June, 2010 announcements

Great Northern picked up a number of these 14- Panel 70 ton rib side hopper cars second hand from Detroit Toledo & Ironton (by way of US Railway Equipment.) GN already rostered 400 very similar hoppers built by Pullman Standard. This roadname will be available in 12 road umbers. 14111 single car; 14112 2-Pack; 14113 3-Pack; 14116 6-Pack.

Those not familiar with Missouri Pacific may believe that it woudn’t be much of a “coal road.” That would be incorrect and MP rostered about 5,000 of these 70-ton offset side hoppers as proof. MP served coal mines in southern Illinois, western Missouri (and adjoining states,) east Texas and eastern Colorado. While many roads advertised their passenger fleets on their boxcars, MP was one of the few to do the same on open top cars like hoppers and gondolas. They began applying this scheme to new cars and repaints around 1949 and continued for the next decade. This roadname will be available in 6 road numbers. 73181 single car; 73182 2-Pack; 73183 3-Pack.

One of Missouri Pacific ’s several subsidiary lines,
Missouri-Illinois Railroad (known affectionately by locals as the “Mike and Ike ”) served a number of large coal mines in southern Illinois. The Illinois Coal
Basin covers large tracts of southern Illinois and Indiana and western Kentucky and can generate close to 60 million tons annually. That would fill a whopping 2,300 seventy ton hoppers every day! Most of the coal originated on the M-I was delivered to connecting lines for heavy industry across the midwest and far west. This roadname will be available in 6 road numbers 73191 single car; 73192 2-Pack; 73193 3-Pack.

Seaboard Air Line Railroad was a 4,000+ mile system serving Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, Florida, and Alabama. Seaboard picked up 500 of these cars from Pullman Standard in 1957. In addition to coal, Seaboard’s hopper fleet was just as likely to be found hauling sand, gravel, or crushed stone. These cars joined the Seaboard Coast Line fleet with Seaboard’s 1967 merger
with Atlantic Coast Line. This roadname will be available in 6 road numbers. 73201 single car; 73202 2-Pack; 73203 3-Pack.

Carbon County Railway served two massive coal mines in Utah. Much of the coal went for making coke to feed the furnaces of the steel mill that owned the railroad. However, the output of the mines far exceeded what the mill could use and the extra coal moved to industries in other states and even moved to the coast for export. The CBC freight car fleet consisted of 500 hoppers and a single gondola. Carbon County Railway closed up in 1983. This roadname will be available in 3 road numbers. 73211 single car; 73212 2-Pack.

Santa Fe Quality. In the aftermath of the failed application to merge with Southern Pacific, Santa Fe launched their “Quality Service Network” with the goal of attracting premium rates for moving selected priority traffic. They adopted a new variation of the Santa Fe logo with a stylized “Q” surrounding the traditional circle and cross logo. This was applied to the mineral red (nearly burgandy) paint job that replaced the Indian red used for many years. This roadname will be available in 3 road numbers: 86361 single car; 86362 2-Pack.

For most of its history, the Ann Arbor ran 300 miles from Toledo through Ann Arbor to the coast of Lake Michigan at Frankfurt where through traffic was loaded on car ferries for rail connections across the lake in Wisconsin and Michigan’s upper peninsula. After extended periods of control by Wabash and then Detroit Toledo & Ironton, Ann Arbor adopted this image featuring the “ferry in the fog” logo. This group of Greenville-built cars was leased from Brae in 1978. This roadname will be available in 3 road numbers: 86371 single car; 86372 2-Pack. See our SPECIAL RUNS page for a FOURTH road number of Ann Arbor!