S PS-2 Cvd.Hopper NH #117032

Until the advent of the covered hopper, bulk commodities like
grain and cement were usually packed in sacks and loaded into box cars.
Loading and unloading was a tedious, time-consuming, labor-intensive
affair. In the 1930s, responding to shipper demand for a more efficient
process, a few railroads took the basic coal hopper design and added a
roof with loading hatches, enabling bulk commodities to be loaded from
the top and unloaded from the bottom.

The Pennsylvania Railroad’s H30 was one of the first
of these pioneering covered hoppers to be built in quantity, starting
in 1935. But it wasn’t until two decades later that a
mass-produced covered hopper took the market by storm.
Pullman-Standard, following on the success of its PS-1 boxcar,
introduced the PS-2 70-ton covered hopper in 1953. Like the PS-1, the
PS-2 was a runaway success, finding a place on the rosters of most
North American railroads and a large number of manufacturing firms.

The PS-2’s all-welded construction did a great job
of keeping commodities clean and dry, from grain to cement, soap
flakes, salt, sand, and carbon black. In theory the cars could haul a
different commodity on each trip. But the necessity of thoroughly
cleaning the interior when switching commodities meant that most cars
in fact worked in dedicated service hauling a single type of cargo.