In search of... N&W open hopper info

[fr8kar]

I'm looking for some background info on Norfolk & Western's fleet of coal hoppers in the 70s and 80s. The photos I see from this era show a lot of variety in shape and size of the different types of cars. So what I'm after is a breakdown of the types of cars, a roster showing how many of each type existed and when they were in operation.

This isn't purely academic since I want to model some of these cars, so I'd also be interested in learning what the closest model or kitbash starting point is in HO scale for each class. I have a bunch of the old MDC Roundhouse triple hoppers, which look kinda like they could be modified to look like H34 hoppers, but maybe not. What other cars are appropriate for N&W hopper classes used during the 70s and 80s?

Pretty much everything I know about coal trains from this era is good for trains of the Powder River basin, so I'm really out of my element here. But I'd love to learn if anyone is willing to share.

[chitownjeff]

Ryan,

Have you looked at what Bowser has to offer, there hoppers are more for the eastern roads

Jeff

[nsc39d8]

Ryan,y subject.

My suggestion is to join the NWHS mailing groups. One for system talk the other for modeling, both are excellent sources of info on every subject.

[fr8kar]

I've looked at the Bowser cars, but I don't know enough about the prototypes to know if they're a good starting point for anything. They look good, though, so I'm inclined to buy some.

James, the only group I'm aware of is the Yahoo group NWmodeler, but there's not a whole lot of activity there. Are there other mailing lists?

[nsc39d8]

Ryan,

This is the list owned by the NWHS for system wide topics and one for modeling. Please note that these list are for the Norfolk & Western only.

www.nwhs.org/mailing_list.php

Then NWHS used Bowser to do a limited run of hoppers some years ago. I am not sure if they are still available in the Commissary but look around www.nwhs.org while signing up for the lists.

[fr8kar]

Thank you, James. I'll have to see about getting some of the hoppers from the commissary. That sounds like a good way to get some variety going in my train.

[mcguesterson]

"Norfolk and Western Coal Cars: From 1881 to 1998" by the late Andrew Dow is pretty much the bible for N&W hoppers.

books.google.com/books/about/Norfolk_and_Western_Coal_Cars.html?id=30DxPQAACAAJ

Quick summary for your era- lots and lots of the Bowser H43 (H11a on N&W) and the Bowser car can have a foot cut off the top for the H11; IIRC there is a Bachmann hopper that is reasonably close to the H12 of the '70s; and there were still a good number of the BLI H2a's running around. H10 is nonexistent in model form, and the H34 (ex-VGN H14) is a hefty kitbash at best.

[fr8kar]

Thanks!

[Spikre]

RC,
there was a book about modeling N&W Coal cars from the 80s,so a lot
of later models are missed.
the Life Like 100 ton hopper body is also close to some N&W cars,there
have been articles on up-grading them.
a few BLI H2s would be good also mixed in with the 100 ton cars.
forget the Roundhouse triples, they are mainly good for cars in wrecks.
the Accu-Rail triple is good for merger cars of NKP at least.or use the
the Bowser off-set triple,but many Bowser roads were Foooooobies.
with N&W being gone for about 35 years there should be more books on
car summeries by now.
Spikre

[fr8kar]

I'm still hoping to find the book mentioned above used for a good price. No luck in a nearby library.

I continue to seek out information on N&W/NS coal hoppers that would be a good fit for my era of 80s to early 90s. I found a great thread on the old Atlas forum that is very helpful:

forum.atlasrr.com/FORUM/topic.asp?ARCHIVE=true&TOPIC_ID=40663&


Between the recommendation here and the example posted there by Dave Olson, along with the prototype information given, I decided to buy a couple of the Bachmann Silver Series hoppers. They need some work - in particular the trucks - but 15 minutes of work got me a car that looks decent and runs well. It seems like the Bowser car is going to be the best bet to model the massive H11A-H11E fleet, but a smattering of these Bachmann cars will help fill out the fleet.