Bluford Shops is proud to announce our third new body style in N scale since July. This time we have 2-Bay War Emergency Composite Hoppers. These are the predecessors of the Rebuilt War Emergency Hoppers we announced last month. These cars were built during the Second World War with wood siding and slope sheets at the direction of the War Production Board in hopes of saving as much steel as possible for the war effort. This was especially the case with hoppers that were usually built with copper-bearing steel to resist corrosion. The car sides were built with the Pratt truss design using a combination of vertical and diagonal ribs. A majority were later rebuilt with steel replacing the wood components but some composite cars remained in service into the 1970s.

Chicago Burlington & Quincy built their own fleet of 1,000 War Emergency Composite Hoppers in their Havelock, Nebraska shops in 1944. Much of the fleet received heavy service in 1959 and 1960 but retained their wooden sides. At this point they received this Chinese Red and black paint scheme. Many of these cars were still in service at the time of the Burlington Northern merger. 

Features:

• Fully assembled and ready to run
• Die cast slope sheet-hopper bay-center sill assembly
• Injection molded plastic sides, ends, and hopper doors
• Fully molded brake tank, valve and air lines
• Body mounted brake hose detail
• Load
• Body mounted magnetically operating knuckle couplers
• Close coupling
• Fox Valley Models metal wheels