Covered hopper
A covered hopper is a closed car with roof hatches and bottom gates, for dry bulk that has to stay dry.
What you are looking at
A covered hopper has a roof, a row of hatches along the top, and discharge gates underneath. The body is divided into bays, often two, three, or four. From the side it looks like a tall closed car on a hopper bottom, not like a boxcar with a door.
The load goes in through the hatches and out through the gates. Grain, plastic pellets, cement, flour, and fertilizer are the everyday loads. The car is closed because those commodities don't like rain. An open hopper is a different car: no roof, and usually a coarser load such as coal or stone.
What the stencils add
The reporting mark and number identify the car. The car-type code for this family starts with C. Older cars may say LO. A cubic-foot figure, when it is painted, is the volume of the body. That is separate from CAPY and from the load limit, which are weights.
Outlet gates and hatch arrangements differ by commodity. A cement car and a grain car can share the same silhouette and still be poor substitutes for each other. The type code and the cubic figure are the clues. The mark is still just the owner.
Common questions
- How is a covered hopper different from a boxcar?
- A boxcar is a house car loaded through side doors. A covered hopper is loaded through roof hatches and unloaded through gates in the floor.
- What letter starts the car-type code?
- C. Older covered hoppers are often marked LO.