Chicago hoppers (was Bachmann hoppers)

[dave_long]

Guys,

Has anyone got any views on the Bachmann 56' centreflow hoppers? Are they anywhere near accurate? I can see that they have fairly clunky details, such as the ladders and handrails but they can be replaced.

 

Its just that the signalbox have them on sale at £6.75

 

 

Title edited to reflect further discussions.

[doctor quinn]

Hi Dave,

 

I believe they are a clone of the Athearn CF5250, though with moulded on hatches and clunky handrails. Although they're dimensionally OK, TBH I'd go for the Athearn version - finer details, interchangable hatches.

 

Alternatively other Center Flows are, or have been, available;

 

Accurail CF4600 3bay,

 

McKean/Front Range CF4650 3bay

 

Although these two are similar in cubic capacity (4600 cu ft vs 4650 cu ft) they look quite different as the CF4600 is built to a smaller loading gauge.

 

Atlas CF5000 Pressureaide - superb model with etched roofwalks!

 

Hope this helps

 

Nick

[298]

Now you know why I pester Nick for freight car info, especially since my fleet for Wiley only needs Reefers in revenue service.

 

I'm slowly getting rid of older cars and trying to keep the fleet to ones with separate ladders and roofwalks, some of the older/cheaper stuff is definitely built to a price but I've found one you've spent your own time and money improving the details, it's more cost effective to go for new releases you can use out of the box.

[Glorious NSE]

Also depends on what you want them for, the 5250 I think is generally a 1960s plastic pellet hopper, the 4600/4650 generally grain and similar (the 4650 is also done much more recently by Atlas and Intermountain BTW), the pressuraide is for powdered ladings like flour.

 

Model Jcn for instance has a couple of 4650s for circa 18 quid, personally i'd rather have one of them than two and a half Bachmann ones. If you want the 5250 specifically then you ought to be able to pick up the Athearn bluebox kit s/h for much less than the Bachmann one.

 

Whilst 'top notch' grain hopper models are generally now over the 20 quid mark it's also worth looking at the retooled FMC 4700 from Athearn, now a rather gorgeous model...

 

YMMV and all that....

[dave_long]

Thanks all.

I was under the impression that they would not be favourable, even from the clunky ladders. I do like the accurail kit, but refuse to pay more than £10 in the UK for them especially when you can find them for about $8 on us ebay.

 

I'll need hoppers for a small inner city cement (and molt ash) factory and mainly for a sugar company.

[Glorious NSE]

For cement you'll probably want 2-bays, presuming a modern-ish layout Walthers do a Thrall ribside prototype, Athearn and Intermountain both do (different) 2-bay centreflows as well. The IM and Walthers were both sold as kits so can be got a bit more cheaply.

 

For sugar then either a 'grain spec' trough hatch 3 bay, or a pressuraide?

[Glorious NSE]

I think airslides (the Walthers 2 bay isn't super-expensive if you hunt for it) too for sugar...

[sunshine coast]

For cement you'll probably want 2-bays, presuming a modern-ish layout Walthers do a Thrall ribside prototype, Athearn and Intermountain both do (different) 2-bay centreflows as well. The IM and Walthers were both sold as kits so can be got a bit more cheaply.

 

For sugar then either a 'grain spec' trough hatch 3 bay, or a pressuraide?

 

 

Bowser also do a couple of versions of an older 70 ton 2 bay....like this one... http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/6-40309

 

 

 

Regards Trevor...

[dave_long]

Thanks guys,

I did think about the 2 bays for cement, but this isnt your typical cement working. I'm modelling the CIRY, and there are plenty of hoppers like the following:

 

http://flic.kr/p/5ydCjH

Interesting graffiti

 

 

This is the Cement company, well at the end of the spur.

 

at domino sugar

 

Not your typical sugar and cement hoppers

[dave1905]

The car they are spotting in the video is a plastic pellet car, you can tell from the outlet gates. It doesn't haul cement.

[Glorious NSE]

I agree with Dave, ACFX59005 looks like a plastic pellet car. I think the closest to that to my eye is the Athearn as it looks a little shorter than the 1970s/80s+ ones that Atlas did. It's way too big a car for cement loading anyhow.

 

The other centerflows look like plain 'grain spec' gravity covered hoppers, but with either round or round-in-trough style top hatches.

