Bluford Shops products are not intended for children under 14.
N 86' Auto Parts Boxcar Features
Now Accepting Pre-Orders
About Us
Contact Us Links
In Stock at Bluford Shops
Special
Runs
N Hopper Features
Past Releases
Home
Railroad
History
Timeline
N Caboose
Features
HO Caboose
Features
New 3-Bay Offset Side Hoppers are now available in N Scale.

70 ton 3-Bay Offset Side Hoppers first appeared in the late '20s and by the late '30s had become an AAR standard design with cars delivered from a number of builders in large quantities. The last of these cars were delivered in the late-'60s and many remained in service through the '80s.

 

These ready-to-run models feature: diecast slope sheet-hopper bay-center sill assembly; injection molded plastic sides, ends, and hopper doors; fully molded brake tank, valve and air lines; slope sheet braces; separately molded vertical brake rod and lever assembly; body mounted brake hose detail; “coal” load except as noted;  body mounted magnetically operating couplers; close coupling; friction bearing or roller bearing trucks as appropriate for each road name. All road names are produced in multiple road numbers.  MSRP $32.95 each.  Pre-Orders are closed on items shown in RED.

Santa Fe received this group of hoppers equipped with 70-ton roller bearing trucks from Greenville Steel Car in 1960. Santa Fe had a respectible trade in hauling coal but these hoppers could also be found hauling coke, unprocessed clay, copper concentrate, ballast, scrap tinplate, slag and stone. These cars will be available in 6 road numbers. $32.95 each.

74020  Santa Fe Ga-121 class #ATSF 78372

74021  Santa Fe Ga-121 class #ATSF 78390

74024  Santa Fe Ga-121 class #ATSF 78407

74025  Santa Fe Ga-121 class #ATSF 78314

74027  Santa Fe Ga-121 class #ATSF 78338

74028  Santa Fe Ga-121 class #ATSF 78443

 

Click to go to the Previous N Scale batch...
Products bearing Missouri Pacific, Southern Pacific, Chicago Great Western and Chicago & North Western marks are made under trademark license from Union Pacific Railroad Company.
 
Cornfields

Chicago & North Western inherited this group of hoppers with their 1968 acquisition of Chicago Great Western. By the mid-70s they were receiving this paint scheme with the large “Employee Owned” version of the C&NW ball and bar logo and re-equipped with roller bearing trucks. The CGW reporting marks were retained. This was not unusual because changing a car’s number could require amending equipment trusts and/or lease agreements. These cars will available in 4 road numbers. $32.95 each.

74060  Chicago & North Western - CGW  #CGW 6088

74061  Chicago & North Western - CGW  #CGW 6074

74064  Chicago & North Western - CGW  #CGW 6010

74065  Chicago & North Western - CGW  #CGW 6056

Canadian National adopted the 12” billboard lettering for hopper cars in 1958. Then in 1965, this group of cars was renumbered into the 320000 series, often without a full repaint. Two years later, they began to receive their ACI tags. It is at this stage that we present these CN cars in 6 road numbers. $32.95 each.

74030  Canadian National 12" billboard #CN 324497

74031  Canadian National 12" billboard #CN 324736

74034  Canadian National 12" billboard #CN 324551

74035  Canadian National 12" billboard #CN 324583

74037  Canadian National 12" billboard #CN 324609

74038  Canadian National 12" billboard #CN 324720

 

 

This is the second version of Baltimore & Ohio’s billboard lettering for hoppers. It replaced the first version (in which the & was the same size as the B and O) in 1956. In later versions, B&O would elimate the horizonal lines above and below the road number. This run will be available in 6 road numbers. $32.95 each.

74040  Baltimore & Ohio billboard Version 2 #B&O 734656

74041  Baltimore & Ohio billboard Version 2 #B&O 735372

74044  Baltimore & Ohio billboard Version 2 #B&O 734043 

74045  Baltimore & Ohio billboard Version 2 #B&O 735815 

74047  Baltimore & Ohio billboard Version 2 #B&O 735990 

74048  Baltimore & Ohio billboard Version 2 #B&O 734201

 

Chicago Burlington & Quincy built this group of 3 bay offset side hoppers in their own Havelock, Nebraska shops in 1951. Although they were delivered in mineral red paint, these cars began to receive this Chinese-Red scheme in 1958. Below the rectangular logo, it says “Way of the Zephyrs” on one side of the car and “Everywhere West” on the other. These cars will be available in 6 road numbers. $32.95 each.

