Hopper car

Last updated

Covered hopper frac sand cars on the BNSF Railway through La Crosse Covered hopper car.jpg
Covered hopper frac sand cars on the BNSF Railway through La Crosse

A hopper car (US) or hopper wagon (UIC) is a type of railroad freight car used to transport loose bulk commodities such as coal, ore, grain, and track ballast. [1] [2] [3] Two main types of hopper car exist: covered hopper cars, which are equipped with a roof, and open hopper cars, which do not have a roof.

Contents

This type of car is distinguished from a gondola car in that it has opening doors on the underside or on the sides to discharge its cargo. The development of the hopper car went along with the development of automated handling of such commodities, with automated loading and unloading facilities.

Covered hopper cars are used for bulk cargo such as grain, sugar, and fertilizer that must be protected from exposure to the weather. Open hopper cars are used for commodities such as coal, which can suffer exposure with less detrimental effect. Hopper cars have been used by railways worldwide whenever automated cargo handling has been desired. "Ore jennies" is predominantly a term for shorter open hopper cars hauling taconite by the Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railway on Minnesota's Iron Range.

A rotary car dumper permits the use of simpler and more compact (because sloping ends are not required) gondola cars instead of hoppers. Covered hoppers, though, are still in widespread use.

These are known as "Dual-purpose" hoppers, a type of the car referring to coal hopper car with rotary coupler on one end or on both ends. They can be used in both rotary or bottom-dump operations.

Special hopper trains

The Coke Express, a CSX unit train of hopper cars loaded with coke, with the words "Coke Express" painted on the sides of the hoppers.

Typical American freight car weights and wheel loads

Common net car loadsGross car weightsWheel loads
Short tonsLong tonsTonnesPoundsKilogramsPoundsKilograms
8071.472.6220,000100,00027,50012,500
10089.390.7263,000119,00032,87514,912
10190.291.6268,000122,00033,50015,200
11199.1100.7286,000130,00035,75016,220
125111.6113.4315,000143,00039,37517,860

Increase in wheel loads has important implications for the rail infrastructure needed to accommodate future grain hopper car shipments. The weight of the car is transmitted to the rails and the underlying track structure through these wheel loads. As wheel loads increase, track maintenance expenses increase and the ability of a given rail weight, ballast depth, and tie configuration to handle prolonged rail traffic decreases. Moreover, the ability of a given bridge to handle prolonged rail traffic also decreases as wheel loads increase. [4] The axle load is twice the wheel load.

Etymology

The word "hopper", meaning a "container with a narrow opening at bottom", goes back to the thirteenth century, [5] and is found in Chaucer's story "The Reeve's Tale" (written late fourteenth century) in reference to a machine for grinding grain into flour.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Railroad car</span> Vehicle used for carrying cargo or passengers on rail transport system

railroad car, railcar, railway wagon, railway carriage, railway truck, railwagon, railcarriage or railtruck, also called a train car, train wagon, train carriage or train truck, is a vehicle used for the carrying of cargo or passengers on a rail transport network. Such cars, when coupled together and hauled by one or more locomotives, form a train. Alternatively, some passenger cars are self-propelled in which case they may be either single railcars or make up multiple units.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tank car</span> Train car for holding liquids and gases

A tank car or tanker is a type of railroad car or rolling stock designed to transport liquid and gaseous commodities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Unit train</span>

A unit train, also called a block train or a trainload service, is a train in which all cars (wagons) carry the same commodity and are shipped from the same origin to the same destination, without being split up or stored en route. They are distinct from wagonload trains, which comprise differing numbers of cars for various customers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Loadhaul</span>

Loadhaul Ltd. was a railfreight operator based in the north-east of the United Kingdom. It was formed in 1994, as part of the privatisation of British Rail, and acquired in 1996 by a consortium headed by Wisconsin Central, then merged into a new company English Welsh & Scottish Railway. It is now part of DB Cargo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gondola (rail)</span> Open-top railroad freight car used for carrying loose bulk materials

In North American railroad terminology, a gondola is an open-topped rail vehicle used for transporting loose bulk materials. Because of their low side walls, gondolas are also suitable for the carriage of such high-density cargos as steel plates or coils, or of bulky items such as prefabricated sections of rail track. Gondolas are distinct from hopper cars in that they do not have doors on their floor to empty cargo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hawker Siddeley Canada</span> Manufacturing company

Hawker Siddeley Canada was the Canadian unit of the Hawker Siddeley Group of the United Kingdom and manufactured railcars, subway cars, streetcars, aircraft engines and ships from the 1960s to 1980s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Covered hopper</span> Railroad freight car

A covered hopper is a self-clearing, enclosed, weatherproof railroad freight car. It has a fixed roof, sides, and ends with openings for loading through the top and unloading through the bottom. Covered hopper cars are designed for carrying dry bulk loads, such as grain, sand, clay and Portland cement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rotary car dumper</span>

