covered hoppers

[Anonymous]

Could somebody give me a quick history of the covered hoppers? When they came out & what early industries used them. I just bought a beautiful ACF 70ton 2-bay C.H. by Bowser. It has a built date of 9/41. I don't know Who's siding it should get parked on. Thanks

[dknelson]

Covered hoppers actually go back a fair time back probably to around WWI but were quite rare and experimental. The very oldest is probably the B&O's combination boxcar/hopper that Model Railroader published drawings of back in the mid 1960s.
By the 1930s and 1940s covered hoppers were used to haul sand that needed to be kept dry and clean (such as in railroad use itself), and other powered commodities, such as cement and carbon black, that had to be kept dry also used covered hoppers. The Mazda Lamp covered hoppers are a well known example. These older covered hoppers pretty much looked like 2 bay hoppers with a roof. In fact Varney, and now Life Like I think, sell a covered hopper that is literally a 2 bay coal hopper with a plastic roof on it. No current covdered hopper looks like that but some older ones did. Most early covered hoppers did have a different sort of hopper release than a coal hopper however -- more like your Bowser model.
The ACF center flow covered hopper is a product basically of the 1960s. One plant near my house as a kid made clear plastic bags out of plastic pellets (about the size of aspirin and translucent). The factory was across the street from the track, so track side was just an outlet with a large hose to unload the car -- perfect for a model railroad siding where you don't want to build the building!
I do not believe the use of covered hoppers for grain service was common until the early 1960s. Even into the late 1970s the use of box cars with grain doors was pretty common since most originating points for grain were lightly trafficked and had light track.
So your 1941 era covered hopper from Bowser most probably would have been used in sand or cement or chemical/powder service, not grain and almost certainly not plastic pellets.
Dave Nelson

[csxns]

John their is a new hobby shop in your area.Tell me more about it if you been their.

[Anonymous]

The shop is Smokey Mtn Model Railroads. It is small in size but has a nice selection of HO,N, and a couple LGB pieces. Plus a large selection of used HO diesels and cars. Alot of it is Clinchfield, NS, ect. A club is forming in town and for now info on that can be found at the shop. Prices are 20% below list. Kyle & Janet run the store and are in it for the love of railroading and modeling. Good Model RR shops are hard to find and this one is a gem. Give them a try.
P.S. I have no financial stake in the store.

[csxns]

John i will be comming up hwy 226 from Shelby.Where is it located.Use to railfan at Clinchcross can you still go their.

[Anonymous]

The shop is on hwy 70 (Court st.) 1 1/2 blocks east of Main St. or about 3 mile west of Clinchcross on the south side of the street, across from Mcdowell Tire.The stores # is 652-0227 and they are open until 7pm.
There is still good access for railfanning at Clinchcross. The old depot was torn down about 4 years ago and has been replaced with a steel building. A couple of the side streets just south of Clinchcross have good views of CSX waiting for clearance to enter the Marion tunnel. The Marion station is still a good place to watch NS trains.
Enjoy your visit to town.

[csxns]

John I talked to the shop owner today and I believed Smokey Mountain Model Trains will be the next big thing.Everybody take notice.