BLI H2a hoppers in the house

[garethashenden]

How are they packaged? In individual boxes or in a tray? I know HO 4-packs often come in a tray which makes splitting sets a little harder...

[bbussey]

Each individual car is wrapped in a clear plastic sleeve and packaged in a two-piece vacuum-formed nest inside a cardboard box with end flaps.  In turn, six individual boxes are packaged inside a larger two-part form-fitting cardboard box.  The cars are packaged with the coal load in place, which can be removed easily by pushing down on either end or by turning the car upside down.
 

[garethashenden]

Each individual car is wrapped in a clear plastic sleeve and packaged in a two-piece vacuum-formed nest inside a cardboard box with end flaps.  In turn, six individual boxes are packaged inside a larger two-part form-fitting cardboard box.  The cars are packaged with the coal load in place, which can be removed easily by pushing down on either end or by turning the car upside down.

That's good. It will make splitting sets quite easy.

[High Hood]

Very nice looking cars!  How long did these cars in these N&W schemes last on the N&W?

[Spikre]

 
   can recall seeing some in Roanoke and Lynchburg into the mid 80s
  in different schemes.
   would also see an occaissional Wabash,Nickle Plate and Virginian
  car back then also.
      Spikre
       
 

[robert3985]

I've been attempting for years to find what hoppers would fit my era and road (to Dec 31, 1956...Union Pacific), but there isn't much info that I've been able to find on the subject.  I'm assuming the U.P. cars are "foob", but does anybody out there know how far off they are?  Some of the photos I DO have of hoppers parked at coaling towers look pretty close...and, they certainly would be better than the ones I've been running for years.

Thanks in advance...

[Spikre]

 
    Robert,
    find a Trix/Maerklin HO 40' Triple Hopper,that was a common U.P. car of the 50s.
   NP also had some of that Offset Rib side design.
   Erie and DL&W had similar 2 bay cars, but overall not a common car design.
   the H2 series was an N&W only design was leased to PRR,B&O and lettered for them
   when under lease.
   EL leased cars in mostly the 24" N&W lettering design.
    not sure if N&W ever sold off any cars as they reached 15 years ??
        Spikre
         

[robert3985]

    Robert,
    find a Trix/Maerklin HO 40' Triple Hopper,that was a common U.P. car of the 50s.
   NP also had some of that Offset Rib side design.
   Erie and DL&W had similar 2 bay cars, but overall not a common car design.
   the H2 series was an N&W only design was leased to PRR,B&O lettered,and later
   EL in mostly the 24" lettering design.
    not sure if N&W ever sold off any cars as they reached 15 years ??
        Spikre
         

Thanks for the suggestion, but....I don't think HO scale hoppers are gonna work on my N-scale layout too well.

I think I remember a UPHS article about UP hoppers somewhere.  I'll have to spend some time going through my back issues...

[Spikre]

 
    Robert,
    You don't need to buy the HO car just get a Good Look at it to see the
   main mid 50s U.P. open triple hopper car.
   or You could look at pics in the Maerklin/Trix catologs they were in.
   or check out the U.P. 50s Hopper car article in "Prototype Railroad Modeling,
   volume one".
   pages 60-64"A Tale of Two Hoppers",by Mike Brock.
  info on these triples,plus the Atlas 40' HK-1 Ballast Hopper,believe this is also
  available in N.
  the Trix car is class H70-1.
   so let Your Wallet breath easier,but there are other ways to collect info that is usefull.
   but for now there is no N H70-1,and may not be one for quite awhile.
       Spikre
       

[robert3985]

    Robert,
    You don't need to buy the HO car just get a Good Look at it to see the
   main mid 50s U.P. open triple hopper car.
   or You could look at pics in the Maerklin/Trix catologs they were in.
   or check out the U.P. 50s Hopper car article in "Prototype Railroad Modeling,
   volume one".
   pages 60-64"A Tale of Two Hoppers",by Mike Brock.
  info on these triples,plus the Atlas 40' HK-1 Ballast Hopper,believe this is also
  available in N.
  the Trix car is class H70-1.
   so let Your Wallet breath easier,but there are other ways to collect info that is usefull.
   but for now there is no N H70-1,and may not be one for quite awhile.
       Spikre
       

Okay...I get it now.  Thanks Spikre for the references!    I've got about a dozen Atlas Hart Ballast Cars...and I'm continually on the alert for more.  Another couple of dozen will satisfy me composing one typical U.P. ballast train.  It's my signature Echo scene with the coaling tower that haunts me.  I've spent a LOT of time researching this facility as it was in 1951, and it's getting pretty accurate.  Now, if I could stock the yard and hopper storage tracks with the correct cars...that'd be the icing on the cake.

