Hi, does anybody know whether Santa fe had any 55 ton hoppers?
Charles
Per a 1951 ORER - They had 50 ton 2 bay hoppers in the 180400-180999 range. By 55 ton, are you referrring to the USRA 2 bay cars?(like Bachmann and Accurail market).
Jim
Yes, USRA 55 ton hoppers. If I’m right, they didn’t have many. Am I right?
I wonder if those cars were bought second hand. The 1938 ORER doesn’t show any 55 ton hoppers, and the only hoppers listed are four lots of varying lengths in the 181,000-182,009 series, all of them 70 ton cars.
There are two lots of cars of similar capacity in the 180,000-180,299 series that show as coal/sulphur, but they’re evidently not equipped with hoppers.
There are plenty of Caswell gondolas listed, though, and it’s my understanding that many western roads of this time preferred gondolas for coal service.
Wayne
Here’s a link to some information that may help…
http://www.trainlife.com/magazines/pages/226/16644/april-2001-page-18
Cheers, the Bear.[:)]
Santa Fe had 2 groups of 50 ton offset side hoppers:
Class GA-54 180800-180999 (200 cars) blt 3/41. 50 ton capy. AAR Alternate Standard, as recently produced by Intermountain.
Class GA-72 78000-78299 (300 cars) blt. 1948. 50 ton capy. AAR Standard, as produced by Athearn, Atlas, Accurail, and Kadee.
This info comes from RAILWAY PROTOTYPE CYCLOPEDIA, Vol. 1, RP Cyc Publishing Co., 1997.
The January, 1953 ORER lists additional 50 ton cars, but none whose capacity was listed as 55 tons. Not being a Santa Fe specialist, I don’t have descriptions of these other cars.
Tom