I remember seeing a B&O covered hopper from an USRA twin that was very similar to the Life Like car, it was carrying fluxing stone to the steel mill in Coatesville. The Reading also had some similar cars in cement service (and converted dozens of quad hoppers into 2 bay covered hoppers for cement service)..
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
G PaineorsonroyThe Erie open hopper is "basically" a USRA twin hopper with a railroad-added roof and hatches Although a railroad could have purchased a conversion kit to convert an open hopper to a covered one; they were also factory built that way as well. MEC purchased a number of covered hoppers back in the '20s (maybe earlier).
orsonroyThe Erie open hopper is "basically" a USRA twin hopper with a railroad-added roof and hatches
Although a railroad could have purchased a conversion kit to convert an open hopper to a covered one; they were also factory built that way as well. MEC purchased a number of covered hoppers back in the '20s (maybe earlier).
Maybe I should have been a bit clearer. Let's try this:
"The Life Like model represents a USRA twin hopper (or a 1920s built clone) that has been railroad-modified from an HM open hopper into a LO covered hopper."
And I highly doubt that the Maine Central bought any covered hoppers in the 1920s. I'm getting a 1926 ORER in the main in a couple of days, and will check out their roster. According tot he 1930 ORER (which I do have on me now) the MEC had ZERO covered hoppers. In fact, at the time LO's were VERY rare, accounting for only 2,266 cars in the USA and Canada (out of a grand total of 2,829,013 cars). Only five railroads and one private line owned ANY covered hoppers in 1930 (in order of fleet size, L&HR, CNJ, AOCX, TC&GB, SAL, ACL).
Bowser makes similar covered hoppers in 2 body styleshttp://www.bowser-trains.com/hocars/2baychop/2baychop.htmhttp://www.bowser-trains.com/hocars/2baychop/2baychop_closed.htm
True, but these models represent cars built in the late 1930s through early 1950s. The USRA conversions were generally done just before or just after WWII, and look completely different. That's why the overall mediocre Life Like model is actually a useful car to have: it's just about the only way to quickly & easily model a fairly common transitional type car.
As a side note, in a discussion of the mix of road names appearing in railroads in the northeast, the comment was that PRR and NYC where so huge that a freight car fleet should have 10% each of PRR and NYC. There was no mention of how much NYC should appear on PRR or visa versa.
Fleet mixing is an art, not a statistical science. Yes, the Pennsy had the largest fleet on the rails, but 40% of their 215,000 cars (in 1950) were open hoppers, most of which were in semi-captive service between mines and ports. In terms of boxcars, the Pennsy was #3 behind the NYC and CN, but had twice the number of boxcars as the #5 largest boxcar fleet, the ATSF. The biggest probem is in the fact that there's too much data to understand, and the more you know, the more you DON'T know. Boxcars went everywhere, as did gons and flats. Everything else was biased towards regional demands, interactions between RR companies, and the whims of the shippers, which actually set routings, NOT railroads. That's why you get an occasional N&W hopper over Sherman Hill, but almost never a Santa Fe hopper in Vermont.
In reality, running "whatever you like" is about as accurate as any other method, so long as you stick to cars that realistically LOOK appropriate for your chosen time period (no PC cars in a 1950s layout, etc).
Ray Breyer
Modeling the NKP's Peoria Division, circa 1943
Although a railroad could have purchased a conversion kit to convert an open hopper to a covered one; they were also factory built that way as well. MEC purchased a number of covered hoppers back in the '20s (maybe earlier). They had the square hatches. Round hatches came in with the 50s Airslide hoppers so as to hold the air pressure during unloading. Bowser makes similar covered hoppers in 2 body styleshttp://www.bowser-trains.com/hocars/2baychop/2baychop.htmhttp://www.bowser-trains.com/hocars/2baychop/2baychop_closed.htm
George In Midcoast Maine, 'bout halfway up the Rockland branch
Hi Thommo,
The LV twin hopper looks to be a Train-Miniature PS-3 open hopper with aftermarket T-section Bettendorf trucks (likely Central Valley, but they may also be older Walthers trucks from the mid-1980s). The LV didn't have any PS-3's, but the car is an OK stand-in for a USRA twin hopper (if you don't look TOO hard!). These models are now made by Walthers.
The Erie open hopper is "basically" a USRA twin hopper with a railroad-added roof and hatches, to turn the car into a covered hopper. Several railroads did this to their USRA twins (IC, NKP, Rock Island, GN, etc), but to my knowledge the Erie did not. The Life Like model overall is pretty crude, but is the only model available of this sort of 1930s-1950s car conversion.
Thommo, your first car looks like one of the old Train Miniature cars. Walthers ended up with this line, although I don't think that they're offering much, if any, of it any longer. Yours has metal wheels, but otherwise looks original. They also made an offset-side version, and it was also a little bit longer than versions offered by other manufacturers.
The LifeLike car is a remake of the original Varney version, which came as an open hopper and, with the inclusion of the roof casting, a covered version. I got one of each back in the '50s, when I first started in HO, and both are still in service, as open cars, on my current layout. My Varney cars came with separate ladders and body-mounted couplers, as the truck-mounted ones are a LifeLike "innovation".
Wayne
Hello all!
I am in a process of the finishing small L shaped layout, with the PRR/B&O interchange theme, small Pennsy branchline station and small yard with few industries and sidings. Era is late 50's, so early diesels are main motive power for both PRR and B&O.
I am collecting freight cars with this in mind, so about half is PRR, then B&O. Other eastern roads are also represented, with some mid and west cars for good measure.
Recently I got few cars that are a bit puzzling, maybe somebody can help with some answers!
First car is 2-bay LV hopper for which the seller told me it's Accurail, but I am not sure. I do not have original box. Accurail website does not have this type of hopper, not with 8 panels? So who made this car?
Second question is about this ERIE hopper below. It is from Life-Like, ant it had truck mounted couplers. I removed those and mounted Kadee box and #5 couplers. Odd thing about it is that, having the body of the regular 2-bay open hopper, it has mounted roof with 8 hatches, as if the railroad converted the open hopper to the closed type. Did the railroads make those conversions, or is this LL model totally wrong?
Thanks on your answers!