Bluford Shops products are not intended for children under 14.
July, 2011 Announcements...
Pre-Orders are now open. Due for delivery in first quarter, 2012. All items are N scale.
First draft artwork shown, subject to improvement by Bluford's crack development team!
Delaware & Hudson Cullet Service 14-Panel hoppers. D&H first acquired hoppers of this design in 1958 for coal, iron and ilmenite loading. More were acquired with D&H’s expansion (a result of the creation of Conrail in 1976.) In the early 80s, some were assigned to haul broken glass (called “cullet” in the glass trade) from collection points and bottling plants to glass factories. Cars in this service were painted a striking blue to prevent them being confiscated for some dirty service. This run will be available in 3 roadnumbers and include “cullet” loads. 14241 Delaware & Hudson cullet service single car $21.79; 14242 2-Pack $43.58.
New York Central Woodchip Service 14-Panel hoppers. NYC developed this style of 70-ton hopper in the mid-50s and continued to buy and build them into the 1960s. During the 60s, a portion of the fleet received these special markings and were assigned to woodchip service. The timber industry had begun using chips to make particle and chip board several years before but purpose-built large capacity “woodchip cars” were still relatively rare. By assigning certain hoppers to this service NYC avoided the frequent cleaning that cars from coal, coke and aggregate service would require before hauling woodchips. This run will be available in 6 roadnumbers and include “chip” loads. 14251 New York Central woodchip service single car $21.79; 14252 2-Pack $43.58; 14253 3-Pack $65.37.
Seaboard 14-Panel hoppers. Seaboard Air Line Railroad received their first rib side 70-ton hoppers in 1960. In the build up to their merger with Atlantic Coast Line, Seaboard began to apply this paint scheme to hoppers as they were shopped. Right after the merger, cars began recieving ACI tags, followed by consolidated stencils a few years later. This run will be available in 6 roadnumbers and include “coal” loads. 14231 Seaboard single car $21.79; 14232 2-Pack $43.58; 14233 3-Pack $65.37.
Montour 14-Panel hoppers. The Montour Railroad was a busy coal hauling shortline in Southwestern Pennsylvania. For most of its history the Montour was jointly owned by the Pennsylvania Railroad (Penn Central in 1968) and the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie (itself a subsidiary of New York Central.) The collapse of Penn Central brought about the independence of P&LE who then took full control of the Montour. The Montour remained a separate operation however. By the late 70s, the Montour had racked up a lopsided car-hire account due to a lack of serviceable home road hoppers. P&LE leased 200 of their hoppers to Montour in 1979 for interline service to balance out the car-hire deficit. The cars were serviced and repainted at P&LE’s McKees Rocks shops and turned over to Montour. Thanks to the Montour Historical Society for their help on this one. This run will be available in 3 roadnumbers and include “coal” loads. 14271 Montour single car $21.79; 14272 2-Pack $43.58.
Norfolk Southern 14-Panel hoppers. Of course we are talking about the original Norfolk Southern. This NS ran from Norfolk, Virginia south into North Carolina, then west to Raleigh, Durham, Fayetteville, and finally Charlotte. In comparison, this NS was a bit bigger than the Monon. The line was puchased by Southern Railway in 1974 and combined with another subsidiary the Carolina and Northwestern under the NS name. In 1981, they changed the name to Carolina & Northwesten so Southern and N&W could use the Norfolk Southern name for their new merger. This run will be available in 3 roadnumbers and include “gravel” loads. 14261 Norfolk Southern single car $21.79; 14262 2-Pack $43.58.
Route Rock 86’ Quad Door Boxcars. Rock Island picked up a number of these cars in two batches from Pullman Standard beginning in 1964. 11 years later, during a reorganization, Rock Island had a major image overhaul and emerged as “The Rock.” As the quad door 86 footers came due for servicing, they emerged as these blue giants. As was the case with many repaints in the 1970s and later, the unpainted aluminum doors and galvanized roofs were painted along with everything else. However, what is unique to the Rock cars is the omission of the white band at the top of the car ends exclaming these are cars are of excess height! The omission was likely on the original lettering diagram for these cars at Rock’s El Reno, Oklahoma shops as all of the quad door cars painted blue were missing the white band. This run will be available in 3 roadnumbers. 87221 Route Rock single car $29.85; 87222 2-Pack $59.70.
Illinois Central Mainline of Mid-America 86’ Quad Door Boxcars. Illinois Central received these cars from Thrall during the Christmas season of 1964, well before IC switched to orange for boxcars. Quad door cars were preferred by General Motors and this group may have been assigned for loading at a GM plant in Indianapolis. The 6,700 mile Illinois Central system was famous for it’s network of Chicago-to-the-Gulf routes but they had several important east-west routes as well. These include routes to Omaha, Indianapolis, and Birmingham. This run will be available in 3 roadnumbers. 87211 Illinois Central Mainline of Mid-America single car $29.85; 87212 2-Pack $59.70.