el-capitan Just because a car has round hatches, does not make it an airslide. Airslide cars have a completely unique underbody that allows the customer to unload the car through a hose or pipe by blowing the material using compressed air. None of the covered hoppers in this thread are airslide. They dump the conventional way (open hatch, material falls out). If you are interested in getting year-specific features on your cars I would highly recommend looking at a car builders cyclopedia.
Just because a car has round hatches, does not make it an airslide. Airslide cars have a completely unique underbody that allows the customer to unload the car through a hose or pipe by blowing the material using compressed air. None of the covered hoppers in this thread are airslide. They dump the conventional way (open hatch, material falls out).
If you are interested in getting year-specific features on your cars I would highly recommend looking at a car builders cyclopedia.
He is absoulutley correct and Airslides would not usually be used for cement or sand as the cubic capacity of the car (2600CF) and the weight of the material would seriously overload the bearings and frame of the car.
Here is an Airslide:
Note the single unloading bay under the car, they also made an two bay version that held 4000 FG
Here is a standard 1958 CF Covered Hopper with Circular Hatches, usually a retrofit to an old ACF car or was used on a PS 2003 Car.
The first car is a 1958 CF ACF Car with circular hatches, and the second is a 2003 CF PS Car.
Rick J
Rule 1: This is my railroad.
Rule 2: I make the rules.
Rule 3: Illuminating discussion of prototype history, equipment and operating practices is always welcome, but in the event of visitor-perceived anacronisms, detail descrepancies or operating errors, consult RULE 1!
Check out the Deming Sub by clicking on the pics:
Here is another early Covered Hopper, the NYC had over a thousand of these made in the 40's and 50's. The only available kit now is the F&C kit or if you can find one the ECW Enterprise Covered Hopper for the NYC.
The Peoria & Eastern tacked 30 cars onto a lot made for the NYC. ECW car with Mark Vaughn Decals. His decals will also do the NYC and P&LE.
BF&D > Detail Associate offers the square hatches, eight to a package, Interesting; do they make the dump gates as well?
> Detail Associate offers the square hatches, eight to a package,
Interesting; do they make the dump gates as well?
No underfloor hoppers, but you could buy a cheap hopper car (Tyco, LifeLike, etc. - often available used at hobby shops for about a quarter) and cut off the hoppers to put under your boxcars. Another option is to build your own from sheet styrene - here's a better view of the ones under my four cars:
BF&D > if the BLT dates on cars are wrong for your era, Champ made data sets to enable the modeller to change that lettering - any good hobby shop should still have them. Oooh! That's cheating! Says the guy who scratched out the top left part of a "9" on Wabash hopper to make it a "3" as in "53".
> if the BLT dates on cars are wrong for your era, Champ made data sets to enable the modeller to change that lettering - any good hobby shop should still have them.
Oooh! That's cheating! Says the guy who scratched out the top left part of a "9" on Wabash hopper to make it a "3" as in "53".
If it's cheating, then about 90% of my cars are, too. There are not a lot of models offered with BLT dates in the '30s or earlier (Accurail does offer a decent selection, with some models offered in paint schemes from various eras - you need to know what's correct for your particular era, though, if you're unwilling to make your own alterations). And many cars with early BLT dates also show the dimensional data with a NEW notation and a date identical to the BLT date - strictly speaking, that's correct only if you're modelling a period within 30 months of the BLT date. As someone once said, "a little learning is a dangerous thing".
Wayne
I use the Bowser hoppers on my late '30s-era layout, along with some scratchbuilt boxcars with roof hatches and longitudinal hoppers.
Detail Associate offers the square hatches, eight to a package, and if the BLT dates on cars are wrong for your era, Champ made data sets to enable the modeller to change that lettering - any good hobby shop should still have them.
Thanks, but all of them were a bit too late.
Check this link:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150265658889676&set=o.121215717413&type=3&theater
[quote user="BF&D"]
Same problem as Walthers/etc/ catalogs - too low resolution to read the new / rework date. Do you kbnow what it is?
Look at the following link and this should shed some more light on the hoppwers.
http://www.kadee.com/ca/ps2/ps2.htm
Bob
Don't Ever Give Up
Kadee makes 2 bay covered hoppers (PS-2) . They do have the round hatches though but are highly detailed.
