Used MTH 20-90898 Norfolk Southern 4-Bay Hopper (5/6) Car Set w/Box

Description

Used MTH 20-90898 Norfolk Southern 4-Bay Hopper (5/6) Car Set w/Box

This O scale hopper car set is in Excellent Condition from a smoke-free home/collection. There is one missing car (#300338). There are no missing parts. There are minimal minute marks on the shell. The wheels show some runtime. The operating couplers are tested and found to function as intended. This set is stored in its original packaging, and is ready to roll on your layout.

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Original :

This car is likely the last hurrah of the bottom unloading coal hopper. Its prototype was built largely in the 1960s and ’70s, just before the destinations for these cars – mainly utility power plants and harbor side shipping facilities – began switching to rotary unloading. While many of these cars survive in service today, newer coal cars are technically not hoppers at all. With trough-like bottoms and no hopper doors, they’re actually high-sided gondolas designed solely for rotary unloading.

Unlike equipment that carried a variety of loads, like boxcars, flatcars, and gondolas, the “sawtooth” style coal hopper was designed in the late 1800s specifically for one purpose: transporting coal from mines to customers. Its capacity matched the volume of coal that a pair of typical freight trucks could carry. And its slope sheets – the angled floors at either end of the car – were set at precisely the angle at which coal would flow easily from its bottom doors. (Covered grain hoppers, for example, require much steeper slope sheets.)

The earliest steel hoppers were generally 2-bay, 50-ton cars. As truck capacities increased, the 3- and 4-bay 70-ton car became common. Two-bay cars, however, remained ideal for smaller coal dealers serving the home heating market, usually with clean-burning anthracite coal; larger cars generally delivered softer, dirtier burning bituminous coal to industrial clients and the railroads themselves. A revision of axle ratings by the Association of American Railroads (AAR) in 1963 paved the way for 100-ton cars like our model, the final evolution of more than seven decades of coal hopper design.

MTH Premier O Scale freight cars are the perfect complement to any manufacturer’s scale proportioned O Gauge locomotives. Whether you prefer to purchase cars separately or assemble a unit train, MTH Premier Rolling Stock has the cars for you in a variety of car types and paint schemes.

Each car in these sets is individually numbered for authentic realism. And, each set is available in two item numbers. The second item number features an entirely different set of 6 cars, each also individually numbered, allowing you to obtain a total of 12 different numbered cars if desired. When you prefer the convenience of a ready-to-run unit train, M.T.H. Premier Line 6-car sets are a great choice.

Features

    Intricately Detailed Durable ABS Body
    Metal Wheels and Axles
    Die-Cast Sprung Metal 4-Wheel Trucks
    Operating Die-Cast Metal Couplers
    Colorful, Attractive Paint Schemes
    Fast-Angle Wheel Sets
    Needle-Point Axles
    1:48 Scale Dimensions
    O Scale Kadee Compatible Coupler Mounting Pads
    Unit Measures:13 1/4″ x 2 5/8″ x 3″
    Operates On O-31 Curves