Covered hoppers and grain - Trains Magazine

Paul,

I too think the 220,000 net for Big Johns is too high since the axle limit in that era was 263,000# on four axles.  I have an old ad that shows CAPY 200000, LD LMT 207,000.  I can not read LT WT but it should be 56,000.  The tare is consistent with your post and the load limit on this random car SOU 8582, is consistent with 263,000 gross.

For comparison a 4750 cuft steel car runs 62,000 to 63,000 tare and 201,000 to 200,000 net.

The Big John was competing against box cars with 55 ton capacity.  Southern could cut the per ton/bushel rate almost in half and still have the same revenue per car.  Better would be hold the rate and take a big improvement to your margin.  In fact the boxcar rates were not moving the traffic.  Southern had to cut the rate per ton/bushell to get the traffic off the road and river.  Those whose ox was so gored went to the ICC to put a stop to this unseemly behavior.  The Southern fought all the way to the Supreme Court (twice IIRC).  Some claim that the farce of a regulatory agency telling the railroad it could not lower prices was the begining of the end of the ICC as we knew it.  

In hardware terms the Big John was evolutionary.  In economic terms it was revloutionary, but that only because Bill Brosnan of the Southern fought the bastards all the way. 

Mac