Full Throttle - FT-5010-1 - Open Hopper, 3-Bay, 70 Ton Ribside - Wheeling & Lake Erie - 2-Pack

Specific Item Information: Road Numbers: WE 2027 & 2038

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 Wheeling and Lake Erie Railway (reporting mark WLE) was a Class I railroad mostly within the U.S. state of Ohio. It was leased to the New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad (Nickel Plate Road) in 1949, and merged into the Norfolk and Western Railway in 1988. A new regional railroad reused the Wheeling and Lake Erie Railway name in 1990 when it acquired most of the former W&LE from the N&W.

At the end of 1944, W&LE operated 507 miles of road and 1003 miles of track; that year it reported 2371 million net ton-miles of revenue freight and 0.002 million passenger-miles.

The current Wheeling and Lake Erie Railway (reporting mark WE) is a Class II regional railroad that provides freight service, mainly in the U.S. state of Ohio. It took its name from the former Wheeling and Lake Erie Railway, most of which it bought from the Norfolk and Western Railway in 1990.

Read more on Wikipedia.

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!