The Former Posted November 12, 2003 Share Posted November 12, 2003 I'm talkin' about ACFX, OCPX, ECUX, and other variations of these hoppers. Where I'm from we don't usually pay much attention to them because they always bounce back, or stay around. That's just where I'm from, they act like locals. The new layup in the new town gets decent boxcars, and occasionaly some good stuff to hit on, but I mostly get coal cars and those hoppers. I rairly catch anything on the hoppers and if I do it's usually from bumfuck because those small towns get hoppers unlike boxcars. When I paint them I feel like I'm wasting paint and don't put a lot of work into the pieces because they might go on a restricted route and never get any play. Do people catch these hoppers with out of town stuff on the a lot? Rarely? Never? What is your take on them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krowteN Posted November 12, 2003 Share Posted November 12, 2003 i see private grey bellies frequently. i dont see a lot of shit on them so maybe im seeing the same ones over and over again. then again i see the ones from nyc out here covered with tags, thro ups and what not, so i know they have the potential to run hard. id like to hear ese or ca's take on this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amish son Posted November 12, 2003 Share Posted November 12, 2003 my yard is nothing but hoppers and grainers. CRUSH THEM BITCHES! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IRON WIZARD Posted November 12, 2003 Share Posted November 12, 2003 ive seen them in s fla and in canada. the only draw back that i see with them is they usally get layed up for long periods of time without being moved .ive seen them layed up in the same spot for months . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Former Posted November 13, 2003 Author Share Posted November 13, 2003 Originally posted by amish son my yard is nothing but hoppers and grainers. CRUSH THEM BITCHES! Ya, but do you catch out of state shit on them much, or do they tend to bounce back to your yard. I've caught a SAG/METAL hopper in the midwest, it must have been coming from Cincinnati, and a CENSE/CREAD/KEMOS hopper at the same spot, so I know they have potential to run, but do they run like boxcars? Do you ever spot lines of them when benching? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Former Posted November 13, 2003 Author Share Posted November 13, 2003 I also catch a lot of the SMNX hoppers from the northwest rolling on both the UP and NS line. They are the hoppers with the blue stripes. I usually always catch Diar or Jaber hollows on them, but nothing fancy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nelACKson Posted November 13, 2003 Share Posted November 13, 2003 they catch a shit ton of acfx hoppers in central va, paint em. i do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shesmyheroin Posted November 13, 2003 Share Posted November 13, 2003 have you ever noticed on a lot of tthose grey bellies, and even on alot of the grainers... that theres roller marks. i'm under the impression that they get buffed pretty decent. this might not be the case for all of them... but i don't know about you, but around here, they're always so clean. i don't bother w/ them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Former Posted November 13, 2003 Author Share Posted November 13, 2003 Originally posted by nelACKson they catch a shit ton of acfx hoppers in central va, paint em. i do. That's good to know, thanks. Maybe you could name a few that you have caught there so I could get an idea of what's rolling in. The midwest, the dirty south, the east coast? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
porque Posted November 13, 2003 Share Posted November 13, 2003 ...i know this has been discussed before...but here we go again... ...any hopper (or boxcar for that matter, RBOX, etc.) who's call letters end in 'x' are leased cars...what this means is that they are not own by a railrod...they are rented by railroads or other private companies...they are typically refered to as 'Grey-Bellies" due to the consistant color of primer grey...sadly this is becasue this is the cheapest paint available and they are rutinely repainted after their 'tour-of-duty' when they are returned to the actual owner to be leased out again...However, they can be leased out for a long time, years, before they get serviced and they are not neccesarilly buffed everytime they go in to the shop...it's a business, they only do things that are cost-effective...most of the time these do run specific lines while in use, so the same ones show up often...but this doesn't always happen...bottom line is you never know what's gonna happen to 'em...i've seen some that have run for years and i've seen some that have buffed within a couple of months...you take the same chances with boxcars... ...anyone else feel free to add anymore info i forgot to mention... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest mescaline Posted November 13, 2003 Share Posted November 13, 2003 acfx i catch acfx's in the south. what about Lxoh or Msdr or Aglf's?? does any one see those? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krowteN Posted November 13, 2003 Share Posted November 13, 2003 For obvious reasons, gray bellies acquire lots of flare tags and hollows A lot of the buff I see on them is of hollows and tags. the buff job on these cars is probably quick. It seems like they never get all the graff. What is usually left is part of a hollow or tag. Porq is right though. Whatever you paint your taking a chance. If you have a chill spot for em’ punish em, that goes for all trains. Ive seen burners run for years on them. Everybody sweats the boxcars like rats feeding at a carcass while entire graybelly units are running untouched. Hell im doing my part. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Former Posted November 13, 2003 Author Share Posted November 13, 2003 Porque, Zedisded: Thank you both. I know have a better understanding of these cars and what to expect from them. You have given me some very valuable information. