Gondola Loads.... any new ideas ?

[bman]

The placard with the dead tree should also have a dead fish on it as well.  This is part of the Globally Harmonized System (GHS) and were incorporated into the 14th edition of the United Nations Model Regulations.  These are marine pollutants.  The dead tree and fish are to symbolize how this product enters the soil and and ground water systems if spilled.  Class 9 is for miscellaneous hazardous materials.  What ever those would be. I very rarely ran into class 9 when I was in transportation.  The tree and fish came about after I left, but I like to keep tabs on whats on the trucks and trains I see.  Just in case. 

[jpwisc]

[Big Train]

G'day, mate

The way thing are going in Canada right now, moving to Australia would be a good idea.

[lock4244]

Straight up pesticides and herbicides would be a category 6 Poison placard under most circumstances. If I am remembering correctly the "dead tree" is part of the new global harmonization for SDS(safety data sheets)
Representing an environmental hazard. There are lots of things it could be, but it is likely contaminated soil.

Although I am going to guess it was UN 3077 environmentally hazardous substance, solid, n.o.s as UN 1077 is Propylene a category 2.1

You sound like you know more about this than I 

This is a fairly regular move, and has been so for at least 15 years so far as I can recall. Interesting source of regular traffic.

[w neal]

[mtnbimmer]

Steel slab.

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=430130

Jason

Two questions come to mind:

1. Why gons instead of flats? My guess, because they were available.
2. Why aren't they secured? Sure, they are heavy but all the more reason to make sure they don't move. Even though the gons have ends, those slabs can have enough potential energy to punch through the ends.

[nkalanaga]

BigTrain:  The Northwest and upper Midwest roads, such as GN, NP, Soo, etc, shipped a LOT of pulpwood in GS gons.  As far as I know neither the NP nor the GN ever owned a proper "pukpwood car", but they moved a lot or pulpwood.

Allen:  It looks like those gons have been abandoned.  If it was in the 70s I'd say they were some of the cars PC "lost" and then forgot about.  For several years after its formation Conrail often found entire sidings that had been forgotten, completely hidden by brush and small trees, with cars still on them.  At least one was reported to be a boxcar of mail, but that might be just an urban legend, as I can't see the postal service not noticing it didn't arrive.  They tracked those shipments quite closely.

[cv_acr]

Although I am going to guess it was UN 3077 environmentally hazardous substance, solid, n.o.s as UN 1077 is Propylene a category 2.1

That sounds about right as I see gondolas quite frequently with this placard. I think it's usually contaminated soil or debris.

[John]

I shot a pix of an old CR caboose loaded in a gon .. it was up at Holidaysburg .. 

[TrainCat2]

On the B&O East End, there was Kopper Industries at Green Springs that turned wood into Creosoted ties that were shipped out in Gons. The wood arrived on both flats and gons, then pressure treated with Creosote. This is a planned on line industry for me. Tank cars for chemicals, inbound tracks for lumber and outbound tracks for ties.

[porkypine52]

Does you railroad serve coal mines?  Take older, outside braced gondolas, use wood boards to divide the interior into several compartments [2 or 3], and fill each compartment with a different grade of coal [block--lump-- pea--stoker].  Many small coal yards couldn't handle a whole coal car of a single grade of coal.  So they would get cars filled with several different grades of coal.  These would almost always be a gondola, because it was almost impossible to divide a standard coal hopper into compartments.

[Angus Shops]

There’s a facility outside Sparwood, BC that loads gons with coal. I’ve no idea why, or where they’re going, and it’s definitely a sideline for the local mine’s main gig of loading CP unit trains with metallurgical coal for export. I’ve seen strings of maybe 10 cars being loaded with an excavator alongside a dock built out of concrete ‘lock blocks’.

[nkalanaga]

Many western railroads used GS (drop-bottom) gons for coal, rather than standard hoppers.  Those roads usually weren't major coal producers, and the gons could be used for other things between coal loads.