 

Zooming in on this shot of the sugar plant gives you a nice mix of cars:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/chris_lastovich/3103413145/sizes/o/in/photostream/

 

On the left is an NS airslide with what looks like another airslide behind it, then what looks like a 4650 with round hatches in UP paint (Intermountain does a round hatch version of the 4650) - behind that is another centerflow, the two attached to the loco are modern 3-bays, they may not be exact but close-ish to the Athearn Trinity.

 

The Intermountain is also available as a kit for around half the price of a RTR one (although you'll need to add decals, wheels, couplers etc which brings it back up again) so that might be an alternative?

[dave1905]

Actually we may all be wrong. Looks like that car carried zinc dust.

[dave_long]

While I've been researching the area there have been 1 or 2 discussion on what Kramer actual do there, I found reference to them actually being a Bronze smelting company which would explain the lack of cement traffic. ( Almost all flickr posts say Kramer cement! )

 

There is also Battaglia food distributors along the line which seem to accept the odd hopper but more often its box cars to them.

 

Here is another video showing a rake of hoppers, I was planning on modelling the UP14058 hopper with that lovely shade of rust over it. (I thought I'd use an Accurail kit for that one) First 2 mins. A little fly shunting too!

 

[Glorious NSE]

Think they are 4600s so the Accurails will work well, the last one in the rake at the start is a 4650 I think, slightly taller.

 

That silver/grey boxcar is ex Amtrak, and Walthers does the exact car for that if you're interested, just needs some minor number patching and maybe a door unlocking wheel if it doesn't come with it.

[long island jack]

managed to pick these two up at my local show

 

 

 

throught i would take a chance at not getting ripped off,got the pair for a fiver,i was done.

 

i was given a couple of Bachmann ones, they run ok, but have chunky handrails etc

 

Ray

[doctor quinn]

If you freeze the shot on full screen you can see the Cubic cap on the right hand end, ACFX59005 is a 5250 cu ft car like the Athearn one with Sparger outlets which would make it some kind of industrial products car. It also has 4 bays & probably will have either 20" tight seal hatches like the Athearn one comes with or maybe 30" round hatches.

 

Metal dust or foundry sand may be possibilities but I'd have thought they'd be too dense - any experts on bronze out there?

 

BTW Ray, looks like you got what it says on the box; Accurail 4600 and Mckean 4650, you wern't done at all, mate.

 

 

Nick

[dave_long]

Thanks guys,

Martyn thanks for the heads up on the ex-Amtrak car I'll look into that one.

 

A quick look at bronze smelting on google seems to suggest that silica is used as a flux material. Silica seems to be shipped in hoppers.

 

What do you think about the ribbed NS hopper at the head of the rake in the last video?

 

Dave

[Glorious NSE]

It looks a bit odd to me, it's a little like one of these (especially with the solid end plates - look at the ex-PC version) :

http://www.railyardmodels.com/catalog/4785cuftps2cd.html

 

But the rib-count is different and the one on the vid has a clerestory roof... the freightcars Illustrated data sheets don't reckon on their being a 15 rib low hip car with clerestory roof unless i'm reading them wrong! So maybe NS have been a-fiddling!?

http://fcix.info/ref.htm

 

If you wanted to swap it for something rib-sided and similar in spec (although a high hip not a low hip car) on a budget then I think the Athearn PS4740 (available as a blue box kit) or the Trainman Thrall 4750 (RTR for about a tenner) are probably your best bet. NS definately had PS4740s (or similar clones) via N&W.

 

You might be able to pickup an Intermountain PS4750 (kit or RTR) secondhand as well if you're canny, it's a common model (and prototype luckily!) - NS also has them?

 

For a low hip one on a budget keep an eye out for the Walthers (kit) PS4427 (not the later Proto one) - they will be rare/gone on the prototype now as they're pretty old. There's a few other recent low hip models (Magor from Exactrail, and two shots at the Evans from Exactrail and Walthers) but they will be over your tenner guide price.

[jamesmc]

According to the later youtube clip showing a BNSF GP50 at the same location the hopper is carrying iron oxide for use in the smelting process. Hope this is of help.

[dave_long]

Thanks James, glad someone else is looking closer than I am.

 

Martyn thanks for all your help suggesting models is very useful, I'm not specifically looking at budget models but its nice to know what's available.

 

Regards

Dave.

[Talltim]

http://fcix.info/ref.htm

Thats a cool site, not seen it before

You might be able to pickup an Intermountain PS4750 (kit or RTR) secondhand as well if you're canny, it's a common model (and prototype luckily!) - NS also has them?

The Intermountain one in NS seems to be hard to find on eBay, from my experience!