How long did ex-EL, C&O, etc 70-ton hoppers stay service?

[brammy]

I model two eras: EL and modern-is UP/CSX/NS.

I have a lot of the old Bowser etc 70-ton, 3-bay hoppers in EL, C&O etc. schemes. I am wondering if any of them still existed in coal service into the early 2000s?

Option 2 is make a bunch of ballast loads since I know NS still uses them for ballast trains.

[csxt8400]

Just spit balling but I'd be shocked to see any make it that long on CSX. Post Conrail split they did inherit a group of old EL 3 bays and I did see those from time to time in MOW service.

[brammy]

Yeah, that is what I was thinking.

Time to renew my modeler's license.

[nsc39d8]

Brammy,

To help you out a little these photos were taken in 2018.






Photos taken in Rural Hall, NC on the Yadkin Valley. Car was loaded with ballast to fill a recent wash out.

Stencil on the car says built 2-72.

[brammy]

Thanks. I have seen them. I am going to build some ballast loads for mine, and like I said, I may just run my petro-coke locals with the EL hoppers and my NS units for now.

[rs11]

www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=477727

That was literally the second photo I looked at.  It says there were a dozen there that weekend.  Website says this car was new during 1973.

I bet there are plenty more photos.

Yes, they served in revenue service into the 2010's

I've seen plenty in the coal trains through Enola Yard.

Here's a cut of five of them in a train in PA during 2011:

www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=4400577

Both Reading and EL had relatively large numbers of hoppers that were new in the 1973 to 1975 time period.  Reading's were mostly 100 ton.  EL I don't think ever got to 100 ton hoppers.  Cars from both fleets were common in Conrail and NS coal trains through Harrisburg, PA, up into the 2010's.  I used to figure on at least 3 Reading hoppers in every 100 in a coal train, and EL cars were in similar numbers.

We still had solid trains of PPLX (Pennsylvania Power and Light) hoppers until just a few years ago.  Those cars were built new during the mid-60's.  When PPL Electric (revised name) got new coal gondolas during the 2010's, the old hoppers still remained in service for awhile.  I think some of them may have gone to short lines like the Reading and Northern.  The sides were/are Grade A588 self-weathering steel.  It oxidizes, building up a thin coat of rust--but that stops further rusting.  They lasted forever...Even had the height extended by rebuilding.  (At least one PPL plant was converted over from coal to natural gas a few years ago.  The old hoppers may have remained in service until then).

I bet I've still seen EL 70 ton hoppers within the last couple years, but they are scarce now for sure.

I was 12 in 1980 and didn't get to see many trains then, but I've seen all these hoppers my whole life since then, until just recently.  Now I miss them just like the Conrail brown ones.

During the Conrail era, many cars received quick paint jobs.  Now, all these years later, that secondary paint layer has often washed completely away.  I saw a full Rock Island blue covered hopper with the name spelled out and the big R showing just a couple weeks ago.  The "new" paint had washed completely away.  Sometimes I still see Penn Central cars the same way.  Only later reporting marks give it away that we are far beyond that time.

[brammy]

Thank you so much.

I know a lot of them are now ballast cars, but hearing the CR paint washed away and they were still in coal service helps. I tend to not trust the Date Taken stamp on RR Picture archives. Too often it's the same as the upload date for a 1970s photo.

[rs11]

By federal law, the EL hoppers built during 1973 would have become outlawed for interchange between railroads during 2013. However, they certainly purchased other even later hoppers and did a great job of painting equipment right up to the beginning of Conrail, even painting Alco C-424 and C-425 diesels, and other units, in the last DAYS prior to Conrail.

The EL paint jobs held up very well.

[brammy]

Thanks, my general goal for realism is the Mythbuster's "Plausible." I imagine the EL hoppers wouldn't traverse on a UP train, but they would look ok behind my NS stuff.

As an aside, I assume the older 34' hopper cars would have hit the scrapyard long before the 2000s. These are my Erie, etc. All the older road names; now the Golden West that hung around,

[rs11]

I have several books on Lehigh Valley that cover two year periods in the early 1970's. The anthracite coal industry was virtually wiped out by 1970 and the earlier steel cars rotted out from the acids. However, roads like the Reading had a massive fleet of two bay hoppers (like the Kadee car but you need the Reading speed lettering late paint version). They were utilized on the Lehigh Valley in high percentages to move iron ore from the ships to Bethlehem Steel. In some of the photos more than half the cars in the train are Reading two bay hoppers in the speed lettering, with the balance being LV, B&O, CNJ, WM, D&H also two bay hoppers. Western Maryland hoppers also would have been mostly speed lettering by that time. Also, three bay 70-ton cars like the EL cars were mixed in with the two bays, especially as you get later into the '70's.

The two bay hoppers would have been virtually gone by 1980. I was photographing freight cars in the late 1980's. My photos weren't very good and I didn't keep them, but at that time, I saw NO two bay hoppers in revenue service in former Reading RR territory. Not one single car, ever, by 1988.