Bluford Shops N 74088 Offset Side 70-Ton 3-Bay Hopper, Kansas City Southern #6874

White scheme

70-ton 3-bay offset side hoppers first appeared in the late 1920s and by the late '30s had become an AAR standard design with cars delivered from a number of builders in large quantities. The last of these cars were delivered in the late 1960s and many remained in service through the '80s.

In 1966 Kansas City Southern began to paint their locomotives and some classes of freight cars white. Surprisingly, these hoppers were included. In addition to coal and coke (as depicted in this run) KCS used these hoppers to move sand, gravel, crushed rock (note the load level line across the middle of the car) and even wood chips when they were running short on higher capacity hoppers. Eagle-eyed KCS fans will notice the lettering style of reporting marks and road numbers vary from our recently released KCS white wood chip hoppers. Both are correct. KCS's stencil designs wandered quite a bit particularly in the early white paint era.

Features:
Diecast slope sheet-hopper bay-center sill assembly
Injection molded plastic sides, ends, and hopper doors
Fully molded brake tank, valve and air lines
Slope sheet braces
Separately molded vertical brake rod and lever assembly
Body mounted brake hose detail
"Coal" load except as noted
Body mounted magnetically operating couplers
Close coupling
Friction bearing or roller bearing trucks as appropriate for each road name