper mill until they figured out hoppers were a better choice of car.
Jim Ogden
July 31, 2020 at 12:48 am #9838princessclyne69ParticipantMy best guess was they knew this had been done during WWII for aircraft loads or similar. What I’m wondering is which mill(s) these cars served. But the cube of these cars wasn’t matched by a hopper for a number of years. I don’t immediately see the wood chip open hoppers (three-bay open hopper with height extension) before about 1968, and they’re still not quite the same nominal cube capacity as these cars.
My guess is that the mill(s) already had the unloader that could pick up these cars and get the chips out, and they were in no hurry to adapt to a different type of car.
What I would like to know is where exactly the loading facilities were, and where the mill(s) were that received these chips.
RG7
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