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There looks like a taped peice of paper or thick paper like meterial which appears as if its attached by adhesive, in between the first 2 ribs on the right side of the picture of this hopper. What would this be?
it is a notice of some sort, often Bad Order cards are pasted on like this. Since this one is loaded (the springs are compressed) I doubt that it is a Bad Order. Often special instructions for the customer (how to unload, a notice of some sorts, etc) are done this way.
It's what they used to have tackboards for. As has been mentioned, it could be special instructions to a customer, a QC notice, or even change notice regarding actual lading. Now that there are no more tackboards to staple things to, they smear some glue on the car and slap it on.