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One of our two non-CSX railroads out of Nashville is the Nashville and Eastern, and it runs on the former Tennessee Central right of way as far east as Monterey, TN. There is a sand mine in Monterey, and the sand is transported to Nashville in specially constructed sand hoppers. They look something like a larger version of an ore car and the ones on the Nashville and Eastern are painted a medium green. This sand is transported by the N&E to a concrete prefabrication industry here in Nashville. I do not recall any model train makers producing a model of this prototype hopper. A unit train of these with a simulated sand load would be a refreshing change from coal hoppers and ore cars. How many of you would be on board with this suggestion?

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Last edited by Tinplate Art
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St. Charles Model Works made a sand load to fit 6465 size two-bay hoppers, so I settled for those to build a sand hopper unit train using small hoppers accumulated for quarry duty.  Can't hold a candle to the prototypical appearance of SIRT's aggregate hopper unit train, but it's a low budget solution for the less-accomplished model railroader.  Don't see the sand loads offered on the SCMW website currently, so they may require encouragement for another production run.  Two-bay hoppers are plentiful and inexpensive.  

IMG_7619

 

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  • 117SO27 Lionel Postwar Hopper Sand Load
rail posted:

Traction sand is hauled in covered hoppers to keep it dry. here in Northeast Pa, sand for natural gas fracking is also carried in covered hoppers. The cars that SIRT posted are also used as ballast hoppers.

Raises a question.  This website does say open top hoppers are suitable for hauling sand, but how do shippers keep the sand from blowing out in transit?  Wet it periodically?  Seems wet sand would be more difficult to unload.  Slow speed, short hauls only to limit dispersion?  Restricted to certain particle sizes?

What, me worry?

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