While I don’t model the N&W, I recently bought an Accurail model of a USRA 55 ton hopper lettered for N&W. Can anybody tell me what an appropriate number would be for this car? I model the late ‘30s, and the lettering on the car shows a BLT date of 1921 and that the car is in the H5 class. I’ve done some searching on the internet for photos - nothing that looks close. The N&W Historical Society has a photo on their home page that looks similar, but the car number is illegible. In their archives, they list quite a few hopper diagrams (none shown, but you can buy copies) and the only 55 ton hopper seems to be the HL class, although they’re also referred to as 50 tonners. This is not a major issue, but it would be nice to be prototypically correct in the numbering, which would make it worthwhile for me to add the high ends to the car. These seem to be a feature of most N&W hoppers. I’m modelling several coal dealers’ yards, and it seems appropriate to have some hoppers from the major coal hauling roads of this era.
According to the N&W’s pamphlet “Coal Car Equipment” (an interesting 1992 Heimburger reprint of an original dated 1944–I strongly recommend you try to get this book, and good news: it appears to still be available from Heimburger!
Anyway, the 50 ton Class H5 was in the series 84000 to 85999. The photo shows number 84355. I cannot find a built date on the photo in the booklet. According to the booklet in 1944 there were still approximately 9745 of these cars in service. A footnote indicates that the cars would be renumbered during heavy repairs in the summer of 1944.
The other 50 ton hopper in the booklet is Class H1 which has side panels that extend below the side sill with tiny dump doors at the bottom and is a very distinctive looking car. For what it is worth it is series 33000 to 37999; 71000 to 72499, 74000 to 77267. The built date appears to be 5 -10 and the rebuilt date 7-25.
The HL class you mentioned is listed as a 55 ton car and the built date in the photo appears to be 6-36 although it might also be 6-30. Sorry the geezer has a problem with fuzzy photos! I found a reference to a drawing in RMC of this car which refers to 50 tons so there seems to be some confusion on that point. I guess I trust the N&W’s own book which after all was probably meant for customers, not railfans, and accurate tonnage was what the customer surely wanted to know!
The booklet has photos and crude but usable drawings with basic dimensional data. You mentioned the peaked ends. They give the capacity “level full” but also “heaped.” Interesting! Also interesting are the many gondolas they list as coal carrying, not only low side types with drop doors but those huge 90 ton battleship gons with 6 wheel trucks of a unique style and soli
Thanks for taking the time to reply, Dave. I may try to get that booklet, but it sounds as if the H5 class will probably be the one to which the model comes closest. While the N&W didn’t get any of the original USRA cars, I believe that the design was later adopted as one of the ARA’s standard designs, with thousands made for many roads.
I think that Westerfield makes that car.
Interesting point. I knew that many western roads favoured gondolas for coal service, but I never thought about those battleship gondolas: unless they were used in conjunction with a rotary dumper, it must’ve required quite a crew of shovel artistes to unload one! [swg]
You’re welcome Wayne. Those shovel artistes would have to have been built like NBA stars to shovel over the top of those massive gons. Virginian and C&IM had big ones too.
They did have rotary coal dumpers well before the N&W battleship gons were built. They were one car at a time, not like today’s using rotary couplers.
Go to YouTube and search for railway coal hopper vintage and you’ll find a fascinating film from the 1890s taken by none other than Thomas Edison.
For some reason the youtube URLs are unreliable but try this