B&O EM-1: Best choice for hoppers?

Nick,

Have you checked out Weaver for hoppers?  I am Western Maryland fan and buy from Weaver for my hoppers and boxcars cause they are accurate according to the Western Maryland Railway Historical Soceity.  I remeber the last time Lionel did the EM-1 they had some matching hoppers but I can't tell for sure if they were accurate for running behind the EM-1.

Weaver, Atlas O T-man & MTH Combinations....

Probably not too much help, but at the beginning of this video theres is an em1 pulling a mixed freight. Behind the loco appears to be a mix of two and three bay hoppers. Theres a string of boxcars in the middle and more hoppers toward the end. Difficult to tell exactly from the old footage but they sure seem to resemble the first three hoppers you posted, at least as far as the paint scheme goes, can't make out any ribbed sides or peaked ends.

Lionel made a set of hoppers that went with the EM1. They are very nice. K-Line also made good diecast sets.

Dale H

The Weaver hoppers are "good enough" on their own, but when sitting next to the Atlas O models, it becomes quite apparent how far off they are. Enough to make me sell them back off, so yes, a less discerning modeller than I (in the area of N&W hoppers) would be happy with them.

But we're here to talk about B&O hoppers, not N&W. If you'd like to continue the N&W hopper discussion here is my thread on that subject from a while back:

https://ogrforum.com/t...pers?reply=lastReply

Here is a link to one on the Bay. I have a bunch of K-Line hoppers and like them. I also think the later Lionel releases were different than PW,billed as semi scale

www.ebay.com/itm/K-LINE-BALTIM...;hash=item589ffec46a

Dale H

I was just made aware of the later K-Line models. They too look very nice:

That certainly is a very nice looking 2-bay, but did the B&O actually have peaked end hoppers? I couldn't see any peaked end 2-bay hoppers in the video posted above. I do know that the C&O and N&W both had thousands and thousands of peaked end (various styles of peaked ends too) 2-bay hoppers.

Maybe you could actually do a little research into the subject yourself; I'm sure there're plenty of books on the B&O as it has had a bit of a following and a historical society that's available with even magazines that can be downloaded.

http://www.borhs.org/index.html

and there's even a searchable index to the modeling magazine...

http://www.borhs.org/modelermag/index.html

I did search through Google quite a bit with little to no results; otherwise I wouldn't have come here for help. However, I did not see the Historical Society's magazines. They do have one comprehensive article on hoppers, although it's strictly numbers and dates as opposed to a pictorial guide. An interesting quote on the shortage of B&O hopper information:

"Surprisingly for the third largest hopper fleet of all U.S. railroads (behind only the Pennsylvania and the Chesapeake & Ohio railroads), only one published article in the enthusiast press to date attempted to systematically address the B&O’s hopper fleet
(“B&O Hoppers: Prototype and Modeling”, Barry Rubin, The Sentinel, Fourth Quarter 2003.) Many other articles addressed modeling individual car classes, but the B&O modeler (as well as modelers of other Northeastern railroads) lacked a comprehensive
resource on building a representative fleet for his or her model railroad."

http://borhs.org/ModelerMag/BO...r_2_2006_MayJune.pdf

I first searched the years the K-Line road number would have been in use and found that they were retired in 1934, well before the EM-1s were ordered. It also did not say those road numbers had peaked ends, so they're definitely out.

Will continue looking through the numbers.

I'd bet that there's a B&O modelers group (Yahoo maybe?) that would be able to connect you to that article.  I used tohave a stack of issues of The Sentinel but they have since departed to a better home.

If not, I'd bet you could get a copy from the NMRA library, and no, you do not have to be a member to do that.....

Thanks for the help mwb 

The "fish belly" hoppers from MTH are out next. The road numbers do not correspond with the prototype.

Just got done doing so, all checks out. There is only one issue with these - as one of the top choices for B&O hoppers in O scale, they are seldom seen (on the internet at least). So far I have found that Atlas has made 12 unique numbers in the O 55 ton fishbelly hoppers, 4 unique numbers in the O 55 Ton Coal Hoppers, and 4 unique numbers in the composite hoppers. 20 unique hoppers total for a nice long train, but to locate all 20 will take a while....

Not to mention the well over $50 each price for Atlas O cars!

While we're at it, I had forgotten about Lionel's offerings. They did make 3 road numbers in a nice correct (no peaks) offset hopper.

You can always scrape off a digit and replace it with a different one using dry transfers.

Weaver or MTH 9 pnl hoppers are the best, offering 6 road #’s per offering.

MTH are a little pricy but are accurate in size and detail blowing away Atlas O 3 bays.

T-Man’s are close in size but not quite the same and offering only 2 road #’s.

A marketing limitation and oversite by Atlas O sales wise.

Atlas O F.B’s  and some  K-lines are die-cast. Could never understand why anyone would want to haul around a bunch of heavy boat anchors, especially a 30 car coal train.

Generally 9 panel, 3 bay’s are used for unit coal train operations vs. 2 bays.

Atlas O T-man yellow C&O. only 2 numbers as with the white C&O's Atlas offered limiting their sales. 

I understand what you're saying, but this is 1940s and 1950s coal operations I'm modelling for the EM-1. The 2-bays are the correct choice, and even though the Atlas offerings are indeed heavy, it doesn't really translate to the wheels if they are well lubricated. In fact it makes them roll more easily if anything.