SKU: 116818-FT
Sold Out $33.60
Aluminum first appeared in the Rail Industry as early as 1900. Because of it's light weight, corrosion resistance, and overall durability, by 1931, experiments with all-aluminum hoppers began. The idea was that this metal offered a higher payload capacity...more coal per car for the same gross weight. After WWII, the use of aluminum on Railroads blossomed and as the steel hopper fleets began to wear thin, newer alloys and construction prompted the rise of high-side aluminum gondolas which could be dumped by large revolving mechanisms, thus eliminating gravity-fed hopper doors. Two of the railroads initiating the tests were:
• The Southern Railway (SOU) (1894-1982) was often on the cutting edge of change, covered and serviced nearly the entire southern portion
of the USA with freight and passenger traffic!
• The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad (CBQ) aka: the Burlington, operated on extensive trackage through the mid-west, out to Wyoming,
Colorado and deep into Texas.
Set Includes: