Conrail hopper colors

[crrcoal]

Hi folks,

My buddy Tom Johnson (INRAIL) has some questions about Conrail hopper colors. I thought maybe Ed and some of the other Conrail modelers here might have some info. Thank you!!

From Tom Johnson
"Maybe someone here can answer my questions.  I've looked all over the internet with several search topics to find some information as to when Conrail started painting their covered grain hoppers gray.  I know most were Conrail Red and some were gray.  I also learned that both were used in grain service by the 80's.  I think they intended the gray hoppers for one type of load and the red for another (grain?) in the 70's.  By the 80's, they used both colors for grain loading from what I've learned.  Right? (my first question)  I see a lot of models painted in the Conrail gray scheme (Tangent, Exactrail, and soon Intermountain) have shop dates of around 1985 give or take a year.  My next question is did many of these hoppers get painted gray closer to 1980?  Thanks for any help.  I can't believe there is nothing on the internet about the two colors of hoppers and why." 

[Robbman]

That's the general theory... red was for grains, grey was for minerals/aggregate/other.  The only covered hoppers Conrail bought new (PS-3000 two bays) were delivered in black on grey in 1977, of course, they were cement cars.

[ljudice]

In the CR Color Guide, which is written by a retired CR Vice President, it says he could find no documentation or written rules on this, but generally the gray/red  mineral/agricultural form was used.  He also says there were "many" exceptions.

[ai5629]

Conrail seemed to follow the same pattern the Penn Central did which was what has been stated already: red = grain and gray = minerals.  PC of course was green instead of red.  This practice seemed to continue until the early 80's, at which point all covered hoppers started to be painted gray.  The latest date I recall seeing a covered hopper painted red was 11-81.  The earliest I recall seeing a covered hopper in grain service painted gray was 9-83.  Almost all covered hoppers were painted at either Altoona (P59) or Hollidaysburg (P62 until 1-80 then CR BL).  I would suspect that Stanley Crane had something to do with all covered hoppers being painted gray in the early 80's, as he really stated to leave his mark on the system by late 1981.  Thank you.

Jeff

[crrcoal]

Thanks for the info guys!!