Description
These 2-Bay War Emergency Composite Hopper cars were built during the Second World War with wood siding and slope sheets at the direction of the War Production Board in hopes of saving as much steel as possible for the war effort. This was especially the case with hoppers that were usually built with copper-bearing steel to resist corrosion. The car sides were built with the Pratt truss design using a combination of vertical and diagonal ribs.
These ready-to-run N scale cars feature: die cast slope sheet-hopper bay-center sill assembly; injection molded plastic sides, ends, and hopper doors; fully molded brake tank, valve and air lines; body mounted brake hose detail; removeable load; body mounted magnetically operating knuckle couplers; close coupling; and Fox Valley Models metal wheels.
Clinchfield Railroad received this group of 500 hoppers from American Car & Foundry in 1944. CRR loaded both steam coal (used in boilers) and metalurgical coal (used to make steel.) The former tended to move to the rapidly industrializing South and the latter moved north into the Industrial Midwest. They also handed off coal to C&O and N&W for the ports at Newport News and Norfolk.
