HO - 70 Ton 2-Bay Closed Side Covered Hopper Kits
In the 1930's ACF introduced a new covered
hopper which would allow bulk shipments of dry materials. Previously these
were packaged and resulted in hand loading and unloading. These commodities
included cement dry chemicals, flour, grain. sand, sugar and many others. The
first cars where shipped in October 1936 and had a capacity of 1958 cubic
feet. These where soon to become a railroad standard and received AAR
designation "LO". They were 35' 3" in length had 2 bays with 4
discharge openings, 8 square roof hatches and 70 ton weight capacity. Through
the years they were copied by several other manufacturers with very few
visible changes. In time many railroad purchased or leased these cars,
including roads such as ACL, C&O, CB&Q, Clinchfield, DT&I Erie,
Great Northern, Nickel Plate Road, N&W, Santa Fe and many others. Many
private owner cars also existed. Between 1936 and 1957 more than 21,000 of the
ACF designed cars were built some of which still can be found in company
service on various roads.
List of car numbers used: click here!
