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Hi Everyone.

I just received a box of Erie hoppers from ebay.

The cars are painted different from the rest of my Erie Hoppers these one's have "Blue" ends. Anyone tell me what the "blue" ends represents.

Thanks in advance. Roo.

 

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Last edited by Roo
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Roo,

There is a BNSF railroad line at the end of my street, mostly coal traffic & I had seen hoppers with mostly 1, very rarely 2 , differently colored ends & I was told that they indicated the end with the rotary AAR, Type-F coupler, that allowed the whole car to be dumped in a rotary dumper, all without uncoupling each car. These 100+-car unit trains always had the different colored end on the same-end (front-end on all cars or rear-end on all cars).

But your car looks a lot older than the newer cars I see around me & I am not sure if such markings existed for older cars.

 These are just my opinion.

Thanks,

Naveen Rajan

 

Last edited by naveenrajan

"Sadly, I have a feeling these hoppers were painted that way because they looked cool.  I have never seen any prototype Erie hoppers painted in such a way".

 

Friends.

I have looked up a few sites before I posted here and I have the Morning Sun Erie colour guide book and could not see any evidence of Erie using "Blue" ends on their hoppers.

Like Bob, I also had a sneaking suspicion that MTH painted them like that as a selling point.

Then I thought, a long shot I agree, that maybe Erie wanted to advertise Anchracite coal (Blue Coal) like the Reading did.

So unless someone comes up with another theory it looks like I am going to live with the colour instead of repainting them and tell my operators either the truth or make up a story! I think I will tell them the truth and tone the colour down by weathering. For the price I paid I am happy with the cars and I needed more hoppers they will be made welcome to the Y.V.RR and who wants to look at a sea of black hoppers in their yards all the time!

Thanks everyone. Roo.

 

It is possible that they were dedicated to carrying anthracite.  Anthracite or hard coal was colored blue to distinguish it from bituminous or soft coal.  Anthracite was used to fuel home furnaces because it produced much less smoke.

But that is a lot of blue!  The PRR added a yellow dot to some of its hoppers that it operated in a unit train,

Jan

Well someone has another set for sale on ebay. I can't find the ebay number as this person doesn't ship to Australia .

He wants a lot more than I paid for mine all I wanted was another set of Erie hoppers I didn't know I would be still talking about how gorgeous or a rarity they are, (his words not mine). Mine will be running Coke to the Steel Mill I don't care what colour they are and the boxes are in the trash bin. Roo.

MTH Premier 20-90140 Erie 6-Car 2-Bay Offset Hopper Car Set, MINT NIB

Speaking of apocryphal hoppers, when I was first changing from semi scale to scale offerings, I came upon mth PRR offset 2 bay hoppers.  Almost bought them as they looked cool, but they were not accurate for PRR. So I waited and bought Atlas gla 2 bay hoppers.  But those Erie hoppers are kind of cool so unless you want to be accurate as far as type of hopper and colors, why not?  It's your rr. 

Yesterday we had a running session and the blokes liked them of course at the moment they are not in use they haven't been converted to 2-Rail that will have to wait till next week.

On Thursday I had six grandchildren Looking/running trains after 2 hours I had to stop everything I was a nervous wreck and the system was completely mixed up with cars and locos everywhere the operators yesterday thought it was funny and laughed about it I did to. You have to let the kids play sometimes.I should have taken a photo but was to busy watching for accidents.

Thanks everyone for responding to this thread I would make an offer on the second set of hoppers on ebay but he wants to much for them.

Roo.

Funny thing is the Huber "Blue Coal" colliery (breaker) in Ashley PA was served by the CNJ.

I too have seen end panels painted on hoppers to indicate cars in dedicated service or to indicate rotary coupler end but never any in light baby blue.

And as folks have indicated the notched end or peaked end cars ("heap shields") really weren't favored by northeastern coal roads, whether anthracite or bituminous.

Me, I'd shoot the ends with some Scalecoat II black paint and weather them and no one would be to the wiser 

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OGR Publishing, Inc., 1310 Eastside Centre Ct, Ste 6, Mountain Home, AR 72653
800-980-OGRR (6477)
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