Aluminum Hopper...

Hello ...the old cast aluminum hopper who am I question ......there are many many cast hoppers out there ...good luck identifying all of them 

trucks are Scale craft .... ...    some ScaleCraft  cars were being sold by Thomas in the mid 50's for a while ..  ...

the field is wide open for your investigation work 

cheers Carey 

Thanks Carey

Those Scale Craft trucks made the car sit much too high; I replaced them with some Gloor Craft trucks and now it rides at a better height; the couplers now actually line up with those of other cars... 

In any case, it's a nice old piece, I guess. 

Mark in Oregon

The car is a definite scale-craft in all respects.  The trucks can be lowered fairly easily.

@j2morris posted:

The car is a definite scale-craft in all respects.  The trucks can be lowered fairly easily.

 

Thanks; do you have some you can show here?

Mark in Oregon

I don't really know how you tell, but All Nation continued a cast aluminum hopper for a while.  Maybe we can get a list of who did what some day.  I have maybe five cast aluminum cars, not counting the ubiquitous flat cars.

bob2 - the All Nation aluminum hopper was the former Megow/Scale Railways model that had the rounded C&O ends.

I will try to attach some pictures for Mark.  This is a Scale Craft offset side hopper which uses the same floor and ends of the plain side hopper.  I sold my built up plain side version. I used Kadee couplers and Athearn trucks.  You can also use the Scale-Craft trucks with an upside down truck bolster.  With the Athearn trucks I also added springs for stabilization of the kingpin.

Very nice; thank you. Other than the tapered sides, that looks just like mine. Cool you have the boxes, too!

Thanks again; "mystery" solved...  

Mark in Oregon

@j2morris posted:

bob2 - the All Nation aluminum hopper was the former Megow/Scale Railways model that had the rounded C&O ends.

Like this one....

except it was not aluminum. Sides and ends were Zamac and rest was white metal......

Looks like sand castings to me and identical to the Megow/All Nation kit.  These are not high pressure Zamac castings.  I look for a catalog picture.

Here is another Scale Craft 55 ton USRA twin hopper, Kit No. OF-34 from 1936. A modern Intermountain twin-hopper coal load fits it perfectly!  It rides on its original Scale Craft trucks. The frame ends were modified for Kadee couplers.

S.Islander

Thomas Industries also made a nearly all aluminum hopper.  The only non-aluminum is the upper section of the inside floor of the hopper bin which is a piece of unplated steel. It was a kit and is held together with brass pins/rivets.  As you can see the detail parts - grab irons and brake wheel and stanchion are brass.

Hi Robert,

Thomas Industries bought the Scale-Craft freight car line in 1951, so this is the SC car which Thomas sold till about 1962.

MWB, please find attached All Nation advert for the Hopper which it reproduced from the Megow/Scale Railways pre-war masters.

BTW, to avoid confusion,  Bob Smith - Central Locomotive Works bought the Scale-Craft locomotive line in 1951 but most of the tooling was un-useable.

@j2morris posted:

MWB, please find attached All Nation advert for the Hopper which it reproduced from the Megow/Scale Railways pre-war masters.

I know mine was an Al-Nation kit - come new out of an All-Nation box,

But those sides and ends were not aluminum - hard and brittle stuff.

I almost bought a 2nd kit while possessed of a momentary lapse of reason but I managed to regain control and put it back on the table in Chicago.

j2morris - so are you saying Thomas Industries simplified the molds or that the Scale Craft hopper that is pictured at the start of this thread has additional details - specifically with respect to the sides of the car?  Since this is just the written word, please understand what I asked is in the form of a simple question about form evolution - nothing more.

MWB - heaven knows what Bill Pope used in the pour, not Zamac but could be a variety of other metals that could be used in sand casting.  Knowing Bill, the quality of the pour and metals used was very variable and could be essentially recycled scrap metal.  Not surprised that sides are brittle, however, Zamac is not possible to gravity cast in sand, it is only used in high pressure/high temperature die casting.  Before WW2, SC used linotype metal from high speed printing machines of the era (tied in to Donnelly's printing business).  It is often mistaken for Zamac but is extremely brittle.  SC cabooses were made from this metal and are often found cracked and deteriorated.

Robert- The Thomas SC cars are the EXACTLY the same as the original Scale-Craft cars as they stood in 1941/1945.  The level of detail is up to the model builder.  Jim Thomas made no changes to these kits and frankly most of them were from old stock he acquired in 1950.  When he ran out of the old stock these kits began to be listed as unavailable in later Thomas Industries catalogs.  The kits were listed under their post war SC kit numbers and are easily distinguished from the kits that Thomas developed himself (scale tank cars, 4 wheel caboose, tinplate train line).

JJ

J2morris - Ok, thanks for the info.  

Mark,

Here you go for the Scale craft hopper.  Plans showing both the offset side and straight side versions. I have a few of the straight side versions, hopefully to be repainted for PRR some day.  I really love the old Rail craft hoppers as well.  I have a box of probably a dozen for future rebuilds. Looks like my photo's got reversed.

Thanks for posting those Dennis. Sorry for the delay in responding but have been helping someone move from fire- ravaged Medford to the Central Coast...where the smoke has been almost as bad...                                                                                                             Mark in (still smokey) Oregon