Ex-Pillsbury Cylindrical Grain Cars

I saw a post by George Dutka on the excellent White River Division blog about ex Pillsbury covered hoppers. I’ll chime in with my own observations.

These blue, often rusty, cylindrical grain hoppers can be seen with SOO reporting marks on Canadian Pacific’s lines. These are 263,000 lb cars built in 1979 for Pillsbury and acquired by SOO in 2006, according to George’s post.

So far I’ve seen SOO 125025, 125027, 125018, 125020, 125040, 125114, and 125116.

These cars seem to all be highly rusted, with rust streaks down the sides along the seams.

They are starting to get long in the tooth – almost 42 years old at this time. I imagine they are going to be scrapped in a few years as they are approaching the Association of American Railroad’s 50 year age limit for cars that can be interchanged between railways.

I like seeing these cars as they are fairly distinctive. The blue really stands out.

See Also

• George’s post
• Some Pillsbury P-S cars on Trackside Treasure
• Ex Rock Island cars

Just One More Thing

I just finished reading “The Three-Body Problem“, a science fiction novel by Cixin Liu. This is a great book, the first of a trilogy, a relatively “hard science” book reminiscent of a Jerry Pournelle or Larry Niven novel.

What’s unique about it – beside the three-body problem, a well-known physics problem – is that Cixin Liu is Chinese and wrote it in his native language. It was translated to English with great care by Ken Liu and is quite readable. You can tell that it “comes” from a different culture but I think that enriches the book. It’s refreshing to read something not written from a North American or English point of view.

I’m looking forward to reading the next two in the trilogy.

You can buy The Three-Body Problem on Amazon or find it in your local bookstore or library.

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