VGN hoppers/additional comments

[nw-modeling-list at nwhs.org]

I promised I would post corrections and supplements. 
It’s been about 
a month, so here goes. [although I’m still open to
additional info, 
as I’m sure most of us on this list].  David Thompson
and Ken Miller 
both provided a lot of info on the earlier hoppers,
and I’m just 
putting out what they sent me.  Thanks guys.  

David has also provided a lot more info about the
enigmatic H 11, and 
after he sent me some info I dug up his past postings
on these rare 
cars.  Apprently the bad news is that during the war
these cars were 
rebuilt to a much more conventional appearance, and,
as he says, 
photos in the 5 panel configuration are very rare. 
Since the 
Accurail model is not quite right, you have an excuse
not to have any 
if you’re modeling after 1946.  Or if you want to have
one or two 
that “slipped through the cracks” on the rebuild, and
feel the 
Accurail is close enough or can be modified
sufficiently, it can be 
our little secret. 

David Thompson and John Munson have confirmed what I
hesitated to 
guess at: the H-5 was originally built in the
clamshell version (as 
were the NYC and C&O cars), and later converted.  The
good news is 
that Westerfield makes both versions.

With regard to Bill McClure’s asking for the modeling
articles, at 
his suggestion I picked up two of the H-5 Westerfied
kits, opened 
them, looked at the 50 step instructions, and put the
boxes back into 
the To Be Built locker.


>From Ken Miller:


"H-1 
My diagram book shows the H-1 as 40 ton wooden cars,
29' 6 1/2" over 
couplers, 10' 9 1/4" in height, 1458 cubic foot
capacity 
Inside Dimensions are 25' 7 1/2", 8' 0 1/2" 
They were all off the roster by December 1922,
totaling 250 cars 
Numbers as follows 
8001-8059, June 1905, odd numbers only, total 30 cars
built by 
Western Steel Car and Foundry for Deepwater 
8061-8259, August 1905, odd numbers only, total 100
cars built by 
Western Steel Car and Foundry for Deepwater 
8261-8499, September 1905, odd numbers only, total 120
cars built by 
Western Steel Car and Foundry for Deepwater 

H-2 Cars 
These were all off the roster by 1922 as sold, to whom
I don't know 
and can find no specific record of such 
Inside Dimensions are 30' 9", 8' 9 1/2" 
50 ton composite cars, 33 foot, 1/2 inch over
couplers, 10 foot 1/2 
inch height, 1579 cubic foot capacity 
10001-10389, January 1906, odd numbers only, total 195
cars built by 
Western Steel Car and Foundry for Tidewater 
10391-10499, February 1906, odd numbers only, total 55
cars built by 
Western Steel Car and Foundry for Tidewater 

Hope this helps fill a small gap"


>From David:


"Page 19 of the Nov/Dec. 2005 Arrow has a nice
broadside photo of an 
H-5 in its original configuration, sandwiched between
a pair of H-4s 
in their original skirted clamshell triple hopper
configuration. 

General Arrangement drawing #286-F (March 4, 1943)
shows the H-11 as 
a 7-rib car.  I ordered a copy of the general
arrangement drawing 
from the N&WHS, and it turns out that when Virginian
modernized the H-
11s in 1944 they were rebuilt as conventional 7-rib
cars with power 
brakewheels. This is probably why H-11 photos are so
hard to find; 
they only ran on VGN as four-rib cars for six years.

The H-5 was a copy of the USRA *triple*
hopper, 500 cars #7000-7499 built by Standard Steel
Car in 1924 (and
Virginian got hosed on the price: $2955 per car versus
C&O and NYC
paying around $2500 per car for their USRA triples the
same year).
They had a center clamshell hopper as built, but they
received a
replacement sawtooth hopper during a WW2-era rebuild
program."

So again, thanks to everyone who helped.  Larry Smith
has probably 
given us all we need about the boxcars.  Gons next??  


Frank Bongiovanni