They come in other road names.
Is this what you are looking for?
Holy cow, that's even got the right hatches. I will have to see if I can find any of those, and repaint them.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
There is one more HO model, LifeLike remake of early Varney model.
User orsonroy once said about it:
BF&D square hatches
Just in case you are not familiar wi th how an Airslide hopper works. They have round hatches because they need to hold internal pressure during unloading. The sloped surfaces of the car are covered with a tough cloth material, so during unoading, the customer connects the car to a plant air hose. The air pushes up through the cloth making the powdered cargo more fluid, so it flows our the bottom outlets quicker.
As to the Tichy car, they come undecorated or with D&H decals. You can buy B&O decals separately, their part #9230; look on their Decals website pagehttp://www.tichytraingroup.com/index.php?page=view_category.php&category=Decals&offset=0
George In Midcoast Maine, 'bout halfway up the Rockland branch
I was fortunate to get one of Kato's HO sets of three ATSF covered hopper kits. They have a 1949 build date and is Kato's kit 38-0106. Of course they made other roads too. I suspect its long out of production, but anything you want pops up on Ebay sooner or later.
ENJOY !
Mobilman44
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
Yup, lots of options actually. You're lucky you can use those. In my case, in my year, 1956, my chosen road didn;t have any like the available kits. The covered hoppers in cement service were all home-built, by adding a roof to some older open hoppers. Plans that I need were in MR, so it's just a matter of actually getting some styrene sheets and mass producing a few lids.
Thanks for the reminder - I'd seen that one on Tichy's site, but didn't think of it now; sounds like just the thing for Piedmont Portland (PPCX?) to have around as one of their older cars - perhaps I'll make the covered hoppers much less weathered to establish their relative "newness".
Tichy has a kit that is described as covered boxcar with hatches for cement and sand.
Here is the description from their website:
I don't know how accurate their kits are to the actual prototype.
Hope that helps.
Thanks for the tip on the square hatches - at least the typical low-res photos do show that feature clearly enough. I ordered a Wabash and an L&N - the L&N is destined to someday get the road name painted over and PIEDMONT (Piedmont Portland Cement) will fit the spaces just fine. Might have to fudge the build or rework dates to '54 or earlier, but I'll see when they get here.
I have used the the Bowser line of cement hoppers, this is the link to the kits, but some are available RTR. 3-car sets have been available as well. The ones with the square hatches are the pre-airslide design; Maine Central started buying this type of cement hopper just before 1920, into the 30s and 40s. IN the 50s they changed to Airslideshttp://www.bowser-trains.com/In%20Stock%20Pages/In%20Stock%20Freight%20Car%20Kits%20Row%20Three.htm#70 Tom 2 Bay Closed Side Covered Hopper
http://www.bowser-trains.com/In%20Stock%20Pages/In%20Stock%20Freight%20Car%20Kits%20Row%20Three.htm#70 Ton 2 Bay Open Side Covered Hopper
The kits will need some weight added to bring them to NMRA standards
Your looking for Bowser, Intermountain and if you can find them Eastern Car Works/E&B Valley ACF 1958 CF 2 Bay Covered Hoppers. They were almost used exclusively in the Cement/Sand/Sugar hauling business. And they can be used for the similar Greenville and other manufacturer's cars.
Kato makes a GACX 1958 CF car also.
Kadee and Atlas make good replica's of the PS 2003 CF 2 Bay Covered Hopper for the same service, the Athearn/MDC car has too many compromises in its diework to be considered for layout use anymore.
After that the next line of cars is the Walther's/Athearn PS 2893 CF cars which were made in the mid 50's and were used for lighter material than sand and cement.
The Athearn 2600 CF car is too modern based on your description and these date from the 1960's.
There seems to be no end of giant grain hoppers available from the '60s and later. But as a transition era modeler with a strong bias toward steam power, I need pre-1955 covered hoppers for dry sand and cement service - such as the earliest PS-2 2600 cu ft cars. Some gray colored, either undecorated or (preferably) data only (oh, please, Accurail!), some in mid-western or southern roads from 1954 or before.
Perhaps they're out there, but Walthers and Athearn, for two, don't seem to either publish built/rework dates or provide photos with enough resolution to read those dates when magnified.
Maybe we need a new magazine - Transition Era Railroad Modeler.