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Bluford Shops - 62023 - Open Hopper, 2-Bay, USRA 55 Ton Panel Side - Missouri Pacific - 58645, 58518, 58711

One  of these sold for an average price of: 67.9967.99One of these sold for an average price of: 67.99
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N Scale - Bluford Shops - 62023 - Open Hopper, 2-Bay, USRA 55 Ton Panel Side - Missouri Pacific - 58645, 58518, 58711 Image Courtesy of Bluford Shops
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Stock Number62023
Original Retail Price$71.85
BrandBluford Shops
ManufacturerBluford
Body StyleBluford Open Hopper 2-Bay Panel Side
Image Provider's WebsiteLink
Prototype VehicleOpen Hopper, 2-Bay, USRA 55 Ton Panel Side (Details)
Road or Company NameMissouri Pacific (Details)
Reporting MarksMP
Road or Reporting Number58645, 58518, 58711
Paint Color(s)Black with White Lettering
Coupler TypeGeneric Magnetic Knuckle
Wheel TypeChemically Blackened Metal
Wheel ProfileSmall Flange (Low Profile)
MultipackYes
Multipack Count3
Multipack ID Number62023
Announcement Date2015-11-01
Release Date2016-09-01
Item CategoryRolling Stock (Freight)
Model TypeOpen Hopper
Model Subtype2-Bay
Model VarietyPanel Side
Prototype RegionNorth America
Prototype EraNA Era III: Transition (1939 - 1957)
Scale1/160



Specific Item Information: Missouri Pacific rebuilt 425 of their hoppers with panel sides before the start of the Second World War. If you weren’t from the region, you might think MP would not be much of a coal hauler. In fact, MP moved considerable amounts of coal from Illinois, Missouri, Texas and Colorado had maintained a fleet of many thousands of hopper cars.
Model Information: These ready-to-run N scale models will feature: die cast slope sheet-hopper bay-center sill assembly; injection molded plastic sides, ends, and hopper doors; fully molded brake tank, valve and air lines; body mounted brake hose detail; coal load; lever-style hand brake; body mounted magnetically operating knuckle couplers; close coupling; and Fox Valley Models metal wheels.
Prototype History:
The USRA 55-Ton hopper was designed by the United States Railway Administration during World War I as a standardized hopper to be used by all railroads in order to aid the war effort. After WWI many railroads continued to use the USRA 55-Ton hoppers, as well as build many thousands more clones. The USRA hopper was in use on North American railroads from 1918 until the 1970’s. Many of these hoppers were rebuilt between 1930 and 1970 with panel sides to increase capacity. Principally used for rebuilding, the concept of raised panel sides was originally developed out of a need to provide parts to repair heavily used and rusted hoppers and increase capacity at the same time.
Road Name History:
The Missouri Pacific Railroad (reporting mark MP), commonly abbreviated MoPac, with nickname of The Mop, was one of the first railroads in the United States west of the Mississippi River. MoPac was a Class I railroad growing from dozens of predecessors and mergers, including the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway (SLIMS), Texas and Pacific Railway (TP), Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad (C&EI), St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railway (SLBM), Kansas, Oklahoma and Gulf Railway (KO&G), Midland Valley Railroad (MV), San Antonio, Uvalde and Gulf Railroad (SAU&G), Gulf Coast Lines (GC), International-Great Northern Railroad (IGN), New Orleans, Texas and Mexico Railway (NOTM), Missouri-Illinois Railroad (MI), as well as the small Central Branch Railway (an early predecessor of MP in Kansas and south central Nebraska), and joint ventures such as the Alton and Southern Railroad (AS).

In 1967, the railroad operated 9,041 miles of road and 13,318 miles of track, not including DK&S, NO&LC, T&P and its subsidiaries, C&EI and Missouri-Illinois.

On January 8, 1980, the Union Pacific Railroad agreed to buy the Missouri Pacific Railroad. Lawsuits filed by competing railroads delayed approval of the merger until September 13, 1982. After the Supreme Court denied a trial to the Southern Pacific, the merger took effect on December 22, 1982. However, due to outstanding bonds of the Missouri Pacific, the merger with Union Pacific become official only on January 1, 1997.

Read more on Wikipedia.
Brand/Importer Information:
Bluford Shops began in 2007 as a side project of two model railroad industry veterans, Craig Ross and Steve Rodgers. They saw a gap between road names available on N scale locomotives but not available on cabooses. They commissioned special runs of Atlas cabooses in Atlantic Coast Line, Central of Georgia, Monon, Boston & Maine and Southern plus runs on Grand Trunk Western and Central Vermont on the MDC wooden cabooses. While these were in process, they began to develop their first all new tooling project, 86' Auto Parts Boxcars in double door and quad door editions in N scale. By January of 2008, Bluford Shops became a full time venture. Along with additional N scale freight cars and their own tooling for new cabooses, they have brought their own caboose line to HO scale. They also have their popular Cornfields in both HO and N. The future looks bright as they continue to develop new products for your railroad.

The town of Bluford in southern Illinois featured a small yard on Illinois Central's Edgewood Cutoff (currently part of CN.) The yard included a roundhouse, concrete coaling tower (which still stands) and large ice house. Reefer trains running between the Gulf Coast and Chicago were re-iced in Bluford. Things are more quiet now in Bluford with the remaining tracks in the yard used to stage hoppers for mines to the south and store covered hoppers. Intersecting the IC line in Bluford is Southern Railway's (currently NS) line between Louisville and St. Louis. Traffic on this single track line remains relatively heavy.
Item created by: George on 2016-08-19 19:23:13. Last edited by gdm on 2018-01-24 07:41:37

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