granular commodities

[mountaingoatgreg]

I have moved sand on the railroad a few different ways. First place I worked we were moving sand for construction purposes in open top three and four bay hopper cars that were loaded with a front end loader and opened over a pit with an auger. Another location took sealed 2 bay and 3 bay cover hoppers with colored sand that was used in making asphalt shingles. This was more like really small rocks but was listed as sand. Another location took older 3 bay covered hoppers with the hatches removed to load sand for construction purposes. The cars were not fully loaded as they would have been overweight. Another commodity was "man sand" which was the super fine material from the process of mining and processing rock. This was moved in old flood unloading coal car hoppers. Another location that I did not serve but went past was a location that made glass and moved refined sand in two bay covered hoppers with the round hatches.