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Bluford Shops - 60501 - Open Hopper, 2-Bay, USRA 55 Ton - Nashville Chattanooga & St. Louis - 47068

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N Scale - Bluford Shops - 60501 - Open Hopper, 2-Bay, USRA 55 Ton - Nashville Chattanooga & St. Louis - 47068 Image Courtesy of Bluford Shops
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Stock Number60501
Original Retail Price$24.95
BrandBluford Shops
ManufacturerBluford
Body StyleBluford Open Hopper 2-Bay USRA
Image Provider's WebsiteLink
Prototype VehicleOpen Hopper, 2-Bay, USRA 55 Ton (Details)
Road or Company NameNashville Chattanooga & St. Louis (Details)
Reporting MarksNC&STL
Road or Reporting Number47068
Paint Color(s)Oxide Red
Print Color(s)White
Coupler TypeGeneric Magnetic Knuckle
Coupler MountBody-Mount
Wheel TypeChemically Blackened Metal
Wheel ProfileSmall Flange (Low Profile)
Release Date2019-01-01
Item CategoryRolling Stock (Freight)
Model TypeOpen Hopper
Model Subtype2-Bay
Model VarietyUSRA
Prototype RegionNorth America
Prototype EraNA Era II: Late Steam (1901 - 1938)
Scale1/160



Model Information: These ready-to-run cars feature: 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; coal load; lever-style hand brake; body mounted magnetically operating knuckle couplers; close coupling; and Fox Valley Models metal wheels.
Prototype History:
The USRA 55-Ton hopper was designed by the United States Railway Administration during World War I as a standardized hopper to be used by all railroads in order to aid the war effort. After WWI many railroads continued to use the USRA 55-Ton hoppers, as well as build many thousands more clones. The USRA hopper was in use on North American railroads from 1918 until the 1970’s
Road Name History:
The NC&St.L (not to be confused with NYC&St.L which is the Nickel Plate Road) dates to 1845. Before 1873 it was called the Nashville & Chattanooga and locals continued to call it “the NC” until the end.

The NC&St.L ran from Memphis east to Nashville, then southeast to Chattanooga and finally Atlanta. There were also important branches to Paducah, Kentucky where they shared ownership of a bridge across the Ohio River with the CB&Q; Columbia, Tennessee; and Huntsville and Gadsden, Alabama (a big steel center.)

In 1879, NC&St.L began buying and leasing lines to reach Evansville, Indiana then west to St. Louis. In a move typical of the era, the L&N bought 55% of NC&St.L’s stock, and transferred those lines to itself. Although operated independently, the NC&St.L would remain under the control of the L&N for the next 78 years.

NC&St.L was the middle link in “the Dixie Route” for passenger trains between Chicago (or St. Louis) and Florida. Trains such as The Dixie Flagler would travel on (from north to south) C&EI, L&N, NC&St.L (from Nashville to Atlanta), Atlanta Birmingham & Coast, Atlantic Coast Line and Florida East Coast. St. Louis trains skipped the C&EI, and some others used Central of Georgia instead of the AB&C.

On the steam front, Consolidations and Mikes handled the freight with Pacific’s and Mountains pulling passengers. Most engines were equipped with Vanderbilt tenders. The only “modern” steam was a fleet of 25 4-8-4’s, the first of that wheel arrangement in the south. NC&St.L called them “Dixies” instead of Northerns. These had semi-Vanderbilt tenders (flat sides that curved inward toward the bottom), smooth boilers, and conical smoke box fronts. The first batch had wide panels on the running boards that were painted yellow. These earned the nickname “Yellow Jackets.”

North of Chattanooga, the NC&St.L crossed the Cumberland Mountains with 2.5% grades. This required pusher service. They had a trio of 2-8-8-2’s for this but often used 2-8-0’s and Mikes. Since there was nowhere to turn power at the summit, the helpers could face in either direction. Picture a long passenger train with a Yellow Jacket on the point. Passenger trains received helpers ONLY on the head end. So a 2-8-2 couples to the front of the Yellow Jacket -nose-to-nose. The Mike then leads the train over the mountains with the Vanderbilt tender leading the way. This happened routinely.

By 1953, NC&St.L had completely dieselized with an all EMD roster. F3’s and F7’s were painted blue and silver with black roofs. Geeps and switchers were painted oxide red with yellow stripes (with the exception of some dual service geeps in blue and silver.) The first batch of GP7’s were delivered with switcher trucks. There is some argument over whether they did this to save money or weight. Later groups came with standard Blomberg trucks. The F’s were used in freight and passenger service although only the B units had steam generators so a passenger train would have at least an A and B no matter how short it was.

During the 50’s, NC&St.L was 1,043 miles long (a bit longer than Lackawanna or Montana Rail Link), had 132 diesels, 106 passenger cars and 6,800 freight cars. In 1957, they were finally merged into parent L&N.
Brand/Importer Information:
Bluford Shops began in 2007 as a side project of two model railroad industry veterans, Craig Ross and Steve Rodgers. They saw a gap between road names available on N scale locomotives but not available on cabooses. They commissioned special runs of Atlas cabooses in Atlantic Coast Line, Central of Georgia, Monon, Boston & Maine and Southern plus runs on Grand Trunk Western and Central Vermont on the MDC wooden cabooses. While these were in process, they began to develop their first all new tooling project, 86' Auto Parts Boxcars in double door and quad door editions in N scale. By January of 2008, Bluford Shops became a full time venture. Along with additional N scale freight cars and their own tooling for new cabooses, they have brought their own caboose line to HO scale. They also have their popular Cornfields in both HO and N. The future looks bright as they continue to develop new products for your railroad.

The town of Bluford in southern Illinois featured a small yard on Illinois Central's Edgewood Cutoff (currently part of CN.) The yard included a roundhouse, concrete coaling tower (which still stands) and large ice house. Reefer trains running between the Gulf Coast and Chicago were re-iced in Bluford. Things are more quiet now in Bluford with the remaining tracks in the yard used to stage hoppers for mines to the south and store covered hoppers. Intersecting the IC line in Bluford is Southern Railway's (currently NS) line between Louisville and St. Louis. Traffic on this single track line remains relatively heavy.
Item created by: CNW400 on 2019-01-18 11:54:18. Last edited by Lethe on 2020-05-09 00:00:00

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