Don’t know if its best to put the thread here or in the Prototype area.
I have about a dozen of these kits that are painted for the NS, Conrail, Seaboard family lines (Hockey Stick), and CSX. Qite modern railroad paint schemes. I know Athearn and MDC may produce fantasy paint schemes, but they did make the effort to put “rebuild dates” of 1981 to 1986 for these rather small, old hoppers that were generally outdated by larger, more modern prototypes.
My question is, did these railroads really rebuild such hoppers about that time? And if so, when were they finally retired? Also, I assume they stayed around appalachia and was wondering if they were limited to any particular branch line or area.
Real hoppers of designs similar to the Athearn and MDC cars were first built in the '30s and production continued for many years, probably into the '50s at least.
The dates on those models are not rebuild dates, they are re-weigh dates. Depending on the era, freight cars were required to be re-weighed at regular intervals (every 30 months in my 1930s modelling era, but less frequently in later eras). On new cars, this notation is simply “NEW”, followed by a date which should be the same as the BLT. date shown elsewhere on the car’s side. When the car is re-weighed, the word NEW and the date is painted-over and re-stencilled with letters representing a re-weigh station, followed by the date on which the work was performed. The BLT date on the car is unchanged. Generally, a car is not considered to be rebuilt unless its frame is change or modified.
Hoppers and gondolas are subject to some very rough service, and would be repaired and re-painted as required. Painting may be only on the repaired areas or could be the entire car. For quite some time, it was advantageous, tax-wise, for railroads to repair cars rather than re-build or replace them with new cars. I can’t find the date on which this was changed, but it eventually was.
This is an example of a new car, with a BLT date of October 1939 and a “NEW” notation next to the car’s weight showing the same date (click on the “This image has been re-sized…” line to enlarge the photo, then click on the enlarged photo to show an even larger version, which should make the lettering legible)
This car was built in November of 1923, and last re-weighed in March 1935. While most cars were re-weighed by the road which owned them, any road could do the work, billing the car’s owner accordingly.
Thanks for the education. The dates say “new” or “blt” so that must designate the reweight date. Not that an Athearn BB or MDC is going to be accurate about schemes and dates like a tangent or an exactrail might. It just got me thinking about how long these smallish 70 ton hoppers lasted in service and if they truly ran the rails, even in a limited area, into the 80’s or 90’s.
If you’re speaking about 70 ton hoppers generally rather than the specific Athearn model (I believe the offset side version works nicely for CB&Q), we dig out the July 1985 issue of the “Official Railway Equipment Register” , turn to the Norfolk and Western pages (no NS, yet) and quickly find an entry for 70 ton hopper cars:
15000-26999 outside length 40’ 8" capacity 2460 cuft quantity in series 197
See also NW 34000-41999 (7277 cars in this series)
