N Hobby Distributing - BST4-00528 - Covered Hopper, 4-Bay, ACF Centerflow - Louisiana Pacific - 99653

Prototype History: Contemporary 2-bay covered hoppers, like ACF's Centerflows, were 100-ton cars designed to haul dense loads, like cement. Their larger 3 and 4-bay brethren, while usually still having 100 ton capacities, were designed for lighter-density loads, like grain or flour. Their sizes had to do with the fact that a low-density product like grain will "cube out" the cubic capacity of a smaller 2-bay car way before you hit the cars' tonnage rating. Conversely, load a 3 or 4-bay covered hopper to its cubic maximum with a dense product like cement, and you'll wind up with a seriously overloaded car tonnage wise. In short, keep the smaller 2-bay cars for heavy commodities, and keep the larger cars for lighter loads like grains, sugar, flour, etc.

Road Name History: The Louisiana & Pacific Railway was incorporated in Louisiana on June 6, 1904 with an authorized capital stock of $200,000, and was controlled by the R. A. Long interests of Kansas City, MO. All of the tracks of the Louisiana & Pacific were originally constructed as logging roads.

With the lumber mills of the Long-Bell Lumber Company closing down and with the agreement between the Louisiana & Pacific and the Lake Charles & Northern coming to an end on October 31, 1926, the railroad applied to the I. C. C. on October 11, 1926 for permission to abandon operation over the Lake Charles & Northern between De Ridder and Lake Charles and to abandon its connecting tracks at De Ridder and Lake Charles, amounting to 1.1 miles. Permission was granted on October 30, 1926, after which the Louisiana & Pacific went out of existence.

Brand/Importer Information: N Hobby Distributing (NHD) was based at 24 York Towne Drive, Englishtown, NJ 07726.

Manufacturer Information: 'Atlas Model Railroad' represents the New Jersey manufacturing facility for Atlas brand model railroad products. Atlas also imported European made models in their early years and those items will be noted as having manufacturers set appropriately. In the 1990s Atlas moved all their toolings to China.