[Spikre]

 
   Robert,
    here is the breakdown on the BLI paint schemes for H2As:
    N&W 17' lettering,replaced in the mid 50s by 24" lettering,some cars made it thru the 60s.
   N&W 24" lettering,mid 50s,cars lasted well into the 70s,a few longer.
   PRR,correct for leased cars from late 50s into the 60s when the lease ended,not sure of that date ?
  B&O correct for the leased cars,not sure of dates?
  NS,not sure any cars got this paint ?
  ATSF,Fooooobie
  C&NW,Foooooobie
  CP,Foooooobie
  CSX, Fooooobie
  D&RGW,Foooooobie
  GN,Fooooooobie
  IC, possible lease car,painted IC or N&W ?
  NYC,Fooooooobie
  U.P.,Foooooooobie
  Wabash,sold to Wabash after N&W leased Wabash,but befor the 10/64 Merger,doubt
   they were fully painted Wabash,back to N&W after 10/64.intresting.
    EDIT:
    there may be 2 or 3 N&W schemes BLI hasn't done yet in HO:
    Circle or Hamberger N&W scheme,60s.
    written out Norfolk and Western scheme, late 60s or early 70s.
   NW 70s scheme.
   the  H3s or some lots of H2s had Andrews trucks.
   this seems common to rebuilt cars, not built new cars.
    BLI has to sell X cars to break even, so forgive them for going
   so heavy on the Fooooooobies.
  the Fooobs do look OK, but they will be expensive Stand Ins.
       Spikre
       
 

[reinhardtjh]

   Robert,
    here is the breakdown on the BLI paint schemes for H2As:
    N&W 17' lettering,replaced in the mid 50s by 24" lettering,some cars made it thru the 60s.
   N&W 24" lettering,mid 50s,cars lasted well into the 70s,a few longer.
   PRR,correct for leased cars from late 50s into the 60s when the lease ended,not sure of that date ?
  B&O correct for the leased cars,not sure of dates?
  NS,not sure any cars got this paint ?
  ATSF,Fooooobie
  C&NW,Foooooobie
  CP,Foooooobie
  CSX, Fooooobie
  D&RGW,Foooooobie
  GN,Fooooooobie
  IC,Foooooobie
  NYC,Fooooooobie
  U.P.,Foooooooobie
  Wabash,Foooooobie
     BLI has to sell X cars to break even, so forgive them for going
   so heavy on the Fooooooobies.
  the Fooobs do look OK, but they will be expensive Stand Ins.
       Spikre
       
 

Fixes for this list:
    PRR - built 1956, delivered April-Sept '57, returned to N&W beginning Jan '66 though July '67.

Based on this email: http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/nw-modeling-list/Week-of-Mon-20060508/001378.html
  Take it with a grain of salt because they got the PRR starting year wrong.

    B&O - leased 2000 cars built 1941-42, leased 1944-48 - actually class H3 cars but from what I can tell there is very little difference between H2, H2a and H3 cars.
    Wabash - 359 H2a built 1956, purchased 1962, went back to N&W on merger in 1964

And based on this email: https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/illinoiscentral/conversations/topics/3138?var=1

    IC - 700 cars leased around Jan 1945 and gone by July 1948.  Probably class H3.  Also a possibility that the lease, although planned, never happened.  Opinions differ on various sources on the web. Some sources say the B&O lease never happened either.  But maybe they were looking for class H2a instead of H3?

[Spikre]

 
   Robert,
    besides Coal and Ballast service the U.P. HK-1 and H70-1 cars
   could have been used during the Fall Sugar Beet Rush.
   the thread on the Sugar Beets jogged the memory here.
      Spikre
     
 

[learmoia]

NS is a foobie..

I understand that Tooling must be amortized, but what gets me.. instead of doing believable foobies..("NW" or early NS, Southern, Chessie, Penn Central, ect..).. they take it to the MTH/Lionel level, and put modern, complete fantasy schemes) on it... and with safety stripes!!..

Now to Hyjack
I'm waiting for the M1 and Centepede to get the Con-Cor treatment!!!



Hmmmm.. How would the M1 look in Conrail Blue..

[drgw0579]

back in the early 80's you might get on ConCor's case for misleading poor modelers who didn't know any better into thinking PRR actually had U50's.

With all the resources available now do you think foob's are really that harmful?  I'm thinking a PRR U50 with proper keystones would look sharp!

While I model the PRR, I model a line that "never got built".  Who's to say that PRR didn't buy some of these for use on the South Penn.  I've already stretched things to say the Sharks lasted longer because they were short on power.  When the rivet counting SPF's come over, they can spend there time looking at everything else. 

Bill Kepner