What type of hopper is Carbon Black transported in?


Trucklover

Trucklover

BNSF SD70MAC's
What type of covered hopper is Carbon Black transported in? And does anyone make a model of a modern day one? If not, does anyone know of a hopper that could closely resemble one with maybe some kitbashing? My quick searches for an HO Scale "Carbon Black" Hopper have yielded nothing except a model of an older car from the 40's or 50's made by Funaro.


With my Tire Plant Facility im working on, I need some inbound and outbound rail traffic.. And im guessing that raw materials like Carbon Black are the main source for a Tire Plant? What other raw materials or types of loads would a plant like this receive and ship out? So far I can think of;

60' Auto Parts Boxcars; Inbound new aluminum and steel wheels --> Outbound Completed Wheels/Tires to Auto Assembly Plants
50' Hi-Cube Boxcars; Inbound used and old Tires for re-manufacturing and scraping/shredding
Carbon Black Covered Hoppers; Inbound Raw Carbon Black
Acid Tank Cars; Inbound for processing steel belts used in tires

I would also think that there should be some sort of Tank Cars that would be spotted in a facility like this, maybe for some type of oil/petroleum based product used in the manufacturing of tires? Or maybe a glue/adhesive?

Lastly what about coil cars delivering steel coils to be cut and milled into the steel belts that are in tires?

Would love to hear your thoughts and suggestions for a Tire Facility!

Thanks,
 
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Carbon black is shipped in covered hoppers, they have specialized discharge connections, but you could get away with standard covered hoppers easily enough. But note they are all painted black.

There could also be tank cars for acid, as the steel for the belts is generally pickled in acid as part of the process.




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They seem to have similar discharge connections to sand hoppers. I have never found any models of those either. For some reason I have never been able to register on Railcar photos, just simply won't "go".
 
On the 2nd site, LPG tankers seem to be associated frequently with them as well. Most if not all appear to be of the 4750 cu ft, rib side type and an interesting feature are 3 pocketed fittings/connections on the side (both?). Some sort of release control ?
 
FCL2117 said:
Carbon black is shipped in covered hoppers, they have specialized discharge connections, but you could get away with standard covered hoppers easily enough. But note they are all painted black.

There could also be tank cars for acid, as the steel for the belts is generally pickled in acid as part of the process.
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bnsf971 said:
I know Athearn did a carbon black ACF covered hopper when they were making the old blue box kits. Depending on whether you just want a representation of one, or whether you want an accurate model, it might do for you.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/HO-ATHEARN-UNITED-CARBON-CO-4-BAY-COVERED-HOPPER-46873-/291218725962
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Thanks! I am going for a pretty detailed scene for this facility since its a stand alone and not part of a large layout, so I would like to get as close to prototype as I possibly can. I didnt think of Acid though! A couple shorty Acid tank cars be another must for the scene. Ill have to look into how these cars are unloaded and build a small unloading siding by the main manufacturing building :D
 
tootnkumin said:
On the 2nd site, LPG tankers seem to be associated frequently with them as well. Most if not all appear to be of the 4750 cu ft, rib side type and an interesting feature are 3 pocketed fittings/connections on the side (both?). Some sort of release control ?
Click to expand...

The majority do all appear to be 4750 cu ft rib side hoppers, Im wondering if I can combine the older Funaro 3-bay "Carbon Black" cars with a newer more detailed and modern 3-bay rib side hopper. Here is a picture of the Funaro car, it looks to have the same/similar discharge chutes as the modern day cars, which means the design has not changed much if at all from the 40's and 50's ear cars?

Funaro Model:
44742363884603.gif


Image from frieght.railfan.ca:
cabx470292.jpg
 
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I seem to have found a solution to my hopper needs :D

Railshop Models makes a pretty dang good looking model of a Carbon Black covered hopper! They even have a few different schemes available! They come as kits with decals. These cars look to be pretty well detailed and they are not too bad price wise either!

CABX-107-copy.jpg


$T2eC16hHJFoE9nh6qTIWBRN7LinURQ~~60_57.JPG
 
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I have a couple of the Rail Shops kits. They are the right car for my era (1967) as well as the F&C cars. I only got 1/2 way with a RS kit build as I ran out of #80 drills.

Nice kits, similar difficulty as a resin kit, maybe a little easier.

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Those Funaro and railshop models are exact representatives of the ACF cars shown in the first 3 examples on freightrailfan.ca. The photo dates are all around the 2000 mark, so reasonably recent to assume they could be still in use. I'll have to have a look at those Railshop kits for my sand cars.
 
