My brothers Lionel set from about 1973 had one CN 9013 red hopper. I got another one with another set just like his. I don’t remember where I got the 3rd 9013. At the Century College show last fall in White Bear Lake Minnesota I got 4 more of them. Purchased for between $3 and $5 each. At the Woodbury show on this last Saturday I got the 8th one for $3 and 2 blue Republic Steel blue gondolas for $3 each (I have 4 of them now). I plan on going to the next White Bear Lake show on February 7th and hope to find more there. I do see them on ebay almost all the time for $5 to $7 but I’d have to add $7-$10 each for shipping. I’ve always wanted to have a train of 20 or more matching cars but never have achieved it. With my income this is all I can do. I might have to add weight to these cars as they are very light. Anyone going to the show in White Bear Lake on Feb 7th have any of these to sell?
GREAT !!! Sounds like you have now and will a very nice set going … some buy bucu engines and throw them on a wall and they collect dust … you seem to really be into the hobby … welcome aboard . I started out 8 years old with an American Flyer set that I built making one/ $1.00 a day working on farms … I bought the small set at an auction with my own money and added to it and achieved over 20 cars and about all the access. … have loved trains ever since . Do I still have it … no … my father sold it without me knowing it one year … he was greedy and I was heart broken .
I’ve never seen a 9013 hopper, but the pricing is certainly good, compared to postwar, which go for at least double the price you are paying. Looks like a good way to build a coal freight.
I was thinking of doing it with postwar, but MPC may be a better way, if they look OK with postwar .
I often see such all coal hopper prototype freights in my region.
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I have 8-9 hoppers but in different road names I like to put real coal in (stole the coal from my aunts coal heater) And I have about 10 gondolas in different names. My old layout had a coal yard with 2 sidings I used to swicth them back and forth.
I feel the same way about 3559 and 3659 dump cars… last count was 18 I belive…now if only they were all the same variation!
Go for it! A fellow club member and good friend had more than 120 little “Jennies” in tow on our modular club layout and it looked fantastic- - just imagine the pressure on the couplers. By double heading in steam, you could see the powerful image this transformed into.
On the topic of buying cars cheap, eBay definetly is the way to do it. Definetly not with engines, but you can get postwar cars for $10 or less, but its the $8-10 shipping charge that gets you… If your lucky, you might be able to find a seller who has a whole truckload of cars on eBay and offers shipping discounts.
Yes, I saw two 4 car lots of MPC 027 gondolas and hoppers go for around $10 or $12 just a few days ago. My favorite cheapy car is the searchlight car. It’s just cool looking and of course it lights up.
I bought 2 K-line engines the Marx remakes of the 4-6-2’s for 75 a piece. Did some dremil tool work on one and put a coupler on the front to double head the hoppers but my layout was only 4x8 and ran out of track. But it did look neat pulling that many cars. Lost the pics when old computer crashed.