Full Throttle - FT-5006-1 - Open Hopper, 3-Bay, 70 Ton Ribside - Virginian - 2-Pack

Specific Item Information: Road Numbers: VGN 5376 & 5485

Model Information: Not long after the 50-ton, 2-bay hoppers were perfected, and with many improvements in railroad track, springs, trucks, and couplers along with ever more powerful steam locomotives, the want for a bigger, more economical hopper to haul the burgeoning coal industry's product led to the development of the 70-ton hopper. Many variations were tried between the early 1920s and to well after WWII, featuring a diverse number of ribs and panels of assorted sizes. FT has chosen the popular and common 9-panel type for a Z Scale version as it can be more easily adapted to the tiny lettering and data needed for this size. It's a 40-foot car, a swell size for Z, no bigger than the smallest of the steel boxcars!

Prototype History: 70 ton 3-bay rib side hoppers were a common sight on most railroads in the 20th century, These cars were built by most of the major railcar manufacturers as well as by many of the Class I railroads themselves. They were used for non weather sensitive matrial such as coal and were designed to take a beating.

Road Name History: The Virginian Railway (VGN) was conceived early in the 20th century by two men. One was a brilliant civil engineer, coal mining manager, and entrepreneur, William Nelson Page. His partner was millionaire industrialist, Henry Huttleston Rogers. Together, they built a well-engineered railroad that was virtually a "conveyor belt on rails" to transport high quality "smokeless" bituminous coal from southern West Virginia to port on Hampton Roads, near Norfolk, Virginia.

The Virginian Railway Company was formed in Virginia on March 8, 1907 to combine the Deepwater Railway in West Virginia and the Tidewater Railway in Virginia into a single interstate railroad, only a few months after Victoria was incorporated. On April 15, 1907, William Nelson Page became the first president of the new Virginian Railway.

Throughout that profitable 50-year history, the VGN continued to follow the Page-Rogers policy of "paying up front for the best." It became particularly well known for treating its employees and vendors well, another investment that paid rich dividends. The VGN sought (and achieved) best efficiencies in the mountains, rolling piedmont and flat tidewater terrain. The profitable VGN experimented with the finest and largest steam, electric, and diesel locomotives. It was well known for operating the largest and best equipment, and could afford to. It became nicknamed "the richest little railroad in the world."

Norfolk & Western Railway and Virginian Railway merged in 1959.

Brand/Importer Information: Greetings, I'm Will, a Fine Arts graduate of Kutztown University in Pennsylvania who grew up in the Delaware Valley. I worked for 30 years with the Pennsylvania German Folklife Society. For ten years I had a permanent booth, each month showing my "PA Dutch" wares, at the country's largest under-roof Antique Market in Atlanta, GA. When Mom and Dad started to have health issues, I was forced to give up the nomadic life, but during my travels I came to love Z Scale Model Railroading, as I could easily take small layouts with me to the motels and play with my trains in the evenings!
Now that Mom and Dad are gone, and after many years of providing care for my "Pappy" in Florida, I find myself a homebody in the "Sunshine State" with a neat little business, supplying interested Z hobbyists with rolling stock and unique quality products!