I happened to look at a Grain Journal from 1917 where everything seemed more modern than 50 years earlier in the USA, but they were still using wood boxcars for hauling grain.
There were steel open-top hoppers in the early 20th century, but covered hoppers fleets were slow in coming.
Was the delay in building fleets of covered hoppers caused by the steel shortage in the world wars?
Was it just some men being stubborn about changing something that barely worked because they had something to prove?
How could that one concept have been so slow in changing.
Even when they had the choice to build new steel cars especially for grain, some railroads still chose to use sloppy box cars. Was it so expensive to haul empty boxcars that they had to use them for all commodities, even if it caused damage and loss to one of the commodities?
Andrew
