Premier PS-2CD High-Sided Hopper Car -- Illinois Central Gulf

Although covered hoppers had achieved widespread use by the 1950s, it wasn't until the following decade that they began to carry North America's grain harvest. Prior to the mid-1960s, U.S. and Canadian farmers sent their wheat and other grains to market in 40' boxcars. The crop was packed in sacks or in cars with disposable grain doors that covered most of the door opening and turned the car into a rolling grain bin. Either way, loading and unloading was labor-intensive and time-consuming. Pullman-Standard's introduction of the PS-2CD covered hopper in 1962, along with American Car and Foundry's (ACF's) launch of its Centerflow(R) covered hopper around the same time, helped change grain shipping forever. Whereas Pullman's original PS-2 introduced 10 years earlier had been designed for denser cargos and held about 2,000 cubic feet, the PS-2CD was built for lighter-weight commodities like grain and held twice the volume. The CD stood for center disch