Coal Hoppers

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C

Chemdawg

Member
I just recently purchased a Specktrum 2-10-2 USRA light loco with DCC and sound..... I got it for a really good deal from online.

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http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/products.php?act=viewProd&productId=1885

That is the one I purchased in the link.

Anyways, I did some research on this particular loco, and I found that it was used during the WW1 time frame for coal pulls, and whatnot. I need to purchase some rolling stock to go with this. I've been digging around, and cannot seem to locate the cars for that time frame/Railroad. If someone could post some links with cars that would fit with this railroad, and time frame, I would HIGHLY appreciate it.

Just to make everyone aware, I am building my own layout to my own liking. I'm not modeling anything in particular. I love collecting the Locos and cars, and I just enjoy operating them. So my layout does NOT have to be specific to one era. However it would look MUCH cooler if the cars being pulled fit the time era of the loco, and from the same railroad...... If possible.

Thanks in advance for the help.
 
The 2-10-2's were used from WW1 until the end of steam in the 1950's, so any steel car would be appropriate. Actually any commercially available car that has a built date before 1955 would work.

The real question is, what road name did you buy? If you bought a SP, ATSF, UP engine then it won't be pulling hoppers. The coal train will be drop bottom gondolas.

If its a PRR engine it will be pulling Bowser H21 quad hoppers. If its a B&O it will be pulling Athearn quads and steel twin hoppers.

Anybody else steel twin hoppers.

Virtually every twin hopper made would be era appropriate.
 


Good info so far. Your loco was often used in drag freight service. they were good pullers just not very fast. During war time they would repair the steel coal cars and often replace the steel sides with wood sides. This was to save the steel for building trucks,locos,tanks wepons etc... Dependning on your era and railroad you will see all sorts of coal cars being used. I think the most common car you would see on the east/midwest would be a 2 bay coal car. wood or steel sides. you cant be 100% prototipical because alot of railroads back then had their own car designs. some of the same class of cars would have had diffrent upgrades done at diffrent times. you might have seen wooden side cars next to steel sides.
 
Technically the "wood sided" hopper cars are called composite cars (both wood and steel. They were not cars repaired with wood, but cars built during WW2, 1942-1944, with steel structure and wood sides. Both hoppers and gons were built. They were generically called "war emergency cars". Later they were rebuilt with steel sides.

While 2-10-2's hauled a lot of coal, they hauled virtually every other type of freight too. Because they tended to be slow engines (45 mph or less) they were on the priority freights. If a railroad had a choice of a 2-10-2 or a 4-8-2 to put on the perishable hot shot, they would probably assign the 4-8-2 because it had a higher speed.
 
Agreed, the 2-10-2 was an early large steamer, and they tended to have smaller drivers intended for maximum start-up torgue and then maximum sustained tractive effort in either drag or helper service. While they hauled coal, they also hauled ore, concentrates, metal ingots, grain, cotton, corn and other silage, and other commodities and goods. Time-sensitive goods, such as meat, fruit, and silk, the latter of which was wildly popular with the ladies back just around WW1, had to be moved along smartly. They would have been behind faster moving Mikado 2-8-2 or the Mountain type, but also behind higher stepping Pacifics with reefers at the head end with passenger cars trailing.
 
Thanks for all the info. Although I'm not building my railroad to any prototype, I would still like the loco's to be pulling time era correct cars. My only problem now is I'm not sure what this loco is as far as railroad goes. It says Southern on it. What does that mean?

Does this literally mean that the railroad is this here:

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Railway_(U.S.)

Or are there multiple railroads that are "Southern"

This is rather important so I know which cars to buy.

Thanks again for the info.
 
You are correct. That looks very similar. And after doing some digging, your right about it being SR. Only problem I'm having now is finding cars with their logo.....
 
I believe these are what I'm looking for here. However, I don't believe they have any that go with the Southern Railroad.

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http://www.modeltraincrossing.com/187-800.htm

I found this article where they talk about the Southern Railway a bit. I guess it was owned several times and was abandoned in the 50's as the Southern Railway.

