07-14-2010, 10:41 AM
That pic is kind of fuzzy, but it looks like covered hoppers. Logic tells me that a railroad might well clean grain hoppers near the farm areas where the silos that they load out of would be found, rather than doing it miles away at a yard. Especially since many types of freight car might never be cleaned beyond sweeping out the dunnage. If a car isn't hauling food products, chemicals, or something else that needs to be kept clean and pure, there is no reason to do more than sweep out a car and throw away the dunnage. I remember at the rail symposium I went to in preparation for repairing refrigeration units on rail cars that someone asked the car maintenance supervisor from BNSF how often that washed the reefers. These reefers were operated by Tropicana to haul cases of Tropicana Pure Orange Juice. He said never.