BNSF appears to be having a skin buckling problems with some of their older red oxide grain train covered hoppers. I noticed that some of the cars appeared to have been cleaned in an odd pattern (actually repainted) and then I noticed that patches had been welded on to stiffen the ends of the cars.
1. Two cars with some distortion or skin buckling at the ends of the hopper section of the cars.
2. A car that has had a stiffening patch welded on (there is also a patch on the other end) and a car that does not seem to have developed this problem yet.
3. A newer car with a slightly different design. Note that the car already has some stiffening or strengthening patches welded in the high stress areas.
We got one sitting on the pocket track to 1 Class at the Hump. Looks like the Retarded operator let one into the track a little too hot..and BOOM!! Let's wake Yook up!! Car buckeled rite behind the truck,and the truck is angled upwards and the wheels are contacting the body of the car. Looks like a good sparkler if ya tried to move it.
