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.

The Alton Railroad received their 750 War Emergency Composite Hoppers from American Car & Foundry in 1944. The 1,000 mile Alton system linked Chicago with St. Louis and Kansas City. The company was established in 1931 under the control of the B&O to take over the assets of the Chicago & Alton. B&O sold their stake in the Alton in 1945 to the Gulf Mobile & Ohio. The Alton Railroad was merged into the GM&O two years later. 

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