74050  Burlington-Chinese Red #CB&Q 170928

74051  Burlington-Chinese Red #CB&Q 170842

74054  Burlington-Chinese Red #CB&Q 170606

74055  Burlington-Chinese Red #CB&Q 170817

74057  Burlington-Chinese Red #CB&Q 170594

74058 Burlington-Chinese Red #CB&Q 170765

 

 

Illinois Central was one of the last two railroads to take delivery of offset side hoppers. This group entered service in 1967, not long after IC adopted their new image featuring the “split rail” logo. The left half of the logo forms the letter i while the right half forms the letter c. The design was probably too subtle as few people made the connection on their own. This paint scheme will be available in 6 road numbers. $32.95 each.

74070  Illinois Central split rail #IC 67205      

74071  Illinois Central split rail #IC 67166      

74074  Illinois Central split rail #IC 67228      

74075  Illinois Central split rail #IC 67132      

74077 Illinois Central split rail #IC 67297      

74078  Illinois Central split rail #IC 67141

 

In 1966 Kansas City Southern began to paint their locomotives and some classes of freight cars white. Surprisingly, these hoppers were included. In addition to coal and coke (as depicted in this run) KCS used these hoppers to move sand, gravel, crushed rock (note the load level line across the middle of the car) and even wood chips when they were running short on higher capacity hoppers. Eagle-eyed KCS fans will notice the lettering style of reporting marks and road numbers vary from our recently released KCS white wood chip hoppers. Both are correct. KCS’s stencil designs wandered quite a bit particularly in the early white paint era. 6 road numbers will be available in this road name. $32.95 each.

74080  Kansas City Southern white #KCS 6853

74081  Kansas City Southern white #KCS 6802

74084 Kansas City Southern white #KCS 6830

74085  Kansas City Southern white #KCS 6867

74087  Kansas City Southern white #KCS 6829

74088  Kansas City Southern white #KCS 6874

 

 

This Missouri Pacific paint scheme with the centered buzzsaw logo was the last MP scheme applied to this style of hopper beginning in 1972. In addition to the MP fleet, cars from their subsidiary Missouri-Illinois Railroad also received this paint scheme but with MI reporting marks. Missouri Pacific bought control of the MI in 1929 but did not merge them until 1978. For this run, we are including 3 MP road numbers and 3 MI road numbers. $32.95 each.

74090  Missouri Pacific center logo #MP 537590

74091  Missouri Pacific center logo #MP 537376

74094  Missouri Pacific center logo #MP 537422

 

74095  Missouri Pacific (Missouri-Illinois) center logo

#MI 536234

74097  Missouri Pacific (Missouri-Illinois) center logo

#MI 536269

74098  Missouri Pacific (Missouri-Illinois) center logo

#MI 536207

 

 

 

These Ontario Northland cars feature the “Canadian Style” hopper arrangement with the center hopper bays facing the brake wheel end instead of the “A” end of the car. This style was only used on Canadian roads but was not universally applied (the CN cars in this batch do NOT have the reversed center bays for instance.) Coal was not a big commodity on the ONT but metallic ores were. This group of 6 road numbers includes “nickel ore” loads. $32.95 each.

74100  Ontario Northland Version 2 #ONT 140107

74101  Ontario Northland Version 2 #ONT 140159

74104  Ontario Northland Version 2 #ONT 140140

74105  Ontario Northland Version 2 #ONT 140173

74107  Ontario Northland Version 2 #ONT 140118

74108  Ontario Northland Version 2 #ONT 140131

 

 

 

Around 1957, Ontario Northland found themselves with a temporary glut of hoppers. ONT made an arrangement with Chesapeake & Ohio and these 3-bay offset side hoppers were sent south to move coal on the C&O. They were not renumbered so to prevent C&O agents from routing the empty cars back to Canada, they received what must be the largest routing instructions ever applied to car sides:TIDE COAL ONLY. WHEN EMPTY RETURN TO HANDLEY FROM THE WEST OR THURMOND FROM THE EAST, C&O RWY.  MUST NOT BE LOADED TO OR MOVED TO CANADA. The cars were eventually returned to ONT, and could be found in the mid-60s assigned to the Dane, Ontario iron ore pool and sporting a new paint job. This run will be available in 6 road numbers. $32.95 each.

