I have just purchased a lionel black two-bay hopper. The no. is 25000, black painted, and is decorated for the Lehigh Valley.
I know that these hoppers came with staple-end trucks, but mine has a bar-end truck on one end, and the standard staple-end on the other......... Both trucks are in almost factory fresh shape (granted, the wheels are a little stiff) so I am wondering if the bar-end truck is a service station replacement.
Does anyone think they know how this car would have gotten the two different truck styles?
The Lehigh Valley Railroad, the Route of the Black Diamond Express, John Wilkes and Maple Leaf.
-Jake, modeling the Barclay, Towanda & Susquehanna.
The trucks on those hoppers are very easy to replace or swap. There is no way of telling.
There should be another number on the bottom right corner, likely 6456. There is a possibility that this truck combination is original, as I believe that they started using bar-end trucks in late 1951. I have factory original sets from 1951 that have mixed cars with either two staple-end or two bar-end trucks, but never one of each. Still, yours could have left the factory like that, maybe while they were trying to deplete the staple-end inventory.
Trevor
I was wondering that myself, seeing how long these cars were produced and the last production year compared with the starting bar-end truck production year. I'll check the car when I get a chance, maybe I'll find something.
It is a 6456 two bay hopper. So maybe it is something with the production, particularly seeing how whatever wear it has is actually quite even.
What type of couplers does it have?A 6456 hopper should have magnetic couplers, operated by the electromagnet in a UCS track.A 2456 hopper should have electromagnetic couplers, operated by coils right on the coupler shank.
It has it's proper couplers, those magnetic couplers.
nice, thanks for u sharing it!
Neat little differece that makes me happy to have it if it came out of the factory like that.
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