Hi all!
I’ve got this 3 Bay HO Metal Hopper that I’m trying to figure out who made it? It has the road name/# ATSF 78590. The Bays do open. It says “BLT 7-44”, don’t know how real that is? I guess it’s got Kaydee’s on it. It was weathered by someone. Any ideas?
Thanks, Ted
Looks like an old Athearn. The Blt 7-44 has nothing to do with when the model was made - it’s the date the prototype was made. My [2c]
I’d say Ulrich.
I’ll go with Ulrich, too.
They made twin and triple hoppers and used the construction shown in your bottom view with the large vertical screws holding the sides to the underframe. Sides would be heavy castings. I think they also had operating doors too. Very nice cars for the era they were around.
Roger
I change my vote to Ulrich also [:I]
My vote goes to Ulrich. I’ve got several of their old metal cars, including a Rio Grande drop-bottom gondola with the operating doors that is so well detailed I can run it with my newer Rio Grande Intermountain gondolas and no one can tell the difference. But it’s so heavy that I have to run it at the front of the train so it doesn’t ‘stringle’ the other cars on a curve–WAY beyond the NMRA recommended weight [:P]. Great cars. Frankly, I wish Ulrich was still in business.
If it doesn’t have them yet, replace the wheelsets with either Intermountain or P2K metal wheelsets, that puppy will roll like a house on fire.
Tom [:)]
My first thought was Ulrich too. Might have one or two down the cellar but can’t find them in a quick search. Think I had a Santa Fe and one lettered for M&StL. Recall the graffitti on them and think one of them had the “JB King” signiture you used to see all over the railroad. The doors were spring loaded and would open when the car was pushed against a tab between the rails on the Ulrich coal trestle. All three bays would open no matter which way the car was pushed against the tab.
The trestle was gray plastic and came with two inclined ramp sections. Think it had a “Home Coal Company” sign on it.
I think they came out with it in the late '50’s.
Hope I got this right. Haven’t seen this stuff for a long time.
Hi ALL!
Thanks for the info. It’s Diecast metal.
Now I’m hearing that it’s a RoundHouse car, because of the OffSet of the Bays?
THX, Ted
I’d still say it’s an Ulrich. Roundhouse DID do the offset triple hoppers but their construction was different than the hopper in your photo.
Roger
Ulrich’s triple hoppers had a linkage which connected all three hopper doors and had a tab that hung down to actuate the mechanism. If you’ve got such a tab that opens all the doors, you’ve got an Ulrich triple hopper. I think I can see the linkage in the photo of the bottom. The kit came with a mechanical actuator that didn’t play well with the actuators for Kadee couplers, as I recall. The two bay cars had moving doors, but there wasn’t the fancy “remote control” system that the triples had–I think you had to lift the door up to unlatch it. I’ve got a B&O triple that I’ve got to put back together someday. It was quite the technical marvel when I got it new.
Also indicating that the model is an Ulrich is the profusion of chalk marks. I believe that Ulrich was the first to do this for a decorated car (the sides came painted and lettered–the rest was unpainted).
Some of us might recall that Revell made an operating hopper car just a little bit later that was actated by some tabs that stuck out the side of the car, down low–no Kadee problem there.
Then there’s the Tyco/Mantua, but I digress…
Ed