One of the very first products carried by railroads was coal. And ever since, there has been a continual developed of cars to carry it. Starting with gondolas and progressing to open hoppers, these cars has grown larger with bigger capacities as time has passed. Today, both types of cars are in common use. And while coal is in decline globally, coal transport by rail is still a common site across North America.

One of the most common coal gondolas, the  Coalporter was developed by Bethlehem in 1978  to provide a higher-capacity, more efficient coal car. The cars feature twin tubs troughs that sit below the frame between the trucks. These increase capacity while providing  a lower center of gravity for better tracking. As gondolas, Coalporters do not have discharge chutes, so they must unloaded using rotary dumpers that tip the cars over. To allow this to occur quickly without uncoupling individual cars, each car is equipped with a special rotary coupler on one end. Double rotary coupler cars can also be used.

Coalporters were originally produced with steel bodies, but with a drop in aluminum prices in the 1980’s, an aluminum bodied version was introduced in 1985. The use aluminum lowered the car weight by five tons. This allowed each car to carry five more tons of coal, and over the number of cars in a unit train, this was a big addition without additional rolling stock. Most eastern railroads were reluctant to use the new aluminum cars at first, so they were more commonly seen in the west early on.

As time passed, both CSX and Norfolk Southern began to use aluminum Coalporters, leaving Conrail as the last major purchaser of the steel version. Norfolk Southern also rebuilt thousands of older steel coal cars in their “Top Gon” program and it is common to see these cars together.

The Coalporter has proved to be an incredibly popular car, with the 50,000th car being delivered in 1998. Bethlehem Steel Car eventually became  Johnstown-America Corp. and then FreightCar America, but the Coalporter had endured the changes. Today, a updated BethGon II version of the Coalporter remains in production.

Features:

• Sharp painting and lettering
• Prototype acurate paint schemes
• Operating couplers
• Intermountain metal wheelsets
• The single car is a double rotary depending on the prototype