Canadian Cylindrical Hoppers

[atsf2021bnsf]

Greetings from a new UK member.
Hugely informative forum guys.
Please can somebody tell me when Canadian cylindrical grain hoppers became a common site on US rails ?
Many thanks and keep safe and well.
Jon M

[sp8234tim]

Scroll down, Is this what you are looking for?

www.pwrs.ca/main.php

Tim
Hanesworth

[edwardsutorik]

Jon,

I don't have an answer, but I think I know how to find it.

Go to:

www.railpictures.net

They have a very nice search engine.

I entered "Canadian grain" into the keywords blank, and then picked a decade over to the right. Up came pictures of grain trains/cars with a Canadian bent. Since they also have these pictures filed by individual years, you can pick your year of interest, and see what you find.

Builder's dates for the cars of interest would of course be helpful. Once you have some reporting marks of interest, you can go over to:

www.railcarphotos.com

In the individual photo notes, there are frequently builder's dates. This, of course, would give you the earliest possible date the cars could have ventured to the US. The question is, did they scamper over right away, or did they lounge about a bit in Canada first?

Also of possible interest to you is WHERE did they go once in the US. I have seen them running along the Columbia River, evidently headed to be loaded for export in Portland (Oregon, not Maine) or Vancouver (NOT in Canada) or thereabouts.

You could also join the MFCL (Modern Freight Car List) on io.groups and ask there. There also would seem likely to be some Canadian rail groups there, too.



Ed

[atsf2021bnsf]

Many thanks guys - useful pointers.
JM

[Deleted]

Ed--

Nice job. Very helpful and concise post. Seriously.

[cemr5396]

One thing it is worth noting is that the vast majority of the cylindrical hoppers were owned by the Canadian Government and controlled by the quasi government agency the Canadian Wheat Board.

They had been purchased starting in the 70s to transport grain from the Canadian Prairies to Canadian ports or other customers, and were provided to CN and CP essentially for free as long as they were used for such. If the railways wanted to use the hoppers in more of a general service, they had to pay to use them as they would a privately owned car that they were leasing.

As far as I know, for the most part the government owned cars tended to stay on home rails here north of the border, at least until the government started loosening the rules as they were not as interested in owning thousands of grain cars any more. There would have likely been small shipments into the USA here and there in those early days, but as far as the original question goes, I would not imagine they were widely traveling in the States before the 90s.

Keep in mind that CN and CP 'railway owned' hoppers could travel at will, and would have been seen in the States from when they were brand new.

[stevewagner]

If I recall correctly, the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan also owned considerable fleets of cylindrical grain hoppers, with different reporting marks for cars to be used by CN and CP.

A large grain elevator and flour mill opened in Ayer, Massachusetts in 1982 and was expanded some time later. It was originally called New England Milling Co.; the road it's on is still called Nemco.Way, off the road toward Westford from Route 2A near the LIttleton/Ayer town line. It was enlarged quite a while ago. In recent years, at least, it has been able to receive trains of up to 100 cars. From the outset cars were received in large groups, perhaps not always in full trainloads. Much or all of the earlier shipments supplied pasta flour to the Prince Spaghetti plant in the southern part of Lowell, MA, which had been in operation since 1939 after being moved from Prince Street in Boston's North End, where it. had been formed by three immigrants from Sicily. Its owner from 1941 to 1987 was Giuseppe Pellegrino, also from Sicily -- his family name means "pilgrim". He came up with the "Wednesday Is Prince Spaghetti Day" slogan, which was the source of a famous TV commercial featuring a boy named Anthony in the North End being called home to eat; that ran on Boston TV for 14 years. The Lowell facility, which for years included the Prince Grotto restaurant, closed in 1997. Prince Spaghetti is now produced in St. Louis.

The B&M had one General American two-bay Airslide covered hopper painted white with the famous slogan, which the Boston & Maine Railroad Historical Society had Walthers produce in HO along with two gray "plain Jane" cars as a special run. Tangent has produced exquisite models of these.

The mill in Ayer, which has had several owners. One was Italgrani. Some other two-bay Airslides were painted blue, and some of those had Italgrani heralds. Again, Walthers made them in HO.

For years many Canadian cylindrical hoppers also came to the elevator/mill in Ayer. My memory is that they generally arrived in a variety of paint schemes, often with some roof hatches that didn't match them. But cars used by CN and CP didn't come in the same blocks. I have seen grain sprouting on the roofs of a few cars over the years.

After CP acquired the D&H in the early 1990s, many new cars resembling ACF Center Flows but built by National Steel Car in Hamilton, Ontario, with SOO reporting marks but CP heralds that changed over the years, were common, along with other Son Line and Milwaukee Road cars (both lines that the CP controlled or absorbed). BNSF grain cars also commonly appeared. In recent years most cars have been gray plain Janes with various reporting marks.

The facility was labeled as Cargill for some time; it now belongs to Ardent Mills, which also operates the large Cargill elevator at the Port of Albany, NY and many others in the US and Canada.

The neighboring large receiver of railroad freight traffic produces cooking oil. It started as Campagna-Spagna in Somerville, MA next to the Fitchburg Route but moved and expanded greatly; it still flies an Italian flag as well as a US one. It receives a great many long tank cars which are hard to see.