 74110 Ontario Northland C&O service #ONT 140162

74111  Ontario Northland C&O service #ONT 140133

74114  Ontario Northland C&O service #ONT 140120

74115  Ontario Northland C&O service #ONT 140165

74117  Ontario Northland C&O service #ONT 140106

74118  Ontario Northland C&O service #ONT 140124

 

 

 

 

Pittsburgh & Lake Erie was slow to adopt parent New York Central’s cigar band logo but a version of it began to appear on these hoppers circa 1962. Called the Little Giant, P&LE was just 233 miles long but was so busy they required a fleet of 25,000 freight cars to keep their customers supplied. That’s an astonishing 107 cars for every mile of mainline! This run will be available in 6 road numbers. $32.95 each.

74120  Pittsburgh & Lake Erie cigar band #P&LE 3989

74121  Pittsburgh & Lake Erie cigar band #P&LE 3265

74124  Pittsburgh & Lake Erie cigar band #P&LE 3542

74125  Pittsburgh & Lake Erie cigar band #P&LE 3033

74127  Pittsburgh & Lake Erie cigar band #P&LE 3107

74128  Pittsburgh & Lake Erie cigar band #P&LE 3778

 

 

 

 

 

The 2,200 mile Pere Marquette blanketed Michigan’s Lower Peninsula, connecting it with Chicago, Toledo, and cutting across Ontario to reach Buffalo, New York. They found themselves in a fine position to serve the growing automobile industry. Control of the PM was acquired by the Van Sweringen brothers who also controlled C&O, Nickel Plate, Erie and Wheeling & Lake Erie. In 1947, the PM became the Pere Marquette District of the Chesapeake & Ohio. This version with the road name and number centered on the car side will be available in 4 road numbers. $32.95 each.

74130  Pere Marquette centered number #15202

74131  Pere Marquette centered number #15051

74134  Pere Marquette centered number #15189

74135  Pere Marquette centered number #15064

 

 

 

 

 

This was the last paint scheme applied by Seaboard Air Line to their 3 bay offset side hoppers prior to their 1967 merger with Atlantic Coast Line. The ACI tags and con-stencils were in place by 1974. SAL and successor Seaboard Coast Line used their hoppers primarily for sand, gravel and industrial minerals so we are including “mineral” loads for the 6 road numbers in this release. $32.95 each.

74140 Seaboard Air Line post-'74 #SAL 38670

74141  Seaboard Air Line post-'74 #SAL 39256

74144  Seaboard Air Line post-'74 #SAL 38918

74145  Seaboard Air Line post-'74 #SAL 39591

74147  Seaboard Air Line post-'74 #SAL 38747

74148  Seaboard Air Line post-'74 #SAL 39024

 

 

 

 

 

 

Southern Pacific ordered these hoppers on behalf of their subsidiary Texas & New Orleans in 1953 from Bethlehem Steel. SP’s adoption of heavy gothic billboard lettering was still a few years away. These cars were used for coal and coke (as presented here,) limestone, aggregate, sulfur and in later years unprocessed salt. This paint scheme will be available in 6 road numbers. $32.95 each.

 

74150 Southern Pacific T&NO Roman billboard #T&NO 4894

74151  Southern Pacific T&NO Roman billboard #T&NO 4728

74154 Southern Pacific T&NO Roman billboard #T&NO 4509

74155  Southern Pacific T&NO Roman billboard #T&NO 4946

74157 Southern Pacific T&NO Roman billboard #T&NO 4455

74158  Southern Pacific T&NO Roman billboard #T&NO 4670

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This batch was shipped to retailers in January, 2024.
Click to go to the Next N Scale batch...