[N&W] Re: Lambert's Point - car capacity question

[nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org]

You want a high density hopper load ?  Try iron ore pellets. N&W had a regular
movement from Huron, Ohio to Steubenville.  When loaded to the AAR's weight
carrying capacity for a car equipped with 6 1/2" X 12" journals 
(then  263,000 lbs),
an N&W hopper would only be filled to about half the cubic capacity.

Although AAR has raised the gross weight to 286,000 lbs,  this rule applies to
cars in interchange service only.  While overloaded hoppers aren't that much
of a problem, Louis Newton confirmed what I had suspected -- nobody knows
the actual weight of a car of export coal until it crosses the scale just prior
to dumping at Pier 6. It's a real plus for the customer -- he doesn't pay 
the freight
on the coal that blows away or leaks out en route.  On the other hand, NS 
doesn't
know if the car is overloaded until the end of the trip.
                                               Harry Bundy