Question re operations at salt mines

[shark_jj]

I am including an interchange with the G&W circa 1970 on my layout and wondered if anyone had any insight into how salt was shipped at that time.  Today it is all shipped in large covered hoppers, however, I wondered if like grain, there was a mix of boxcars and covered hoppers at some point in time.  The late 60's, early 70's was when grain was in the major transition from boxcars to covered hoppers and I wondered if the same applied to a product like salt.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Hey man, great to see you back!

That's a good question. I know that in my era (the 80s), beat up covered hoppers were the norm.

Actually, now that I think about it, not as beat up covered hoppers are your best bet. From what I remember the LV used to carry a lot of salt from upstate NY, a lot of it in Cargill Salt covered hoppers. Since it was LV, it means that it was at least pre-76.

[Dave Schneider]

Wasn't there a story on this in Model Railroader in the 1970s? I seem to recall this. Might be worth researching on their database. My guess is that salt wasn't shipped in bulk in boxcars due to its extreme intolerance to moisture, but I have been wrong before.

Best wishes, Dave

[Zox]

Wasn't there a story on this in Model Railroader in the 1970s?

"Covered hopper car for salt," February 1968.

They have a two-pager on the prototype, followed by an article on how to kitbash one (in HO, natch).

[FrankCampagna]

A lot was shipped in cylindrical covered hoppers.

Frank

[randgust]

I feel better.  Still have a memory.

OK, "The Genesee & Wyoming RR - a Railroad you can Model'    Model Railroader December 1976.   Really good article with map, facilities photos, equipment photos.   You need it.

If you can't find it, PM or email me with your email address and I'll scan/PDF it for you

[shark_jj]

Thanks very much for the info everyone.  Ed, thanks for the welcome back, I've been off working in the Holy Order on a modular layout based on Bayview Junction for a couple of years but I saw the light again and I'm back in N where I belong.  I have digitalized all of my Model Railroader's from 1970 on and I did take a look at the December 1976 article and the photos there show predominantly cylindrical hoppers with the odd boxcar mixed in which got me to thinking.  Since I am modeling 6 years earlier I wondered if those odd boxcars were remnants of a different shipping system.

[FrankCampagna]

Before covered hoppers salt was shipped bagged in boxcars.

Frank

[shark_jj]

Frank, any idea when the change took place?

[FrankCampagna]

Some still is shipped in bags. Almost every store in the northeast has a bunch in the winter. I'd say covered hoppers started taking over in early to mid sixties, probably almost entirely by your 1970 time frame. As an annoying point, many of the cars, were twin bay cylindricals. I think a company named CS models made a resin kit of these loooooong ago. I do not believe anyone has made them since.

Frank