How was sand moved in the 1950s?

[Paul M.]

Was sand moved in gondolas, covered hopper cars, or regular hopper cars? 

[Guilford Guy]

I know that today traction sand is usually transported in covered hoppers while the nightly gravel train uses open hops so I would guess that  in the 50's it would be transported in open hops. 

[rogertra]

In the 1950s, sand was moved in open hoppers, covered hoppers were just being introduced so that's possible as well, sand also moved in gondolas and bagged in boxcars.

[cmgn9712]

I am not at all confidant your answers are correct. First, covered hoppers have been built since the 30's. First ones were converted open hoppers. It would be impossible to get sand out of an open gon/hopper outside of shoveling if it got wet. Now some railroads did this to get sand for the dryer that fed the sanding tower. Sand in bags would be for special purposes because of the expense of bagging and handling.

[SteamGene]

I can't find my C&O freight car book, but I seem to remember that C&O had covered hoppers on 1 September, 1939.
Gene

[Ken]

  Paul
In the mid 1950's, on the Canadian Pacific at least, I recall loaded
gondola cars spotted on an elevated track, behind the sandhouse.
Sand was shoveled into a roofed sand bin, from there it was shoveled
onto the sand stove, dried and blown by compressed air into the
elevated sand bin for both steam & diesel locomotives.

   Covered Hoppers would be a single service car, and usually marked
"sand service only" to prevent product contamination of other products.

  Ken C
    GWN

[Atlantic Central]

First,

Are we talking about the sand the railroads used for locos or other industrial/commercial uses?

Covered hoppers did exist back in the thirties, but they did not come into wide spread use for the full range of products they carry today until the 50's.

Grain, sand, and lots of similar products where baged in lots of applications prior to the 50's/60's that bagging is not used for today. Labor cost factors where less and other means of handling where not as advanced.

Gondolas with lift off covers have also been used for weather sensitive high density loose product (like sand) since 1900 or so. You don't see many of these any more but in the 40's and 50's they where quite common.

It is safe to say that all of the info presented here is correct to one degree or another depending on time, local, conditions, etc.

Sheldon

[BillD53A]

Part of a panoramic view of the American Agricultural Chemical Company's phosphate plant at Pierce, Fl, showing Charlotte Harbor & Northern covered hoppers in 1929.

http://www.fpc.dos.state.fl.us/geology/ge2402b.jpg

From the photographic collection of the Florida State Archives.

[SteamGene]

Sheldon is correct that labor costs were less in the '50s and many things done mechanically or in bulk today were handled by manual labor then.  I'm still having a hard time convincing a couple of young club members that a boxcar full of lumber would often be uloaded by hand in 1957. 
Gene

[Hoople]

Sheldon is correct that labor costs were less in the '50s and many things done mechanically or in bulk today were handled by manual labor then.  I'm still having a hard time convincing a couple of young club members that a boxcar full of lumber would often be uloaded by hand in 1957. 
Gene

You're not having a hard time with me.

[RAM]

covered hoppers go back a long way.  They were regular hoppers with a cover on them.  They used covered hoppers in cement service for years.  I moved to Okla. in 1944.   We had a ready mix plant that received cement in covered hoppers, sand and stone in gons.  What they haul it in today depends on what kind of sand and how they want to unload it.  There is a railroad in arkansas that uses old ore cars for sand.

[rogertra]

cmgn9712 and others.

Yes, covered hoppers may go back to the 1930s but so do containers and you didn't see too many containers until 1970s and niether did you see too many covered hoppers.

We are speaking generalities here, not specific loads and industries that may have been a special user of covered hoppers.

Sand could be shipped in anything, just like today.  As others have pointed out, labour was cheaper in the 1950s and you pay a gang to shovel out the samd, wet or not.  These days they'd use a backhoe and a bucket.

As for loco sand, that would be moved the same way and a labourer would shovel sand into the drying room as described by Ken.

Keep in mind that in the 1950s there were a lot of low sided gondolas, sides only a couple of feet high, that were used for sand, gravel and coal loading.  The low sides were there so that labourers could easily shovel out the load by hand.

[Terry Toenges]

What about the weight of the sand?
An open hopper full of sand in a rainstorm could get really heavy.
Would the open hoppers be able to handle the weight?

[rogertra]

All open hoppers have load lines painted on them that indicate how deep the load can be.  A line for coal, sand, gravel, rock etc..  I'm sure the sand wasn't shipped "dried" when shipped in open cars but was shipped "wet".  That is, in the condition it was in when loaded from the outside storage area, so it would already hold water.

[Len]

As others have said, it partially depended on the type of sand and the industry it was used for.

The bottling plant near where I grew up received a very fine sand in covered hoppers. They'd hook up a compressed air hose and pressurize the car some to get it out easier. They didn't want it wet, period.

On the flip side, the sand, gravel, and concrete company received what I called "beach sand" in open hoppers, regular gondolas, and drop side gondolas.

So I believe the answer depends in part on what you're trying to model. If it's for through trains, use them all!