Illinois Central was quite a fan of 3-bay offset side hoppers and continued to build them into the late ‘60s. In 1972, IC merged with the largely parallel Gulf Mobile & Ohio creating Illinois Central Gulf. The combined railroad was immense with 9,500 route miles (about 60 more than Union Pacific during the same period.) Mileage would fall by about 20% as duplicate routes were abandoned over the years. ICG retained the orange and white diesel scheme of IC with “Gulf” added to the name. The IC “split rail” logo was modified with the split closed up and the dot moved over the center of the rail. This paint scheme will be available in six 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 
• Body mounted magnetically operating couplers
• Coal load
• Diecast slope sheets and center sill
• Injection molded plastic sides, ends and hopper doors
• Fox Valley Models metal wheelsets