Covered hoppers of the 1930's to early 1940's RTR in HO scale, better quality ones

[doctorwayne]

The Bowser version of Pennsy's H-30 is the only r-t-r car that I've put on my layout which didn't require additional detail work or tweaking for proper operation - a little weathering and that was it:

I'm modelling the late '30s, and have quite a few covered hoppers, mainly for this industry:

Most are the Bowser ACF car referred to by other posters:

I also have a number of MDC covered hoppers - they're too modern for my era, but I'll be backdating and re-detailing them

I know that you're asking for r-t-r cars, but I wanted some cars from an even earlier era, so scratchbuilt four of these "convertible" boxcars - standard 36' boxcars with roof hatches and longitudinal hoppers:

Tichy offers their USRA single sheathed 40' boxcar with roof hatches and underfloor hoppers, but in kit form only. 

The Rail Shop makes a very nice '30s-era carbon black covered hopper, but I'd classify it as a craftsman-type kit:

Wayne

[rrinker]

 Of course the only thing mentioend so far that meet's the OP's requirement of RTR is the Bowser H30. The very excellent kadee covererd hoppers are one of the few other highly detailed RTR covered hoppers but are much too new.

 Covered hoppers were somewhat slow to gain acceptence - mainly because they were more or less single purpose cars. Even things like cement were mostly bagged and shipped in box cars. The same car could handle crates of radios on the way back, and then bags of feed on the next trip. The first 3 classes of covered hoppers on the Reading were all built by the railroad by adding a roof to older open coal hoppers. I have a few in production, scratchbuilding a roof to fit some approriate Accurail open hoppers. That's the only way to get these early cars. Not even kits are available for these.

 Without kits, you are going to mostly be out of luck - several have been mentioned as options for something that's not strictly a PRR car like the H30, but they are all kits.

                         --Randy

 

[tstage]

Well, that saves me some work.  Thanks for that link, Bear!

BTW, the L&N covered hopper I have has "step" grab irons vs. the uniform grabirons on the Pennsy versions found in Bear's link.  Maybe I'll post a pic anyhow - just for edification purposes.

Tom

["JaBear"]

Gidday rrebell , the Bowser Executive  Line H-30 RTR would fit your time frame, though they were  built into the early 50s, and though I’ve been known to be wrong before, I personally  think you’d hard pressed to be disappointed with the model, I’m certainly glad I bought two.

Here’s a link to a review with some close up pictures of the details.......

http://www.prrths.com/Keystone%20Modeler/Keystone_Modeler_PDFs/TKM%20No.%2086%20-%20Autumn%202013.pdf

Cheers, the Bear.

[DSchmitt]

PRR H30 Covered Hoppers

 http://prr.railfan.net/freight/classpage.html?class=H30

They were converted by the railroad from coal cars

http://www.riverraisinmodels.com/libraryData/prrh30h32.pdf

Bowser H30 covered hoppers:

http://www.bowser-trains.com/history/h30instock.html

Bowser 70-ton covered hoppers:

http://www.bowser-trains.com/history/70tcoveredinstock.html

Model based on PRR H23 Covered Hopper were made by Varney.  While crude by todays standards might be worth considering. Some available on Ebay:

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2050601.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.TRS0&_nkw=varney+covered+hopper&_sacat=220

 

 

 

[tstage]

rrebell,

I can post pictures of a Bowser L&N covered hopper I have (BLT: 2-43) tomorrow when I get back home.

Tom

[ACY Tom]

I think the Bowser PRR H30 was introduced in the 1930's.

The ACF 70 ton 1958 cu. ft. car made by Bowser, Kato, and Intermountain was introduced in the 1930's, but gained its greatest popularity later.

Funaro & Camerlengo makes resin kits for the 1790 cu. ft. car used by several roads, plus the PRR's very early GLe covered hopper, plus a small Erie car and a NYC proprietary design. I believe all but the NYC car originated in the 1930's.

By the way, these cars were originally considered cement cars. Gradually they were used for other commodities such as sand and various powdered chemicals. Use of covered hoppers for grain was either unknown or rare until the late 1950's.

I think F&C also makes a kit for a specialized hopper for Carbon Black, and I think that design originated in the 1930's.

I wrote all of this from memory, so you can use the info as a general guide, but you shouldn't consider it authoritative.

Tom

[gmpullman]

rrebell

Also the Bowser appear to be of a later design.

This is the 1936 design and the Bowser looks like a pretty good representation of it. As Mike points out, these cars were pretty scarce until the early 1950s.

The above ad is from 1940. NKP 99749 has a build date of 8-39.

Good Luck, Ed

[rrebell]

The Bowser don't seem to have the individual grabs unless I missed it in their RTR. Also the Bowser appear to be of a later design. I only need a couple as I like varity on my pike, found some Intermountain 1940 design ones but thought there might be more out there. I do have some Kato RTR (someone else built them) in a 1930's design but they are not as detailed as I would like, though a good stand in for now.

[mlehman]

Keep in mind the LOs were few and far between before WWII. Those that werre around tended to be built in small numbers to relatively unique designs. One example is that among the roughly 10,000 cars that GACX/GATX listed in the 1944 ORER, only around 200 were classified as LO.

[gmpullman]

I was going to make the same suggestion that Tom did. The Bowser is a pretty good representation of an A.C.F. 70 tonner and their kits are a pleasure to build:

http://bowser-trains.com/history/70tcoveredinstock.html

I have some photos of some AAR class LO covered hoppers with a build date of 1938 but I can not say for sure when the first ones came about. Tom is correct that much of the bulk dry goods were shipped in barrels and sacks back then.

The Bowser PRR H-30 is also a very well done model of that specific prototype:

http://bowser-trains.com/history/h30instock.html

Hope that helps, Ed

[tstage]

Bowser makes some nice 2-bay covered hoppers but I believe they are more from the mid-40's on.

Tom

[rrebell]

Need to know what covered hoppers from the 1930's to early 40's are available RTR of better quality. like Intermountain quality with separate grabs etc.