GP22 said:
I have a couple of the Rail Shops kits. They are the right car for my era (1967) as well as the F&C cars. I only got 1/2 way with a RS kit build as I ran out of #80 drills.

Nice kits, similar difficulty as a resin kit, maybe a little easier.
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Thanks for the info on the kits! I went ahead and got 5 of them, should be here early this week! Also bought some #80 drill bits since it seems I only have one left! Dont want to run into the same problem you had LOL


tootnkumin said:
Those Funaro and railshop models are exact representatives of the ACF cars shown in the first 3 examples on freightrailfan.ca. The photo dates are all around the 2000 mark, so reasonably recent to assume they could be still in use. I'll have to have a look at those Railshop kits for my sand cars.
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Thats what I was thinking as well! They will be close enough for my liking lol. What kinda sand cars are you looking to model? Id be interested in seeing if these rail shops kits will be of use to you.. I am also looking to model a small fleet of sand cars for RRMX, although mine dont look anything like these Rail Shops kits..
 
Josh, tire plants would typically buy their wire in large spools already drawn to their specs rather than process it from sheet material. As a point of interest carbon black makes quite a mess in areas where it is handled and processed. Lots of engine black weathering around those areas of your plant.
 
NH Mike said:
Josh, tire plants would typically buy their wire in large spools already drawn to their specs rather than process it from sheet material.
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That makes sense, less machine work involved in the process and im sure its probably cheaper to buy in spools vs. coils. Im guessing that spools of wire would arrive to the plant via gondola? Would they be covered gondolas?


NH Mike said:
As a point of interest carbon black makes quite a mess in areas where it is handled and processed. Lots of engine black weathering around those areas of your plant.
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Yeah i plan on dumping quite a bit of "soot" all around the unloading area for the hoppers. I figure you probably cant over due the weathering in that area lol
 
These are the sand cars I'm after
113406356.b7qNLpkz[1].jpg127825441.IlfgZo3c[2].jpg

As you can see, they are pretty much standard types with the normal sized loading hatches, unlike the carbon cars which have quite small multiple filling points, but with similar discharge shoots/fittings. 2 bay seem to be the usual for sand, maybe 'cause of weight? One of the RailShop models had decals for CCCX Continental Dustless on a carbon black car, so maybe dust control(EPA regulations) might be strict at the loading/receiving depots?
 
tootnkumin said:
These are the sand cars I'm after
View attachment 44877View attachment 44878

As you can see, they are pretty much standard types with the normal sized loading hatches, unlike the carbon cars which have quite small multiple filling points, but with similar discharge shoots/fittings. 2 bay seem to be the usual for sand, maybe 'cause of weight? One of the RailShop models had decals for CCCX Continental Dustless on a carbon black car, so maybe dust control(EPA regulations) might be strict at the loading/receiving depots?
Click to expand...

That MRL car is a Pullman Standard 2600 cuft car, Athearn makes a model of this exact car, but you'll have to rebuild the standard discharge gates to the different style shown here.
 
With respect to the original question, there are some modern ACF centre flow cars for carbon black as well. They're smaller 3-bay cars. That old Athearn model is pretty old and crude by today's standards, but also representative of a much larger plastic pellet service car.

http://freight.railfan.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=ccx430&o=ccx
http://freight.railfan.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=acfx47178&o=ge_railcar


Also, those other Thrall built carbon hoppers, like th CABX one shown earlier in this thread, are pretty unique and really can't be done justice by using a P-S 4740 or 4750 as a stand in. Unfortunately there are no models of this kind of car yet, a huge hole that many of the prototype modellers and freight car nuts have really been wanting to see filled for a while.
 
Trucklover said:
That makes sense, less machine work involved in the process and im sure its probably cheaper to buy in spools vs. coils. Im guessing that spools of wire would arrive to the plant via gondola? Would they be covered gondolas?
Click to expand...

Or possibly even palletted coils/spools in standard boxcars?
 
tootnkumin said:
On the 2nd site, LPG tankers seem to be associated frequently with them as well.
Click to expand...

The source for many of the CABX cars photographed there is a Cabot plant in an area known for extensive petrochemical industry. Local traffic includes a heavy mix of plastics hoppers, LPG, oil, styrene and other tank cars and a smaller amount of carbon hoppers and miscellaneous cars.

I wouldn't expect the LPG cars anywhere near a tire plant except by coincidence there being another nearby industry that uses them.
 
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