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Bluford Shops - 62043 - Open Hopper, 2-Bay, USRA 55 Ton Panel Side - Rock Island - 89976, 89923, 89950

One  of these sold for an average price of: 67.9967.99One of these sold for an average price of: 67.99
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N Scale - Bluford Shops - 62043 - Open Hopper, 2-Bay, USRA 55 Ton Panel Side - Rock Island - 89976, 89923, 89950 Image Courtesy of Bluford Shops
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Stock Number62043
Original Retail Price$71.85
BrandBluford Shops
ManufacturerBluford
Body StyleBluford Open Hopper 2-Bay Panel Side
Image Provider's WebsiteLink
Prototype VehicleOpen Hopper, 2-Bay, USRA 55 Ton Panel Side (Details)
Road or Company NameRock Island (Details)
Reporting MarksRI
Road or Reporting Number89976, 89923, 89950
Paint Color(s)Red with White Lettering
Coupler TypeGeneric Magnetic Knuckle
Wheel TypeChemically Blackened Metal
Wheel ProfileSmall Flange (Low Profile)
MultipackYes
Multipack Count3
Multipack ID Number62043
Announcement Date2015-11-01
Release Date2016-09-01
Item CategoryRolling Stock (Freight)
Model TypeOpen Hopper
Model Subtype2-Bay
Model VarietyPanel Side
Prototype RegionNorth America
Prototype EraNA Era III: Transition (1939 - 1957)
Scale1/160



Specific Item Information: Rock Island picked up 105 of these panel side hoppers secondhand during the 1950s. This was a hopeful era for Rock Island. The troubled re-organization during the 1940s was behind them and the endless, convoluted, and ultimately pointless merger discussions and the bankruptcy that followed were still unseen over the horizon.
Model Information: These ready-to-run N scale models will 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. Many of these hoppers were rebuilt between 1930 and 1970 with panel sides to increase capacity. Principally used for rebuilding, the concept of raised panel sides was originally developed out of a need to provide parts to repair heavily used and rusted hoppers and increase capacity at the same time.
Road Name History:
The Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad (CRI&P RR) (reporting marks RI, ROCK) was a Class I railroad in the United States. It was better known as the Rock Island Line, or, in its final years, The Rock. At the end of 1970 it operated 7183 miles of road on 10669 miles of track; that year it reported 20557 million ton-miles of revenue freight and 118 million passenger-miles. (Those totals may or may not include the former Burlington-Rock Island Railroad.)

Its predecessor, the Rock Island and La Salle Railroad Company, was incorporated in Illinois on February 27, 1847, and an amended charter was approved on February 7, 1851, as the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad. Construction began October 1, 1851, in Chicago, and the first train was operated on October 10, 1852, between Chicago and Joliet. Construction continued on through La Salle, and Rock Island was reached on February 22, 1854, becoming the first railroad to connect Chicago with the Mississippi River.

In 1980 Rock Island was liquidated. The railroad's locomotives, rail cars, equipment, tracks, and real estate were sold to other railroads or to scrappers. William Gibbons (the trustee) was able to raise more than $500 million in the liquidation, paying off all the railroad's creditors, bondholders and all other debts in full at face value with interest. Henry Crown was ultimately proven correct, as both he and other bondholders who had purchased Rock Island debt for cents on the dollar during the low ebb in prices did especially well.

Read more on Wikipedia and Rock Island Technical Society.
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: George on 2016-08-19 19:28:50. Last edited by gdm on 2018-01-24 07:41:37

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