Sand train through Rapids

Here's a train coming into Wisconsin Rapids from the Whitehall subdivision.

The time is a typical 7pm, eastbound, on a weekday in early July, 2012.
There's talk about needing a second train running on this line, a plain all sand unit train? But I don't know.

Some ties are on the head end.

Followed by lots and lots of sand hoppers.

I don't know which came from Badger Sand at Taylor,
and which came from the new plant at Blair.

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more

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end of train, and there aren't any doublestacks from Arcadia furniture this day.

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And while I'm looking at sand, here's a hopper seen last Spring.

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. . . . don't use hammers

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. . . CRDX is their reporting mark

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And I really like this one, Winn Bay Sand.

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It has a herald.

From todays interent search for Winn Bay, I see:

Jan 4, 2012; Preferred Sands has acquired substantially all the assets of Winn Bay Sand,
including mining locations in Blair, Wisconsin, and Hanson Lake, Saskatchewan.

Preferred is now the largest frac sand producer in Canada and one of the top three in the U.S.

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And I didn't get a good side view yet of the GATX hoppers. There were some in the head end of this train. The side sheet has a distinctive round corner cut, and when two similar cars are coupled together, the missing space in the steel looks like an upside down U. The slanted end of the compartment sheet is slightly hidden by the steel side. I see these occassionally but just realized I never took a real picture yet of this detail. I don't know who built this style.

Here's some history notes gleaned from web sites. Trinity, leasor TILX and manufacturer, acquired Pullman-Standard in 1983. In 1986, Greenville Steel Car was acquired. Trinity and Thrall Car Manufacturing combined in 2001 Other car builders: American Car and Foundry (ACF) Bethlehem Steel Ortner Freight Car Company Greenbrier North American Rail has the slightly round sides, square end on top and 45 degree slant half way down the end. such as NAHX 32886 2-bay hopper 3250 Covered Hopper Car. This 3,250 cubic foot capacity covered hopper car is a curve-sided design with two compartments and gravity outlet gates specifically designed for cement. ( most of the train above is cars from this manufacturer?) . . Here's some cement traffic on my model railroad. You would never see a mix of cars like mine on a real railroad. I have a few modern 100 ton hoppers. And many 50 ton capacity Greenvilles, well over the FRA age limit. The last time I saw a little Greenville hopper on the rails, it was in a museum. A big difference between old cars and new cars seems to be the new ones have only 3 roof hatches in the 2-bay length. My models have 4, 5, or 8 hatches on top. When there are just two compartments and 3 hatches, does the middle hatch have a split wall up the middle?

I have gone back to an old photo program to get smaller file sizes for pictures for a web page.
Some might get blurry if you zoom in a lot. But it saves space for the server and downloads very fast.
If you want the full size picture, please contact me. An e-address is in the box on my index page.

Link back to my index page, Bruce's RailRoad Pictures

my best index page is on the TrainWeb site, as of January 2011.