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cracked Ass Posted November 13, 2003 Share Posted November 13, 2003 Porque covered most of it. A lot of hoppers are what I call ABA cars. They load at point A, deliver to point B, and return empty to point A again. This is often a function of them being leased by that particular customer. There are also ABCDA cars, my term for a car that is leased or owned by a single customer/distributor. The cars get loaded at point A, go to one of maybe five or six different customers, and return empty to point A. So you might spot them at points B, C, D once in a while, but as soon as they're empty it's back to point A, the hub they are based at. Once in a while you find a scenario where A and B are so far apart it's worth hitting a few of them. They don't get varied play like a Railbox or autorack, but the one route they run is long enough to be worthwhile. My attitude has become, hit everything. If I have a spot where I know the cars are ABA, I'll do up a couple in the usual way, then maybe bomb some others, or do elaborate hollows with effects but save paint by not filling. Then I'll get seen on that route. When I travel I'm always down to hit other people's boring ABA locals - then I'm up on a route far from home, that I can't access from home. As far as buffing goes, it varies, I've been wiped off an ACFX local in less than six months, but a bunch of the other ABAs I've hit on the same route are still running - some older than the buffed one, some newer. Again the answer is, hit everything, make them buff if they have the time and money. Stay off the numbers and make them buff you for purely aesthetic reasons, which can't stay cost effective forever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.:wizo:cdc:. Posted November 13, 2003 Share Posted November 13, 2003 i wish i had rail-smart people around me, like you smart people on here...like crackedass, and i dunno who else, sorry.. but this is the info i got off this thread, this is what i understood, grey bellies-the big grey cars, that i always see with nothin on em-i think i know why now...so they arent the best thing to paint... are there any other cars like this? where they dont go that far? sorry, im new to fr8s and i wanna learn a ton about em before i paint one...im constantly reading up on it.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amish son Posted November 14, 2003 Share Posted November 14, 2003 Originally posted by .:wizo:cdc:. sorry, im new to fr8s and i wanna learn a ton about em before i paint one...im constantly reading up on it. damn, we must be the only 2.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Former Posted November 14, 2003 Author Share Posted November 14, 2003 Does anyone have any ideas where the main hopper hub or hubs might be. All this information is gold, I'm just trying to figure out where a "point A" might be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bosco Posted November 17, 2003 Share Posted November 17, 2003 Cracked and Zed have most of the info already stated, also another reason they will run from Point A to Point B is that its the same cargo always loaded into them, if they were to switch the shippers/consignees to a company that ships a different commodity the car would have to be flushed out as to not contaminate the new shippers commodity. Also shipping them in a certain lane always ensures that the shipper will have the cars available and the consignee will always get the commodity on time and in the full amount. Their really can be no #1 hub to speak, b/c companies are located all over the country. A hub area would be a city or destination point w/ a lot of companies that ship by covered hopper...or a company that will receives a lot of carloads of covered hopppers...hope this helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Former Posted November 18, 2003 Author Share Posted November 18, 2003 Ya, for sure. This weekend I caught a Jpeg/Dyne ECUX on the UP line in a different state from which it came. I also know that it's at least 3 years old. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nelACKson Posted November 19, 2003 Share Posted November 19, 2003 some of the people ive cought at my tiny little layup on "greybellies" reka (lots) zer (fr80philes) floater and other fr8o dudes on other side sane smith free5 cycle hollows(acfx)...my buddy cought this one silouette apel themac tags (acfx? gatx?) akin, kong42 clue taiko tna handstyles rubek bore emat erawa? (boston) reno handstyle ( slayer) dyer rjes? rtes? (nsf, fjb) bash wh streak lead fillin and these are just the ones that i had flicks of in my shoebox Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Former Posted November 19, 2003 Author Share Posted November 19, 2003 Thanks, keep postin' from your layup if you catch any and I'll post from mine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FR8HOUND Posted November 20, 2003 Share Posted November 20, 2003 I get every type of hopper imaginable here in PA. every type..but I'll only paint Up's,Sp's, or Mp's... , when i can, MO-pacs too...because I know they travel..but mainly I just streak the shit out of them..I do see alot of buffed ones, and I wonder if all those ones TNS crew did back in the early/mid 90's are still alive...????:dazed: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest mikro137 Posted November 20, 2003 Share Posted November 20, 2003 Originally posted by FR8HOUND I get every type of hopper imaginable here in PA. every type..but I'll only paint Up's,Sp's, or Mp's... , when i can, MO-pacs too...because I know they travel..but mainly I just streak the shit out of them..I do see alot of buffed ones, and I wonder if all those ones TNS crew did back in the early/mid 90's are still alive...????:dazed: i cant believe you just mentioned f-booms crew , :lol: i generaly get em at a specific spot , and they either run a shortline , or they meander about the east coast (i saw a dupx ridgie hopper in new jersey this summer that i did 3 weeks prior to my trip) not bad in my opinion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Former Posted November 20, 2003 Author Share Posted November 20, 2003 Ya I for sure hit any other hoppers I see. Do you ever catch shit on those hoppers in PA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MR.hollywood Posted November 20, 2003 Share Posted November 20, 2003 i seen that shit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shesmyheroin Posted November 21, 2003 Share Posted November 21, 2003 i'm not from pa... but i did paint a spot in eastern PA that had a ton of hoppers and grainers... they were all clean as a whistle just like everywhere else i've seen them with their ugly primer gray paint. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Former Posted November 22, 2003 Author Share Posted November 22, 2003 Tonight at the yard I caught a super old Seattle hopper. Sober and Tilt. It was on a NAHX hopper and had to be 95 or prior. Good shit! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krowteN Posted November 22, 2003 Share Posted November 22, 2003 ^^exactally. the buffing routine for hoppers is about as random ans every other type of car. in other words - rush the hoppers kiddies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nocomply Posted January 1, 2004 Share Posted January 1, 2004 i know i see acfx i think i see ecux ..heck i probably see all of them..dont sleep on hoppers.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bosco Posted January 1, 2004 Share Posted January 1, 2004 I also catch cuts of hoppers...I was at a shortline layup and caught about 5 white covered hoppers lettered for Kaolin service. Everyone of those cars was wrecked by some Savannah, GA cats...Hoppers are always nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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