Walthers web site has a photo of the new Athearn CofG composite hopper. Go to www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/140-6103 to see it. Walthers has it in stock, but the hobby stores haven't recieved them yet. They'll only be available in 5 packs according to the hobby shop I called Saturday. The question I have is how long did these cars last in this paint scheme on the Central? The car is painted black. There is a photo in the CofG book published by Arcadia, but it isn't dated. (Though the Geep in the "wings scheme" next to it would lead me to belive that the photo is from the 1950's.) Were all the Central's hoppers black? Thanks in advance for any help. Richard

-- Richard Cole Jr. (raracole@prodigy.net), April 29, 2001

Answers

Allen, you're absolutely correct! I also missed the square monogram on the hopper on page 125 that dosen't exsist on the Athearn model. I got my local hobby shop to order me the 5 pack anyway. (I was generically modeling the 1950's anyway, so '51-'52 is good enough for me.) I guess I'll have the only Central layout with War Emergency hoppers and "blimp" cars riding the rails at the same time! (I guess that's o.k. since I left my Atlas locomotives with their "as delivered" black hand rails.) Do you know if Athearn has a steel hopper that they could do as a CofG hopper? Richard

-- Richard Cole Jr. (raracole@prodigy.net), April 30, 2001.

Richard,

The paint job on the Athearn model represents the war emergency hopper cars (series 21700-21799) as they were delivered in 1943. These cars were painted black and had white lettering. In 1951-52, the wood sides were replaced with steel, and in 1955 the cars received new bottoms.

In 1943, the Central's "standard" color for open hoppers was black. About 1948, management decided to make boxcar red the "standard" for all freight cars except for covered hoppers. This was done to simplify the process of repainting cars (most boxcars at that time had red sides and roof, and black ends and underframes.) There was, however, no system wide effort to repaint everything into the new standard. (There were also many exceptions to this new "standard.")

Since these cars were rebuilt in 1951-52, it's unlikely that many (if any) were painted boxcar red while still sporting wooden sides.

Also, the slanted "THE RIGHT WAY" slogan did not begin appearing on freight cars until about 1954 (after the cars were rebuilt with steel sides.) So it's almost impossible that any of the original wood-sided cars wore that slogan. The cars weren't delivered with the Central's rectangular monogram, but it is possible (but I think unlikely) that some received that prior to being rebuilt in 1951-52.

After the cars were rebuilt with steel sides, some apparently received their original style of lettering along with a monogram. The photo that you referenced on page 125 of the Arcadia book is a good example. The car just visible on the track behind GP7 128 looks to be a rebuilt car with steel sides (there's no woodgrain visible.) I also think that the cars in the photograph are painted boxcar red. Note the center stripe on the GP7 (known to be black) and notice how much darker it is than the cars around it! The original photograph (located at the Atlanta History Center) is black & white.

So, if you want to be absolutely correct, the Athearn model is only accurate for periods between 1943 (when delivered) and 1951-52 (when rebuilt with steel sides.)

Although I haven't seen the actual models, the photos that I have seen of the models look faily accurate.

-- Allen Tuten (allen@cofg.org), April 30, 2001.