For a number of years the Virginian Railroad has been known for the
heavy tonnage trains which have been hauled over its rails from the
mines of West Virginia to its tidewater terminal at Sewall's Point,
near Norfolk, Virginia. The originating points for the traffic are
located among the mountains between Deepwater and Princeton, and this
is a region of heavy grades. Princeton, West Virginia is the assembling
point for the traffic, and from that point to tidewater, with the
exception of the climb up the western slope of the Allegheny mountains,
the controlling grade is only 0.2 per cent. On this grade up the
mountains a pusher service is maintained. In the development of its
tonnage trains it has had built some of the heaviest, if not the
heaviest locomotives in the country.
Until recently its cars were of 50 tons maximum capacity. About four
years ago. the road had four sample cars of 120-tons capacity built.
These were placed in service and about a year ago an order was placed
with the Pressed Steel Car Company for 1,000 cars of thi„
ipacity, with the expectation and intention of increasing the net
tonnape of the trains. With the old type of 50-ton hopper bottom and
gondola cars, the train lengths were .limited to eighty-tivt cars, a^
being
about the limit tnat one engine could handle down the grades from
Princeton to the New River and down the eastern slope of the Allegheny
Mountains, where
there is a grade of 1.5 per cent, the distances being about 12 and 7
miles respectively. The cars are carried on six-wheeled trucks of two
types. One made by the American Steel Foundries and the other liy the
Buckeye Steel Castings Company.
In the illustration presented herewith, it is the Buckeye truck that is
shown. The truck of the American Steel Foundries will be illustrated in
a future issue.
The car illustrated, was built by the Pressed Steel Car Company. The
framing of the car uses 13 in. channels weighing 37 lbs. to the foot
for the center sills,
which extend for the full length of the car. The length over the
striking plates in 50 ft. 8|4 in. and these project 7 1/8 in. beyond
the end sills. This gives an inside
length of 49 ft. 6 in. "and a width of 10 ft. 2 3/4 in. The sides and
bottom slope down at the center, so that an increase of depth of
something more than a foot is
obtained at that point. The actual depth at the center is 8 ft. 5 1/8
in, in. while at the end it is 7 ft. 4 1/4 in. These dimensions give it
a capacity of 3850 cu. ft. when level full and 4450 cu. ft. when
heapedup to an angle of 30 degrees. It is upon this latter condition of
loading that the capacity of the car is estimated. With
coal weighing 54 lbs. to the cubic foot, and the car loaded to the
30° heap angle, the weight of coal will be a trifle more than
240,000 lbs. While the nominal
capacity of the car is 240,000 lbs., this is also intended as the
maximum and the cars are stenciled as of 210,000 lbs. capacity so as to
admit of the usual 10 per cent overload that is allowed in practice.
The size of the car coupled to the fact that it is deeper at
the
center, gives it the general appearance of a quadruple hopper car. It
is not, however, a hopper car and has no hoppers, drop doors or any
means of discharge except as the load is dumped over the top by the
dumping machine, installed at Sewall's Point. This makes it necessary
that it shall be operated only over the lines of the Virginian
Railroad, as there are no other dumping machines, except on the Norfolk
& Westem, capable of handling cars of this size and capacity.
The reproduction of the photograph of the car shows it to be entirely
free from outside side stakes or other projections on the outer
surface, so that it presents a
smooth, straight surface throughout the whole length and depth of the
body at all points. This serves the purpose of engaging the clamps in
the car dumpers
and avoids a concentration of stresses on the side stakes, top angles
or other projections while the car is being dumped. It also makes it
possible to use practically all of the clearance width of the road for
the inside or available loading width of the car, thus providing for
the required cubic capacity in a minimum of length and height.
