While gondolas and hoppers had been around since the early days of railroading. Covered hoppers were a more modern development. They came about to address the need to protect many dry commodities transported by railroads. These range from grains to cement and everything in between. The Pennsylvania Railroad started development of their own covered hoppers in house in the early part of the 20th century. They started by converting open coal hoppers.

The results were promising, but it was clear that conversions were not the answer. While open hoppers could be covered, they were not designed for the new role. In the early 1930's, the PRR developed and began production of their H30 Class 3 bay covered hoppers. Developed by the PRR to address the needs of the shippers they serviced, these cars were bigger than the older conversions, at 1973 cu ft, and could haul more with 70 ton ratings.

The first 100 cars were produced in 1935, and proved so successful that they were produced on and off until 1946 with a total of 1325 cars produced. The basic design served so well that the PRR developed other classes of cars based on it. These cars were very successful and continued on when Penn Central was formed. In fact a number of these cars continued in service into the Conrail era.

Features:

• Fully assembled and ready to run
• Metal wheelsets
• Knuckle couplers
• All cars in this production run will include hopper shakers
  
• Fine scale details
• Accurate painting and printing
• Prototype cars built in 3-46 with a repack in 5-65