BN woodchip car on NS?

[nkalanaga]

Going to work Thursday, along the Big Sandy river, south of Kenova, WV, I met a northbound freight.  One of the last cars in the train was a BN woodchip car, still in the original early 1970s paint.  Meeting it at about 100 mph (combined), I didn't see the number!

Any idea what it might have been hauling?  I can't imagine shipping woodchips across the country.

[dem34]

Probably being tugged to a scrapper. If its early seventies then its either passed or just hit its FRA mandated retirement. Unless somebody bought it for MOW use.

[nkalanaga]

It could be on the way to scrapping, but since it was in a westbound train, that seems unlikely.  There are plenty of scrapyards on the BNSF, and this one almost has to be coming from Virginia, or further south, not from BNSF territory.

I know they were used for hauling Alaskan ore from Puget Sound to a smelter in BC, but it also seems unlikely that they'd be in ore service back here.  Weird.

[Missaberoad]

Lots of second hand woodchip cars are in scrap metal service...
Did you catch the reporting marks?

[sd45elect2000]

By the time you paid to ship the car across the country there would be no value in scrapping the car. Steel is only 100 bucks  tom or so, that's $3000.00 for scrap, $2500.00 to ship roughly.

[Mark5]

One of the last cars in the train was a BN woodchip car, still in the original early 1970s paint.

Pretty cool! No idea what they are hauling. Here's a NS train from 8yrs ago with BN woodchippers - down in Georgia I guess:

[Englewood]

Sometimes they carry cotton seeds. Apparently the cows find them tasty. I saw an old woodchip car still in Big Sky Blue with the Great Northern logo on the side about two years ago. I have a picture somewhere....

[Specter3]

Here are some stored woodchip cars i found today in Hendersonville NC. Some are converted coal gons and others are 80s vintage chip hoppers.

[Spades]

Could it be to haul construction debris?  Here how to model it in HO.  I sure you can apply to N.

[nkalanaga]

Ryan:  No, we passed to fast to do more than recognize the car, not to mention looking through brush and small trees along the road!  But scrap metal service wouldn't be unlikely, and it could well have been sold or leased, with only the reporting marks changed.  I know I've seen early unit coal gons at the local steel mill, in scrap service, so apparently they'll use almost anything.

Englewood:  Cotton seed would make a good load, and shouldn't be much denser than wood chips, especially wet wood chips.

Thank you, both of you!

[sd45elect2000]

I've seen a lot of these hauling "fluff" at least thats what we call it. Its ground up foam from scrapped automobile interiors. I've also seen "special waste" going to designated landfills. These cars are beat !

[nkalanaga]

Some of them were beat before they left woodchip service.  Most of the paper mills emptied them by either end dumping, which required clamping the sides and lifting one end (on a tilt track, the same way they dump trucks at grain elevators or paper mills), or by rotary dumping, which, again, requires clamping the car.

Railroads in the NW used to use GS gons for chip service, but found that wet woodchips don't come out bottom doors easily.  And the clamps destroyed the (usually wood) side extensions, so the old gons weren't ideal.  Some survived well into the 70s, though.

[jmarley76]

Here are some stored woodchip cars i found today in Hendersonville NC. Some are converted coal gons and others are 80s vintage chip hoppers.

There's a string of these being stored on the siding in Addie, near Sylva, NC (Murphy Branch). Blue Ridge Southern leased a bunch to use for bringing woodchips to Canton. Maybe these are extra or Joseph Tranportation cut them a deal to store a few?