Covered hopper colors

[alcocentury]

Maybe already answered. We're black, red &c. colors used for sand/cement or was gray it?

[dti406]

Ann Arbor and DT&I both had Orange cars in sand service.

Rick Jesionowski

[wagnersteve]

5/4 -- Some fans of the Star Wars series say "May the Forth be with you" today -- /2024
starting about 9 p.m., EDT -- looking something up and correcting my roster took quite a while

The color of covered hoppers that carried Portland cement varied between railroads, and certain railroads used more than one color. Gray was the most common color for covered hoppers hauling cement in bulk, probably because if any of the cargo spilled onto the roof and/or sides the whitish stuff that stuck to the car was less probably less unsightly than on darker colors. But the Lackawanna, among other lines, used black for some covered hoppers that carried cement. The Delaware & Hudson's single-sheathed wood boxcars that got roottop hatches for loading cement in bulk and hoppers for unloading it under the car were gray with black lettering before being converted to haul sand for locomotives instead; most of the D&H covered hoppers converted from open hoppers for cement service and the early ones built for it were also gray. But by the 1970s the D&H was painting some covered hoppers with bright red and silver or alumninum paint, and some of the ones in metalic colors apparently were assigned to haul cement. Most Boston & Maine covered hoppers were also gray (their PS-2 twin hoppers were a darker shade than that used by the D&H on its cars of the same type when built), but some of the B&M's somewhat larger covered hoppers were bright blue; those included the 3000 cu. ft. two-bay cars built by Portec that Atlas has produced; those most definitly carried cement.

[edwardsutorik]

May 4, 2024 13:03:12 GMT -8 alcocentury said:

Maybe already answered. We're black, red &c. colors used for sand/cement or was gray it?

Since you're not asking about any particular railroad's colors, it appears you want to do some freelance stuff.

In that case, grey is the best choice.

And, as implied by previous answers, any other color can be justified.


Ed

[alcocentury]

Thanks. Yes I am freelancing so will use gray on FS&W cars. I do have red Katy, black NKP, and black KO&G cars.

[drsvelte]

MKT/BKTY had some colorful "John Deere" ones too.

[cpr4200]

CP carried cement in black covered hoppers and in silver/gray pressure unloading cars. As Steve said, B&M's Portec 3000's were blue and assigned to cement service between Quebec and southern New England.