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Got the Atlas 70-ton Covered Hopper the other day.

Nicely built model, very heavy.  The model is gray, I thought these cars were black but looking at the photos in Paul Faulk's book I do believe the gray is correct (or it's a very faded black).

I got the 3-rail model, but removed the claw couplers and add Kadees, had to drill new holes in the mounting pads and cut off the claw coupler mount so it would swivel without hitting the Kadee coupler box, took about 10 minutes.

The only "issue" I can find with it is the hatches are turned 90 degrees out from where ACL had there's.  It may not be a problem though, they look like they can be turned, the housing the hatch is on appears to be a separate casting, will find out later and attempt to turn them.  they do open so that's a good thing.

Anyway, here's some photos:

Class L5 Cvd Hopper aClass L5 Cvd Hopper bClass L5 Cvd Hopper c

Well...the hatches do come out, that's the good news.

The bad news is that these "square" hatches aren't.  They measure 21/32" long and 19/32" wide, a 1/16" difference.  In order to turn them 90 degrees I'd have to cut the openings in the roof 1/16" bigger going from end-to-end and add 1/16" spacers going from side-to-side so the hatches won't fall thru the holes.

It's something that can be done, but I'm not going to mess with it now, make it a later project, although every time I run it those hatches will be staring up at me

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Those look awesome Bob. Growing up in the Tampa Bay area I used to see long trains of SCL hoppers coming from the phosphate mines in central Florida to the Gardinier Plant on the eastern shore of Tampa Bay. The Seaboard trains were 100-120 cars long of dusty gray hoppers loaded with gray phosphate. When we got caught by the train, we would have to sit at crossings along US 41 and wait for the slow train to pass, and the only thing to do was turn off the car count the hoppers as they squealed by. Although I don't recall seeing ACL hauling phosphate ( I was too young to remember that before the two companies merged), this car reminds me a lot of those experiences. Thanks for sharing. 

Same here Gary.  We actually lived within 1/2 mile of the ACL line and 2 miles from the SAL line coming into Portsmouth, I could see the ACL turntable trestle from my backyard over the Elizabeth River during the winter months, and walked the line many times from home to the ball fields and back.  But I don't recall what the trains looked like.  I do recall some steamers, but that may have been N&W in Suffolk, and some small SAL switchers in Franklin.

This hopper is quite heavy, wish all my rolling stock felt this "solid".

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