Great Northern Railway P.1

Glistening in the late winter sun, a string of new ""jumbo"" covered hopper cars just delivered to Great Northern railway at Minneapolis is shown here being switched into a freight train for rush delivery to western grain-producing areas, where a heavy backlog of storage grain awits loading. GN currently is adding 100 of these aluminum=sheathed cars to its grain=hauling fleet. The 4,750-cubic-foot hoppers will carry half again the load of an averagebox car. Another 200 steel-sheathed jumbos are scheduled for delivery in early spring--giving GN nearly 950 specialized cars of this type placed in service since 1962. The cars pictured are 57 ft 8.5 in. long from coupler to coupler and stand nearly 15 ft. above rail. They cost approx. $19,300 each as against $14,500 for the steel-sheathed cars. In addition to their much greater capacity, the jumbos feather fast loading through top hatches and gravity unloading through bottom doors producing time and labor savings for shippers and receivers of grain. Credit: Great Northern Railway. Gift of Utah Farmer.