May 2010 annoucements

Canadian National had a whopping 4,655 offset side 3-bay hoppers making them one of the most common cars on CN. They were built in several batches between 1949 and 1958. Eastern Car Company, National Steel, and Canadian Car & Foundry all built cars to this same design for CN.Beginning in 1961, cars were repainted with the newly adopted “noodle” logo as they went in for servicing. The Canadian National of this period operated over 22,000 miles of line. That’s more than the Santa Fe and Pennsylvania Railroad combined! This roadname is coming in 6 road numbers. 73161single car; 73162 2-Pack; 73163 3-Pack.

The New York Chicago & St. Louis was better known as Nickel Plate Road since the time of its construction. From the 1920s onward, Nickel Plate had made its name by funneling high priority freight from its western gateway cities of Chicago, Peoria and St. Louis to connections with eastern roads in Buffalo, New York. Coal had always been part of the mix but in 1949, Nickel Plate became a major originator of coal when they acquired the Wheeling & Lake Erie. The X-shaped W&LE linked Toledo with Wheeling, West Virginia on one axis, and Cleveland and Zanesville, Ohio on the other axis. The acquisition included 3,000 of these 70 ton hoppers. In 1964, Nickel Plate picked up another 500 of these cars from Bethlehem Steel. The hunger for coal for electricity, metalugical, industrial, and consumer use sent these hoppers across much of the country. This roadname is coming in 6 road numbers. 73171 single car; 73172 2-Pack; 73173 3-Pack.

The 10,000+ mile Southern Railway System blanketed the southern Appalachia region and consequently hauled much of the coal produced.Like the New York Central and Missouri Pacific, Southern was made up of several large subsidiary
railroads including the Cincinnati New Orleans & Texas Pacific, the New Orleans & North Eastern, and the Alabama Great Southern. In latter years, the Georgia & Florida, Central of Georgia, Interstate, Savannah & Atlanta along with
several smaller lines would join the ranks of Southern’s “paper” railroads. Prior to the 1960 adoption of the big block style lettering, Southern lettered their freight equipment with the classic Railroad Roman style. Until the 1980s, Southern used
their full name as their reporting marks with large numerals. Southern delivered much of their coal traffic to connecting roads at Southern’s gateways in St.Louis, Louisville, Cincinnati, Washington D.C., Jacksonville, New Orleans, and
Memphis. This roadname will be available in 6 road numbers. 73151 single car; 73152 2-Pack; 73153 3-Pack.

Conrail inherited their 14-Panel Hopper fleet from New York Central (and subsidiary Boston &Albany) by way of Penn Central. They also inherited the very similar (all riveted) cars from Erie Lackawanna. New York Central was of course the creative force behind this design two decades before the Conrail consolidation. This roadname will be available in 12 road numbers. 14101 single car; 14102 2-Pack; 14103 3-Pack; 14106 6-Pack.

Rock Island received these quad door cars in the Summer of 1966. Auto parts traffic on the Rock Island was fairly significant with bridge traffic in addition to assembly plants located on line. Most of the “Granger Railroads” kept largely to one side or the other of a border stretching from St. Louis to Kansas City and on to Denver. C&NW and MILW for instance were to the north of the line while M-K-T and Frisco were to the south. Rock Island was the only line to have more or less equal portions on both sides of this line. Going from Minneapolis to Dallas? Rock Island was your single-line option. This roadname will be available in 3 road numbers, for $25.95 per car. 87131 single car; 87132 2-Pack.

Baltimore & Ohio received a large batch of these cars from Greenville in 1969 and 1970. Unlike B&O’s earlier batches of quad door cars, these came with unpainted natural aluminum doors and a pair of capitol dome logos on each side (one in yellow and one in blue on a yellow disk.) B&O’s auto parts fleet was lopsided in favor of quad door cars, reflecting the predominance of General Motors traffic on the line. This roadname will be available in 3 road numbers, for $25.95 per car.
87141 single car; 87142 2-Pack.