Past Releases 2-Bay Rebuilt War Emergency Hoppers

These 2-Bay Rebuilt War Emergency Hoppers have never been available before in N scale. These ready-to-run cars feature: die cast slope sheet-hopper bay-center sill assembly; injection molded plastic sides, ends, and hopper doors; fully molded brake tank, valve and air lines; body mounted brake hose detail; load; body mounted magnetically operating knuckle couplers; close coupling; and metal wheels.

The story of these 2-Bay Rebuilt War Emergency Hoppers begins in 1942 when the War Production Board directed car builders to substitute wood for steel wherever possible in car superstructures. The familiar 2-bay “war emergency” composite hopper was a result of this directive. Those cars had wooden side sheets and end slope sheets (although the middle slope sheets remained steel.) This saved a bit over two and a half tons of steel needed elsewhere for the war effort. Unfortunately, the wood boards were considerably thicker than steel sheet which effectively lowered the cubic capacity of the car. While you could build ten composite hoppers with the steel of nine all-steel hoppers, the lower capacity of the composite cars meant you needed more composite cars to carry the same load. During 1944, the directive was set aside and cars that were on order were delivered with the familiar diagonal bracing but with all steel construction. After the war, as composite cars came due for serious maintenance, the wood side and slope sheets were replaced with steel. A large majority of the composite cars were rebuilt in this manner sometime during the 1950s.

Baltimore & Ohio began rebuilding their composite hoppers in quantity in 1955. Although the “13 Great States” version of the B&O logo had largely been retired, the new large “B&O” lettering was a poor fit over the 2-Bay Rebuilt War Emergency Hopper’s diagonal ribs. As a result, the old stencils were used again on the rebuilt cars. This run will be available in six road numbers.
64011 Baltimore & Ohio 13 Great States single
64012 Baltimore & Ohio 13 Great States 2-pack
64013 Baltimore & Ohio 13 Great States 3-pack

Clinchfield Railroad rebuilt their composite hoppers in 1957. Although the Clinchfield was just 300 miles long, they had an impressive fleet of nearly 500 of these 2-Bay Rebuilt War Emergency Hoppers. Clinchfield’s coal traffic was significant but less known was the industrial mineral traffic including feldspar, mica and even landscaping gravel generated on the southern half of the railroad. This run will be available in six road numbers.
64021 Clinchfield single
64022 Clinchfield 2-pack
64023 Clinchfield 3-pack

Santa Fe rebuilt their fleet of composite hoppers with steel sides at their Topeka Shops in 1957 and 1958. The fleet included 400 cars split between two classes. In addition to hauling coal, Santa Fe hoppers in this era also carried coke, stone and various ores. Some of these cars were still in revenue service in the 1980s. This run will be available in six road numbers.
64031 Santa Fe single
64032 Santa Fe 2-pack
64033 Santa Fe 3-pack

Southern Railway System acquired 1,450 composite hoppers during the war and rebuilt them into all steel cars in the 1950s. The block lettering was adopted in 1960. While many railroads went to great lengths to break up their lettering to avoid the vertical and diagonal ribs on these cars, Southern made stencils that carefully wrapped over the ribs. By 1969, the fleet had all been equipped with ACI tags. This run will be available in six road numbers.
64041 Southern post-1969 single
64042 Southern post-1969 2-pack
64043 Southern post-1969 3-pack

Wabash rebuilt their fleet of 400 composite hoppers sometime between 1956 and 1958. In addition to handling the rebuild work, Wabash’s Decatur Shops had also originally built the cars during the war. The fleet was included in the 1964 lease of the Wabash by Norfolk & Western and cars with this lettering could still be seen in service through the end of the decade. This run will be available in six road numbers.
64051 Wabash single
64052 Wabash 2-pack
64053 Wabash 3-pack

Atlantic Coast Line began rebuilding their composite hoppers in 1950. Part of the fleet was rebuilt in the usual manner as seen here with wood siding and slope sheets replaced with steel. Another part of the fleet was rebuilt with an increased angle on the slope sheets for phosphate service. In addition to their own 5,700 mile system, ACL controlled the L&N, Clinchfield, Georgia and West Point Route roads and was considered an influential force in railroading. This run will be available in three road numbers.
64061 Atlantic Coast Line single
64062 Atlantic Coast Line 2-pack

Central of Georgia rebuilt their fleet of composite cars in 1951 and 1952. In the summer of 1963, Southern Railway bought control of Central of Georgia. As these hoppers came due for repainting, they received this narrow-line version of the Southern style of lettering (made up of 3” lines instead of the 5” lines used on the parent company cars.) A heavier line version of CoG lettering was developed a few years later. This run will be available in three road numbers.
64071 Central of Georgia single
64072 Central of Georgia 2-pack

