Shamrock Materials of Petaluma, CA, has decided to sell or scrap its fleet of 12 Pullman PS-2 hoppers that are parked along the Northwestern Pacific Railroad. Eleven are located on live rail in Petaluma, and the last is on the company's siding in Cloverdale (about 48 miles north). As yet there is no rail service to Cloverdale.

Photos of the cars can be found here: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/rsList ... NWP&cid=21

The cars were built in 1957 for the Soo Line. Later they were sold to Helm Financial Corporation and relettered HLMX 100001 through 100012. Shamrock bought them in 1989 or 1990 for hauling aggregate to their ready-mix plants. By then the cars were modified by cutting the roofs open and welding on side-discharge chutes.

Nine of the cars were used by the Northwestern Pacific Railroad Company for ballast service in 2009. They were renumbered NWP MW 01 through 12. No. 9 is the car in Cloverdale.

None of the cars are FRA-compliant, but at least three are repairable for less than $800 each. The company's asking price for the cars is "scrap value".