Code: 
http://www.harpswitch.com/durhamrail.htm
 


Chemdawg said:
I believe these are what I'm looking for here. However, I don't believe they have any that go with the Southern Railroad.

Code: 
http://www.modeltraincrossing.com/187-800.htm
Click to expand...
Those are N&W cars, but could have been made it onto the Southern. The Southern owned 34 ft rib side twin hoppers.

I found this article where they talk about the Southern Railway a bit. I guess it was owned several times and was abandoned in the 50's as the Southern Railway.

Code: 
http://www.harpswitch.com/durhamrail.htm
Click to expand...

Actually the Southern was a major railroad in the southern US, one of the last that operated its own passenger service, was very profitable, was considered a first class operation and lasted until it merged with the N&W to form the Norfolk Southern in 1982.
 
So would it be correct to use N&W coal cars in the site I posted with a 2-10-2 steamer that is Southern? From the information I got from the included instructions that came with my loco, the 2-10-2 came with different valve gear (Walschaert or Southern) and the Trailing Truck was different between them (Delta or USRA)........

I don't wanna spend money to buy 10 or 12 of the coal hoppers, and have someone come check out my stuff and say "Dude why are you pulling those hoppers from (whatever name) when your loco says Southern". Know what I mean?
 
Southerns 2-10-2's were mostly used on the Saluda grade as helpers and pushers. SRR had a few variations from USRA and similar designs.

ANY freight consist from the 1920's through the early 1950's would be correct.
SRR didn't just pull their own road named cars but any roads.
They would have used a SRR caboose though.
Empty hoppers may have come from C&O, ACL, N&W, VGN, B&O, CoG, PRR, or even NYC!
Remember, they still have to return the empties.

Because the grade was so severe, 2-10-2's would be prototypical for the engine to be just pulling 25-35 freight cars.

The SRR didn't have dog houses on tenders very much so feel free to remove it.

The USRA 2-10-2's and 2-8-2's would generally have the same speed designed into the locos just by driver diameter, boiler pressure and bore and stroke.
The speed restrictions usually had to do with curvature and grades, as it was general practice to load down any steam loco to near capacity for cost savings to the railroad.
The USRA 2-10-2's had mostly Southern Valve gear, and none had Delta trailing trucks as built.

I have 1 Bachmann 2-10-2 and two Bowser 2-10-2's and even though the plastic one has nice detail, the Bowsers, with similar added details look almost as good, and will pull everything.
My two Bowser PRR 2-10-0's, based on the same mechanics can pull 50 hoppers up a 3 percent grade each!!!!!!
I added Helix Humper after market remotor kits for the Bowsers which give them great smooth slow speed and quiet higher speeds.
 
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I went to the Cederburg WI swap meet today, and found a gold mine. I picked up 8 accurail kits. USRA 55 Ton Hoppers. They are dated in service from 1918 till something.... Not sure. The guy told me, and I forgot. He had 8 of them avail in Oxide color. So I'm going to pull out the airbrush, and work on them. Replace the wheels and couplers, and build my own coal loads to go in them.

I also picked up one pre-weathered hopper that was from what I wanted. A guy was selling a TON of his own stock and I bought this one from him. I also purchased TWO hand made cabooses that were wood sides from the same era that he built for his own made up railroad. NICE....

This is an EXCELENT start to this project.
 
Y3a said:
The SRR didn't have dog houses on tenders very much so feel free to remove it.
Click to expand...

This is incorrect. The SRR had doghouses on many of their heavy freight locos. This was for the headend brakeman to have a place to ride without having to either ride in the way of the crew, or out in the weather. It was particularily common place on the Mikes (2-8-2) and many of the Santa fe's (2-10-2), particularly those 2-10-2's in helper service. Richard Prince's book on the Southern has many pics of locos with doghouses. A few of the pictures also show the same loco with and without doghouses on the tender. I have brass models of both the Ss and the Ss-1 2-10-2's. One has a doghouse and the other doesn't.

The best way to handle it would be to find a picture of the prototype and go from there.
 
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