Monon (CI&L) offset side hoppers. The Chicago Indianapolis & Louisville was better known as the Monon. The CI&L formed an X over the state of Indiana with Chicago and Indianapolis for one leg and Michigan City and Louisville forming the other leg. The two lines crossed in the small city of Monon - thus the nickname. The route from Chicago through Monon to Louisville saw the lion’s share of the traffic by serving as an important bridge for railroads of the South to reach Chicago. In addition to large amounts of coal received from their connections, CI&L also served large mines on their
own line in Southern Indiana. This group of hoppers is presented in their “as delivered” paint scheme with C.I.L. reporting marks and small MONON in the center. In 1956, CI&L changed their proper name to Monon Railroad and the C&IL reporting marks were gradually replaced with MON reporting marks (and larger MONON lettering as presented on our previous Monon run released in January of 2011. See the “Past Releases” section of our web site for details.) In 1967, the Monon was seriously outflanked when their most important connection in Louisville, the L&N, divided up the Chicago
& Eastern Illinois with the MoPac. This allowed L&N to bypass the Monon to Chicago. Monon then suggested a merger with Southern but Southern preferred to hand over traffic at Cincinnati rather than Louisville. Ironically, L&N suggested a merger. They considered Monon a back up route anyway and they coveted Monon’s shares of terminal roads in Chicago and Louisville. The deal was closed in 1971 and Monon became a fallen flag. This run will be available in 6 road numbers. 

Features:

• Fully molded air tank and valve with piping, slope sheet braces
• Body mounted brake hose detail
• Separate brake cylinder, rod and lever detail (a first on an N scale open hopper!)
• Body mounted magnetically operating couplers
• Coal load
• Diecast slope sheets and center sill
• Injection molded plastic sides, ends and hopper doors