Lion Scale 2 bay wood chip hoppers question

No - well, I never ordered any. I was going to order the GM&O version (the GM&O had a bunch of these), but they were shown in a dark red color - totally incorrect for the GM&O's black prototypes - and I e-mailed Lionel about this (I sent a photo). I got a nice thank-you response which said that they would update their paint plans. 

Saw nothing else about them and eventually forgot about it.

If the GM&O's show up at all, and they are not proper black, I will not be getting any. 

Charles Ro shows an expected availability on 5/10/2019, but that date has been moving back periodically. The 10th of May is coming up soon, so I expect to see another extension any day.

I got this pic off of the internet, which looks dark brown and not black, but I am no GM&O expert by any means.

We have them on order from Lionel, and nothing yet.    Have a few Weaver ones still in stock  SP, old NS, UP. 

Charlie who?    Just kidding.       

The GULF, MOBILE & OHIO wood chip hoppers that were black were also 4 bay and 5 bay cars , not 2-bay cars. 

falconservice posted:

The GULF, MOBILE & OHIO wood chip hoppers that were black were also 4 bay and 5 bay cars , not 2-bay cars. 

Black, yes - but there were 2-bays in various types. Wood chip hoppers, which carry a relatively light load per the volume, were often older, re-purposed equipment.

This one does not fit the Weaver/Lion Scale prototype, but some GM&O chip hoppers did more closely.

Not a great scan, but I lost the wrestling match:

TM Terry posted:

Charles Ro shows an expected availability on 5/10/2019, but that date has been moving back periodically. The 10th of May is coming up soon, so I expect to see another extension any day.

I got this pic off of the internet, which looks dark brown and not black, but I am no GM&O expert by any means.

That looks like a model, check out the KD couplers trip pin.

PRRMP54 posted:

TM Terry posted:

Charles Ro shows an expected availability on 5/10/2019, but that date has been moving back periodically. The 10th of May is coming up soon, so I expect to see another extension any day.

I got this pic off of the internet, which looks dark brown and not black, but I am no GM&O expert by any means.

That looks like a model, check out the KD couplers trip pin.

It sure does. Thanks for pointing that out. 

But must say it is a very nice model.

Which now leads me to wonder why someone would do such nice work to look phenomenally realistic and it not be close to accurate coloring.

The Weaver wood chip cars were very successful. The first generation started life as kits in the 90's I think. There are so many variations of wood chip cars, from box cars with the roof cut out, to gondolas, and specially made cars. Wood chip service became popular in the 60's. The Southern car is MTH, and the composite is Weaver for comparison. The Southern car was built for wood chip service.

What catalog number is the Lion Scale 2-bay Wood Chip Hopper?

LionScale Woodchip Hoppers

• Portland Terminal #3-17290
• Chessie #3-17300
• GM&O #3-17310
• Western Maryland #3-17320

D500 posted:

Black, yes - but there were 2-bays in various types. Wood chip hoppers, which carry a relatively light load per the volume, were often older, re-purposed equipment.

This one does not fit the Weaver/Lion Scale prototype, but some GM&O chip hoppers did more closely.

Not a great scan, but I lost the wrestling match:

 

This one shows traces of red under all of the grime. Look at the ends and the ribs.

rail posted:

The Weaver wood chip cars were very successful. The first generation started life as kits in the 90's I think.

They were first released in the mid 1980s. I was still living in Baltimore and remember as I and a friend bought a few and did not add the side/end "extensions" so we could use them as two-bay hoppers. The Weaver wood chip car was a regular two-bay rib-side hopper with rib-side extensions glued onto the top of the regular hopper sides. Now I think that I should have saved the non-used extensions to make some shorty traction gondolas.

TM TERRY, those were shown in a catalog a while back. The only ones that came out were the one done for the LCCA and the Crayola hopper. I just can't figure out why they could do those two and not run the others with it at that time. Paul 2

paul 2 posted:

TM TERRY, those were shown in a catalog a while back. The only ones that came out were the one done for the LCCA and the Crayola hopper. I just can't figure out why they could do those two and not run the others with it at that time. Paul 2

I don't know

Here's pix of the Weaver ones that we still have a few left in stock.   The Lionel ones are the same, just different road names.  The Original Weaver ones were done in the late 1980's, afaik, and they were kits where u had to put on the trucks and couplers (NBD, obviously), but the extended sides came as separate pieces, and u had to glue them on.    I have a few old the old ones built up here, with actual woodchip loads that someone went to all the trouble to do, and about a dozen of the original kits, unbuilt.  I dont put the old kits up for sale cause who would want to have to put them together.

Atlas also did some 40' 3 bay hoppers in woodchip livery.

GM&O's Wood chip hoppers were indeed black.  Both the purpose-built chip cars and the ones converted from older coal hoppers.   I never saw or heard of one painted in brown color.  The model car in the photo may have been weathered to show some rusty color that gives actual cars a brownish tint over the years.  

I have always thought over the years that any creative model company would have been smart to "re-purpose" some of their nice large open hoppers to chip cars.  This could very easily be done by painting the big hoppers as chip cars and adding a tan chip load.  This could be done with the MTH "coke" hoppers, the Weaver big high side coal hoppers (who owns these molds now?) and the Lionel's big O-scale coal hoppers.  Why don't they think of these simple ideas to repurpose nice cars to chip hoppers?   MTH's actual chip car was really a gondola without dump bays or hatches on the underside, and there were very few or any of these cars in the south that I know of.   But many RR's ran lots of chip "hoppers" in many versions.   MTH should re-purpose their very nice high-side coke hoppers to chip hoppers and come out with a whole new car which would probably be popular with us modelers.    

Would love a couple in Maine Central  

BRIAN J, I didn't get into the Weaver wood chip hoppers till after Weaver went out of business. Needless to say they are were hard to find on the secondary market. I did manage to get a few from Beth at PDT. Lionel took their four bay hopper and added an extension on the top to make it a wood chip hopper. They did a few of these which I liked and even had a Katy wood chip hopper in a recent catalog which they canceled. Lionel did get all the american tooling from Weaver which included the two bay hoppers but for some reason it has been a slow process to produce any of the Weaver stuff..........Paul 2

The Lion-Weav 2 bay hoppers are a bit obsolete in detail by todays newer hopper models. The Weavers always looked like a rough kit bashed home made item. They need to have the detail of Lionels GLA's and MTH fish belly cars. Really need a new design like the ones  shown below.

I would probably get a few 1966 versions of MEC's, SCL's and ACL's if they were offered. 

NESMUCK, I was able to find this Weaver MEC wood chip hopper..........Paul 2

Purchased the LCCA car at York last October. Nice looking car.

The Weaver Maine Central woodchip cars were done right before they closed shop, and they sold out quickly.   Weaver also did the ACL's back in the kit days, too, I believe.

Beth Marshall-The Public Delivery Track posted:

 ...snip... I have a few old the old ones built up here, with actual woodchip loads that someone went to all the trouble to do, and about a dozen of the original kits, unbuilt.  I dont put the old kits up for sale cause who would want to have to put them together.

At some point in time Weaver did include a pack of "sawdust" with the kits. A couple of the kits referred to in the below quote had those packs included.

PRRMP54 posted:

They were first released in the mid 1980s. I was still living in Baltimore and remember as I and a friend bought a few and did not add the side/end "extensions" so we could use them as two-bay hoppers. The Weaver wood chip car was a regular two-bay rib-side hopper with rib-side extensions glued onto the top of the regular hopper sides. Now I think that I should have saved the non-used extensions to make some shorty traction gondolas.

My Weaver GM&O chip hopper. Early dry-brush weathering job; OK, but I use Bragdon's dry pigments now for better and more controllable results. This is the original Weaver lettering and "wood chip load" (real wood!).

I grew up seeing these things; all were black - and all were rusty, which can look brown/red, of course. I didn't see every one, naturally, but I never saw a brown one.

These are nice cars - and got so expensive, even in a no-truck kit form (which this one was when I bought it years ago) that I just refused to pay the price even when they showed up on eBay.