I have a Rivarossi H8 Allegheny and want to build a coal drag. Anyone know what style coal hopper was protypical for the period. Any tips on manufacturers producing said kits or cars is also appreciated.
Thanks,
Russ
The short answer:
Just about anything built on or before 1956. Which is many different types. Atlas, P2K, Bowser, Accurail, Walthers, Athearn. C&O Historcal Society has a great book on rolling stock that might be a huge help if you want to be exact.
The long answer:
There were so many different types that the C&O had that I’m not sure there is a way to find out exactly what all of the different types they had did the H-8 pull. I’ve seen 2 bay, 3 bay emergency, steel, oval top etc. in photos with the H-8. Also it was common to have multiple types together sometimes too.
Atlas, P2K, Bowser, Accurail, Walthers. All these manufacturers have great models, some are RTR others are kits you build. Atlas, Walthers, Athearn and Accurail all have sets usually 3 - 6 (sometimes 8) in a set each with different numbers. I think P2K does as well but I’m not sure.
I’ll look in the book and see what types fall under that year and get back to this post.
Hope this helps.
ok, Just as I thought there are 38 variations of 50 and 70 ton hoppers used form 35 to 56 and about 48- 51 more after 1956.
The C&O Historical Society has a useful website
http://www.cohs.org/history/freight.htm
That has a photo of a typical C&O raised end hopper that I thinik of as very typical for that railroad. See below. And they make an interesting point about weight of coal that I had not thought about. To quote:
“Hopper car construction was driven by the available locomotive “drawbar power” increases, journal size increases, and experiments between the more robust outside-ribbed and the more capacity-efficient offset-side constructions. Because bituminous coal was slightly heavier than northern anthracite coal, the C&O’s capacity ratings became very conservative. Standard cars of the times might have been listed as 55-ton designs, but after the AMC was formed, they became 50-ton designs for the C&O Lines. Eventually the standard 50 and 70-ton cars of the 1920s and 1930s would evolve into 60, 80, and 100-ton cars of the 1960s and 1970s.”
Dave Nelson
If you dig a little further in the C&O Historical Society site there are PDF copies of a modeling publication they do. Included is a listing of 2 bay and 3 bay hoppers that would be in trains up to the late fifties and what models can be used to model them.
A lot of them need the MDC oval end part as the C&O used these on a majority of the coal hoppers they had.
Rick