Illinois Central rebuilt their 600 War Emergency hoppers with all-steel parts in 1955 and 1956. The rebuilds were performed at the cars birthplace, Illinois Central’s own Centralia Shops. When originally built as composite side cars, IC was painting their hoppers black but that changed after the war with open top cars adopting the same freight car red used on their boxcars. This is the version depicted on this run. IC returned to black for hoppers in the 1960s.
64090 Illinois Central freight car red - #IC 73324
64091 Illinois Central freight car red - #IC 73552
64094 Illinois Central freight car red - #IC 73186
64095 Illinois Central freight car red - #IC 73403
64097 Illinois Central freight car red - #IC 73010
64098 Illinois Central freight car red - #IC 73279

The first of Louisville & Nashville’s 1,000 car fleet of War Emergency hoppers had their wood siding replaced with steel at the railroad’s South Louisville Shops in 1954. L&N renumbered the cars as they were rebuilt from the 31000 series to the 71000 series. After much of the fleet had been converted in this manner, L&N changed methods and rebuilt the remaining composite hoppers into 8-panel hoppers.
64100 Louisville & Nashville - #L&N 71173
64101 Louisville & Nashville - #L&N 71205
64104 Louisville & Nashville - #L&N 71162
64105 (64015)* Louisville & Nashville - #L&N 71159
64107 Louisville & Nashville - #L&N 71224
64108 Louisville & Nashville - #L&N 71196

*64105 was originally announced as 64015. We are accepting either stock number for this road number. Sorry for the confusion.

Chesapeake & Ohio began rebuilding their fleet of 3,000 War Emergency hoppers in 1952 with the bulk of the fleet converted by the end of 1954. The rebuilding brought a new paint scheme with the stacked name and the first edition of the C&O For Progress logo (in this case, special stencils were made to dodge the diagonal rib.)
64080 Chesapeake & Ohio post-1952 - #C&O 54349 64081 Chesapeake & Ohio post-1952 - #C&O 55051
64084 Chesapeake & Ohio post-1952 - #C&O 54607 64085 Chesapeake & Ohio post-1952 - #C&O 55228
64087 Chesapeake & Ohio post-1952 - #C&O 54983
64088 Chesapeake & Ohio post-1952 - #C&O 54760

Nickel Plate Road’s composite hoppers were not War Emergency cars at all. NKP was one of a very few roads to order wood sided hoppers in the mid-1920s. They began replacing the slope sheets with steel in the 1930s and the first car rolled out of the shops with new steel sides in 1940 with the last of the converted ca completed 14 years later. The last one was retired in 1972. The paint scheme presented here was first applied in 1945.
64110 Nickel Plate Road - #NKP 31435
64111 Nickel Plate Road - #NKP 31719
64114 Nickel Plate Road - #NKP 30803
64115 Nickel Plate Road - #NKP 31661
64117 Nickel Plate Road - #NKP 30927
64118 Nickel Plate Road - #NKP 31074

The Pennsylvania Railroad began rebuilding their H31B composite hoppers into H31C all-steel cars in 1954. The rebuild program would run for seven years with most of the cars receiving this Shadow Keystone paint scheme.
64120 Pennsylvania shadow keystone - #PRR 221323 64121 Pennsylvania shadow keystone - #PRR 221070 64124 Pennsylvania shadow keystone - #PRR 220945
64125 Pennsylvania shadow keystone - #PRR 221208
64127 Pennsylvania shadow keystone - #PRR 220987
64128 Pennsylvania shadow keystone - #PRR 220862

Central of Georgia rebuilt their entire fleet of War Emergency hoppers between 1951 and 1952. They rolled out of the shops in new freight car red paint (replacing the black used on the composite version) and new lettering. Aside from a few cars damaged in wrecks, the fleet was intact when Southern Railway bought control of the CoG in 1963 with many cars remaining in service well into the ‘70s.
64130 Central of Georgia post-1951 - #CG 21725
64131 Central of Georgia post-1951 - #CG 21703
64134 Central of Georgia post-1951 - #CG 21717
64135 Central of Georgia post-1951 - #CG 21734
64137 Central of Georgia post-1951 - #CG 21749
64138 Central of Georgia post-1951 - #CG 21728

These Southern Railway “permanently coupled” pairs of hoppers were an effort by Southern to provide lower rates to customers while not running afoul of the Interstate Commerce Commission. At the time these pairs were conceived in the early ‘60s, the ICC prevented railroads from giving a price break for loading two 50 ton cars to match the allowed price for a single 100 ton car. This was particularly unfair to small customers located on lightly built branch lines. Southern’s response was to make two cars into one by permanently coupling them and assigning the pair a single road number. Permanence was achieved by removing the cut levers on the adjoining ends. The exact number of pairs made from these rebuilt War Emergency hoppers is a mystery because Southern also paired up some 6-panel hoppers and scattered them through the same number series with no distinction between them in the Equipment Register. However, other documentary evidence suggests there were more than 325 of these rebuilt War Emergency pairs. Each package includes both cars of the pair.

64140 Southern permanently coupled pair - #102937 $55.90

64141 Southern permanently coupled pair - #102691 $55.90

64144 Southern permanently coupled pair - #102803 $55.90

64145 Southern permanently coupled pair - #102265 $55.90

64147 Southern permanently coupled pair - #102549 $55.90

64148 Southern permanently coupled pair - #102780 $55.90