Bluford Shops N 63217 2-Bay War Emergency Composite Hopper, Virginian #15903

These 2-Bay War Emergency Composite Hopper cars were built during the Second World War with wood siding and slope sheets at the direction of the War Production Board in hopes of saving as much steel as possible for the war effort. This was especially the case with hoppers that were usually built with copper-bearing steel to resist corrosion. The car sides were built with the Pratt truss design using a combination of vertical and diagonal ribs.

Virginian Railway built this 1,000 car group of hoppers in their Princeton, West Virginia shops in 1944. In 1925, Virginian had bridged the Kanawha River which reversed the flow of many of their coal trains from all eastward to the port at Norfolk to westward to feed the countless factories in the Industrial Midwest.

Features:
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
Removeable load
Body mounted magnetically operating knuckle couplers
Close coupling
Fox Valley Models metal wheels