A rotary car dumper or wagon tippler (UK) is a mechanism used for unloading certain railroad cars such as hopper cars, gondolas or mine cars. It holds the rail car to a section of track and then rotates the track and car together to dump out the contents. Used with gondola cars, it is making open hopper cars obsolete. Because hopper cars require sloped chutes in order to direct the contents to the bottom dump doors (hatches) for unloading, gondola cars allow cars to be lower, thus lowering their center of gravity, while carrying the same gross rail load. Cars are equipped with rotary couplers to allow dumping them while they are still coupled; a "Double Rotary" gondola or hopper has rotary couplers on both ends to allow it to be unloaded while it remains coupled to stationary cars at each end.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rail freight transport</span> Practice of transporting cargo by rail

Rail freight transport is the use of railways and trains to transport cargo as opposed to human passengers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bulk cargo</span> Commodity cargo transported unpackaged in large quantities

Bulk cargo is commodity cargo that is transported unpackaged in large quantities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GATX</span> Equipment finance company

GATX Corporation is a railcar lessor that owns fleets in North America, Europe, and Asia. In addition, jointly with Rolls-Royce Limited, it owns one of the largest aircraft spare engine lease portfolios. It is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. As of December 31, 2020, the company owned 148,939 rail cars, including 83,959 tank cars, 64,980 freight cars, and 645 locomotives. Other major car types owned include covered hoppers, open-top hopper cars, and gondolas. It primarily serves the petroleum industry, chemical industry, food industry, mining industry, and transportation industry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mineral wagon</span> Small open-topped railway goods wagon

A mineral wagon or coal truck is a small open-topped railway goods wagon used in the United Kingdom and elsewhere to carry coal, ores and other mine products.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Goods wagon</span> Unpowered railway vehicle used for freight transport

Goods wagons or freight wagons, also known as goods carriages, goods trucks, freight carriages or freight trucks, are unpowered railway vehicles that are used for the transportation of cargo. A variety of wagon types are in use to handle different types of goods, but all goods wagons in a regional network typically have standardized couplers and other fittings, such as hoses for air brakes, allowing different wagon types to be assembled into trains. For tracking and identification purposes, goods wagons are generally assigned a unique identifier, typically a UIC wagon number, or in North America, a company reporting mark plus a company specific serial number.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Open wagon</span> Railway wagons for transportation of bulk goods

Open wagons form a large group of railway goods wagons designed primarily for the transportation of bulk goods that are not moisture-retentive and can usually be tipped, dumped or shovelled. The International Union of Railways (UIC) distinguishes between ordinary wagons and special wagons (F/6). Open wagons often form a significant part of a railway company's goods wagon fleet; for example, forming just under 40% of the Deutsche Bahn's total goods wagon stock in Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great Western Railway wagons</span> Fleet of railway rolling stock

The fleet of Great Western Railway wagons was both large and varied as it carried the wide variety of goods traffic on the Great Western Railway (GWR) in the United Kingdom. This was the railway company that operated for the longest period of time in the country and covered a large geographical area that included big cities such as London, industrialised areas including the West Midlands, areas of coal and mineral mining such as South Wales, and Somerset and other important agricultural districts. In 1902 the company owned 59,036 wagons, and by 1926 this had risen to 88,580.

The Victorian Railways in Australia have had a vast range of hopper-type wagons over the last century, for transporting anything from grains through fuel to various powders.

Indian Railways operates India's railway system and comes under the purview of the Ministry of Railways of Government of India. Indian Railways operates more than 4000 cargo and goods trains daily. It hauls variety of cargo to cater to various requirements and have specialized rolling stock corresponding to the cargo hauled. Indian Railways uses a specific wagon numbering system, adopted in 2003.

A Helix Dumper is a rail transport and unloading solution, designed for continuous rolling discharge of bulk commodities. Originally developed for the iron ore industry, the Helix Dumper system can handle many types of fine-grained and potentially sticky commodities. When the Helix Dumper wagon enters the unloading area, a wheel at the top of the wagon makes contact with the spiral-shaped rigid guide that constitutes the unloading station. As the wheel travels along the path of the guide, the wagon chassis remains on the rails while the body of the wagon is rotated 148 degrees to dump its load. After the rotation, the direction of the guide changes and the wagon body is returned to its normal position. The Helix Dumper has a discharge rate of up to 25,000 tonnes per hour.

The Victorian Railways used a variety of former traffic wagons around depots and for specific construction, maintenance and similar tasks. Very few of these vehicles were specially constructed from scratch, often instead recycling components or whole wagon bodies and frames from old vehicles that had been withdrawn from normal service as life-expired or superseded by a better design.

References

  1. "Covered Hopper Railcars". GATX Corporation. Archived from the original on 16 September 2010. Retrieved 11 September 2012.
  2. "Small Cube Open-Top Hoppers and Gondolas". GATX Corporation. Archived from the original on 16 September 2010. Retrieved 11 September 2012.
  3. "Covered Hopper Cars". Chicago Freight Car Leasing Company. Archived from the original on 16 April 2012. Retrieved 11 September 2012.
  4. Bitzan, John D.; Tolliver, Denver D. (October 2001). "The Economics of Heavy Hopper Cars". Mountain-Plains.org. Mountain Plains. Archived from the original on 23 July 2011. Retrieved 7 August 2010.
  5. "Hopper". Online Etymology dictionary.

Further reading