Did I miss something or is this the first time MT has made a Hopper Topper for their cars???? Would be nice if they started selling that separately....
The only thing I can think of is what SP&S later BN used on their wood chip cars to keep the chips from flying out while in motion. Similar to the mesh covers used on dump trucks today to keep gravel from peppering your windshield.
The Hopper Toppers were Chessie and later Conrail devices that were basically removable hopper roofs. They would fit on the top of an open hopper (think coal hopper) to create a temporary covered hopper. I’m not sure what exactly they carried while covered, but it was probably grain or some kind of dry bulk load. These are not my pictures, I just saved them from the internet. Searching “train hopper topper” will bring them up.
Thanks guys for the pictures, but with the "war on coal" in the 70's-80's-90's, many roads had quite a few hoppers just sitting around. This was a way to keep them earning their pay....Has been done in HO, I hope that MT makes these available as I'm right in that time period....Will make a unique addition to the car fleet..... Gotta keep that grain moving....
The hopper topper was, for the most part, an attempt to utilize open hoppers in grain service during peak demand during harvest. I know Chessie and Conrail had them. I would think other roads at least experimented with them if not operated them. I'm told and have read on the interweb that ICG had their own version but don't quote me on that. I've never seen a photo of an ICG hopper with a topper attached. I'm a CR modeler not ICG so if anyone knows chime in please. Below is a bit of a top down photo from the CRHS website showing the Conrail version. I've seen photos of the CR version at the big grain elevator on the east side of Columbus and could have traveled to the east coast for export on the line I model. So I'd like to see the topper offered separately as well as I've a good many, err..., okay alot! of hoppers already. But there's always room for more if they are not. The idea of converting open hopper, or in this case coal gondolas, is in use today to haul animal feed in the protein gondolas in use and Kato produced. http://conrailphotos.thecrhs.org/Images/CR-491931-Class-H1G
When I worked for Missouri Pacific, they carried grain in coal cars and used a big tarp to cover the grain. Don
Dumb question. If they were carrying coal, how do they clean them to carry grain afterwards. Or they don't?
Railroads used hoses to clean out cars used for different loads and normally that facility was located at certain points on the line. Only one boxcar that I know of was ever used for a single product and that was shipping raw hides for leather tanning. And that was because the hides so messed up the interior that nothing else could be hauled in them so they used older boxcars at the end of their service life. So the same thing would apply to hoppers or gons. Coal today and Sugar Beets next month.
Another commodity specific boxcar I can think of is the Southern Hogshead cars. They were 94 feet long and used for tobacco. End loading auto boxcars seem specific as well. I think most boxcars today are still general purpose, but a lot of other cars are in dedicated service, like tank cars and centerbeam flatcars. With all the regulations today, I think it would be hard to get a general purpose car clean enough to be used in food service. I think the Hopper Topper is more of an exception than a rule.
