Saint Paul, November 16, 1938

Mr. Bernard Blum:

Referring to Mr. Stevens letters of Nov. 10 and 11 asking if Hart Selective Ballast and Coal cars Enterprise Multi-service cars and 100 M hopper cars (series 70050-70199) can be used to advantage in handling coal to Northern Pacific coal docks:  From a study of plans obtained from the Mechanical Department it appears that any of these cars would be suitable for this purpose.

The inside pair of doors of both the Hart and Enterprise cars could not be used to advantage in dumping coal unless the latter is free of chunks which might not pass through door openings. The inside door opening is 11” on the Hart car and 18” on the Enterprise car. However there appears to be no necessity for using the center discharge as the outside doors would completely empty the cars.

Mr. Stevens raises the question as to the necessity of making two spots for unloading where we have shorts hoppers. At most of our buckets and conveyer type docks the hoppers are 30 feet long at the following docks: - LaMoure, Hazen, Pullman Jct., Toppenish, Yakima (yard), Easton, and Arlington.

Even with as twenty foot hopper it would be possible to empty any of the three types of cars if built in the 50 ton capacity, with one spot. It would be necessary to make two spots to unload 70 tons cars of any type of a 20 foot hopper but this is necessary with our present equipment so there is no disadvantage from that standpoint. The beams over 20 foot hoppers will support 70 ton cars.

Apparently there would be no difficulty in handling any of these cars over the vertical curve on the Great Northern type docks (*), if the cars have been built according to the plans which have been examined. Before lowering either the Hart or Enterprise cars it would be necessary to close the doors to prevent the outside pair striking the guard timbers or the inside pair striking the rollers. The girders supporting the doors are high enough to clear the rails.

Saint Paul,

Bridge Engineer

* The Great Northern type coal dock – The NP originally looked at the Great Northern’s method of coaling using a trestle arraignment and then adopting it as an NP standard. For more history on this refer except from letter of Sept. 7, 1927.