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.
Santa Fe took delivery of their GA-60 class hoppers from Pullman-Standard in the summer of 1943. After the war, many were assigned to sulfur loading at mines in Texas and California under the assumption that the wood surfaces would resist the corrosive properties of the loads. The sulfur was supplied to the fast-growing chemical industry.
