Past Releases Panel Side Hoppers

Delaware & Hudson rebuilt more than 300 of their USRA hoppers with panel sides. D&H linked the anthracite belt in northeastern Pennsylvania with upstate New York and Montreal. When D&H’s large fleet of hoppers wasn’t hauling anthracite (a hard, clean-burning form of coal) they could be seen moving iron and titanium ore.
62011 Delaware & Hudson single car
62012 Delaware & Hudson 2-pack
62013 Delaware & Hudson 3-pack

Missouri Pacific rebuilt 425 of their hoppers with panel sides before the start of the Second World War. If you weren’t from the region, you might think MP would not be much of a coal hauler. In fact, MP moved considerable amounts of coal from Illinois, Missouri, Texas and Colorado had maintained a fleet of many thousands of hopper cars.
62021 Missouri Pacific single car
62022 Missouri Pacific 2-pack
62023 Missouri Pacific 3-pack

New York Central rebuilt about 360 of their USRA hoppers with panel sides – many using a special formulation of copper bearing steel to better resist the corrosion endemic to hopper cars. By the time these cars were out-shopped in 1937, NYC had been asserting more control over the railroads in their empire for a few years, this was reflected in a change to the logo seen here. New York Central Lines has become New York Central System.
62031 New York Central single car
62032 New York Central 2-pack

62033 New York Central 3-pack

Rock Island picked up 105 of these panel side hoppers secondhand during the 1950s. This was a hopeful era for Rock Island. The troubled re-organization during the 1940s was behind them and the endless, convoluted, and ultimately pointless merger discussions and the bankruptcy that followed were still unseen over the horizon.
62041 Rock Island single car
62042 Rock Island 2-pack
62043 Rock Island 3-pack

Wabash re-built 400 of their USRA 30’6” hoppers into panel side cars in the 1930s. They must have been generally pleased with the results because they would later build hundreds of 33’ cars with very similar panels. Wabash was unique in that it could claim the role of “Eastern road” with its service to Detroit and Buffalo, and “Granger road” with its lines to Kansas City and Omaha. No other railroad reached so far into these two regions.
62051 Wabash single car
62052 Wabash 2-pack
62053 Wabash 3-pack

The Central Vermont ran from the Atlantic coast port of New London, Connecticut north to the Canadian border. From the outset, they had been controlled by Grand Trunk Railway and their successor Canadian National. This group of 200 hoppers received their panel sides beginning in 1937.
62061 Central Vermont single car
62062 Central Vermont 2-pack

Ann Arbor ran a 300 mile line from Toledo northwest through Ann Arbor, Michigan to the Lake Michigan port of Frankfort. Rail traffic was then ferried across the lake to ports in Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, thus providing a shortcut between the Industrial Midwest and the Northern Plains. Wabash bought control of the Ann Arbor in 1925 and from that point, Ann Arbor’s paint and lettering style took on a Wabash flavor. Wabash sold the Ann Arbor to DT&I in 1963.
62071 Ann Arbor single car
62072 Ann Arbor 2-pack

Big Four refers to the Cleveland Cincinnati Chicago & St. Louis Railroad which operated a dense network in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Michigan. Vanderbilt and his New York Central controlled the company since its formation and CCC&StL freight cars routinely carried New York Central Lines oval logos. Big Four rebuilt this group of hoppers at their Beech Grove Shops with panel sides provided by Union Metal Products in March of 1935.
62081 Big Four – NYC single car
62082 Big Four – NYC 2-Pack

This group of Canadian National hoppers (originally built for Grand Trunk Railway) was rebuilt with panel sides in April of 1937. At that point, CN hoppers were painted black but in 1948, CN switched to brown for hopper cars and this paint scheme represents cars repainted after that time.
62091 Canadian National single car
62092 Canadian National 2-Pack
62093 Canadian National 3-Pack

This group of Chesapeake & Ohio hoppers was rebuilt with panel sides provided by Union Metal Products at C&O’s Raceland Shops in the autumn of 1932. The use of these panel sides was just catching on and the conversion was featured prominently in Railway Mechanical Engineer magazine the following spring. That article led many other railroads to consider the panel side design as their hoppers came due for rebuilding.
62101 Chesapeake & Ohio single car
62102 Chesapeake & Ohio 2-Pack
62103 Chesapeake & Ohio 3-Pack

Frisco began rebuilding their 3,500 car USRA 2-bay hopper fleet with panel sides in 1943. At first glance, one might think Frisco wouldn’t be much of a coal hauler. But in fact they served big coal producing regions in eastern Kansas and Oklahoma, western Arkansas as well as an important deposit in northern Alabama. Much of this coal was interchanged to connecting lines for delivery to steel mills.
62111 Frisco single car
62112 Frisco 2-Pack
62113 Frisco 3-Pack

In 1937, Grand Trunk Western began rebuilding their 2,000 car 2-bay hopper fleet with panel sides. The cars emerged in black paint that was standard for hoppers in the Canadian National family at the time. The work was done at GTW’s extensive Port Huron, Michigan shops. GTW acted as a bridge for parent CN between the Michigan – Ontario border and Chicago as well as blanketing most of southern Michigan with a 1,000 mile network.
62121 Grand Trunk Western single car
62122 Grand Trunk Western 2-Pack

Pittsburgh & Lake Erie received more than 1,400 of these panel side hoppers in 1937 from parent New York Central System’s East Rochester shops. We present them here in the paint scheme adopted in March of 1944. Called the Little Giant, P&LE was just 233 miles long but was so busy they required a fleet of 25,000 freight cars to keep their customers supplied. That’s an astonishing 107 cars for every mile of mainline!
62131 Pittsburgh & Lake Erie single car
62132 Pittsburgh & Lake Erie 2-Pack
62133 Pittsburgh & Lake Erie 3-Pack

Products bearing Missouri Pacific marks are made under trademark license from Union Pacific Railroad Company.

Canadian National rebuilt a number of their former Grand Trunk Railway hoppers with panel sides in 1937. The cars emerged from the CN shops in this black paint scheme.
62147 Canadian National - black single car #CN 117691
62148 Canadian National - black single car #CN 117759
62149 Canadian National - black single car #CN 117768

Some of the above pictures show the cars with track, scenery and even other cars for a bit of context. Obviously the cars in question don't include that stuff - but you knew that already.

60531 Pennsylvania Railroad 2nd run single car
60532 Pennsylvania Railroad 2nd run 2-pack
60533 Pennsylvania Railroad 2nd run 3-pack