Pre-Order April 2010

Bethlehem Steel built 500 of these cars for Western Maryland in the Spring of 1958. The cars were delivered with roller bearing trucks which was still somewhat novel in 1958. As a result, a yellow circle with the letter R was painted next to the road number to alert crews and agents to this feature. The WM was a major originator of coal traffic with hoppers of various designs making up more than half of WM ’s 14,000+ car fleet. B&O officially took control of the WM in 1967. In 1973, WM adopted the Chessie image. This roadname is coming in 6 road numbers. 14081 single car; 14082 2-Pack; 14083 3-Pack.

Clinchfield received 800 of these cars from ACF in the Spring of 1964. Clinchfield ran down the spine of the Blue Ridge Mountains from a connection with the C&O in eastern Kentucky, through the western end of Virginia, eastern end of Tennessee, western end of North Carolina and finally to Spartanburg, South Carolina. Clinchfield originated HUGE volumes of coal on the northern third of the line. This traffic included metalurgical coal bound for mills in the Upper
Midwest, steam coal (for generating electricity and running industrial machinery) for the Midwest and the southern
states, and export coal bound for ocean terminals all via Clinchfield ’s many connections. CRR had been jointly controlled by Atlantic Coast Line (later SCL) and Louisville & Nashville for decades and would ultimately join them in Seaboard System and CSX. This roadname is coming in 12 road numbers. 14091 single car; 14092 2-Pack; 14093 3-Pack; 14096 6-Pack.

Boston & Maine picked up these cars second hand in 1962. They had been built by Bethlehem 13 years before but were still in great shape.B&M was not much of a coal hauler but they did move a great deal of stone for the region’s growing construction business. Therefore, the loads for our B&M run will represent gray stone instead of black coal. This roadname will be available in 6 road numbers. 73121 single car; 73122 2-Pack; 73123 3-Pack; 14096 6-Pack.

The 1,500 mile Minneapolis & St. Louis ran from the Twin Cities and points in South Dakota, south through central Iowa, then east to connections with the eastern trunk lines in Peoria, Illinois. They presented themselves as a bridge route from the Northwest to the East whilst avoiding the congestion of Chicago. Ironically, coal was their largest single commodity. This was due to the voluminous grain traffic being split between wheat, corn and others, but also the large open pit coal mines in Iowa. More coal mines were served in central Illinois. This roadname will be available in 3
road numbers. 73131 single car; 73132 2-Pack.

Milwaukee Road became a major originator of coal traffic in 1921 with the acquisition of the Chicago Terre Haute Southeastern. This extended Milwaukee ’s reach into the coal mining regions of southern Indiana. In addition, MILW
served mines in Iowa, Illinois, Montana and even Washington. This roadname will be available in 6 road numbers. 73141 single car; 73142 2-Pack; 73143 3-Pack.

Erie Lackawanna had a large fleet of double door 86 footers purchased from Greenville between 1965 and 1966. Like all
auto parts cars, they operated in large multi-railroad pools and often spent extended periods off home rails. The yellow
“CUSHIONED CAR” logo is essentially the same as one used on similar Pennsylvania and Frisco 86 footers. This
roadname will be available in 3 road numbers. 86341 Erie Lackawanna single; 86342 2-Pack.

In January of 1969, when these cars arrived from Greenville, Chicago Burlington & Quincy was preparing for merger with
parents Great Northern and Northern Pacific (and sibling SP&S.) New equipment was being delivered in Cascade Green
with “BURLINGTON ” in the new style lettering and CB&&Q reporting marks. After the merger, they expected to add
“NORTHERN ” and change the number. However, small changes in the lettering style led BN to abandon this plan and
completely repaint the cars only when they came up for major shopping. We photographed one of these cars still in
original lettering in California in 1996, 26 years after the BN merger! This roadname will be available in 3 road numbers.
86351 Burlington Route green single car; 86352 2-Pack.