B&O and C&O 4-Bay Ribbed Hoppers

[Anonymous]

I'm a Pennsy N-Scale Modeller currently stripping
AHM 4-Bay ribbed side hoppers to make PRR H-21
hoppers. Among the many shellls I'm stripping,
there are a B&O and C&O. I know they both had
4-Bay Offset sided, but did they have 4-Bay Ribbed
side? If so, I will leave these two alone as they
will look good in the long coal drags I'm doing.
Please respond asap before they go into the
alcohol bath.

[sumpter250]

"Freight Car Equipment of the Chesapeake & Ohio
August 1, 1937" does not show any 4 bay rib sides, only offset sides. I don't have a more recent reference. Click on 'historical society', and email C&O historical and ask.

[Anonymous]

The B&O had rib sided 4 bays, their class W-1, as I recall. Westerfield has an HO kit for these, so you might check his catalog or website to see a picture. These were basically the PRR design from the time the PRR controlled the B&O. However, I'm not sure if the B&O cars had the sawtooth hoppers or those of the PRR H-21's. The Westerfield reference should clear this up and he has a good history on the cars.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the replies. I caught a picture of a
C&O Ribbed Side in a book titled C&O Power. You
can just barely make out the front half of the car
as being a 4-Bay. I will leave these two alone
unless someone can prove to me otherwise.
Again thanks for the replies. The train modeling
community is one of the best groups of people
going.
Coalcracker16

[Anonymous]

Brian:
Just read the replies to your query on BO/CO hoppers. You mentioned "alcohol bath" for stripping equipment,or is that just the lettering?
What do you do to use the alcohol to strip them?
I've either used DOT-2 brake fluid by the quart,or just spray paint over everything since all my roster of hoppers, except for a hand full which are basic oxide red, are flat black. I am doing a freelance private roadname railroad based in the Wilkes-Barre area of Pennsylvania. Oh, I live in Colorado Springs close to the snow bound Rockies.
# # #
hed

[Anonymous]

I just read you reply to Brian's query and it caught my attention concerning the PRR controlling the B&O. What year was this? I am modeling the period of post-PC and the first five years of CR.
That made me wonder if it wasn't the 1950's period.
I have been mixing occasional CR/CSX equipment with my own private roadname equipment in power pool lashups that were famous back then. Don't see it much out here (Colorado Springs, CO)with the massive mergers that have happened of late.

[Anonymous]

I have had decent success stripping shells w/
older pad printed lettering (thick) by AHM, Minitrix, & ROCO by soaking my shells (in rubbing alcohol) in a larger size margarine tub from the store.
I was told not to use brake fluid by fellow
modelers. The alcohol does not hurt the shell obviously, and after scrubbing the shells w/ a
toothbrush, dries rather quickly due to evaporation. Your shell is then also clean enough after a final rinse for your paint job. To be fair though, some base paint jobs, like AHM's Lt. Grey and Silver do not come completely off. It takes a lot of effort and many soakings, to get most of it off. I have tried I think Scalecoat's soak & rinse product on loan from a friend. It worked well on the newer paint jobs but not at all on the older paint jobs like decribed earlier.
It has been my experience to just try to get a hold of the Black AHM shells so all you have to
strip off is the Pad Printed lettering.
I hope this helps. Good luck w/ your Wilkes-Barre
short line. I used to work up there. I live in
Tamaqua. That's just 50 minutes South of there on State Rt.309.
Coalkcracker16

[Anonymous]

Harry,
The PRR controlled the B&O back in the teens, or twentys. I believe the courts made them give it up, eventually. It did make for some interesting equipment running on the B&O. Some B&O steamers (mostly Consolidations and switchers)had Belpare fireboxes, as a result, and some Pennsy design cars ended up on the B&O. Many examples of these lasted up until dieselization. A similar situation existed on the N&W as the Pennsy also had a peice of it at one time. This probably does not help you much in your modeling era, but it is an interesting bit of history.
For the transition era modeler, it does allow you to run what looks like a PRR 2-8-0 dressed up in B&O lettering.
Hope this answers your question.
Jim Kubanick