SLSF 90000-92899 mulitple series two-bay hoppers

Discussion in 'Hopper Cars' started by meteor910, Sep 7, 2013.

  1. meteor910

    meteor910 2009 Engineer of the Year Staff Member Frisco.org Supporter

    It isn't often that we get a good view of the internals of an empty hopper car. I ran across these pics in my files today.

    The SLSF 91600-92099 cars were built by Pullman Standard in 1953, the follow-up SLSF 92100-92399 cars built by P-S in 1954. The Frisco had a lot of these popular 2-bay, offset side hoppers. In HO, the Athearn, Accurail and Atlas cars are good models of these, probably several others as well in HO, and also in N. There were several from an earlier series as well.

    Anyway - here are two Pullman Standard builders pics of SLSF 91735, the second one showing the interior bracings in the car. If you run any of these hoppers empty, you might want to add more of the side bracing detail as an added feature of the model.

    FYI, thought these might be of interest. I've attached the Frisco car diagram also. Ajax brake wheel and, as usual for the SLSF in the 1950's, ASF A-3 "Ride Control" trucks, regular bearings.

    Ken
     

    Attached Files:

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  2. Oldguy

    Oldguy Member Frisco.org Supporter

    Re: SLSF 91600-92099, 92100-92399 series two-bay hoppers

    Great stuff!
     
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  3. klrwhizkid

    klrwhizkid Administrator Staff Member Administrator Frisco.org Supporter

    Re: SLSF 91600-92099, 92100-92399 series two-bay hoppers

    Ken, thanks for posting all three of these. I have a raft of these in the Athearn version that were given to me by the Brand family when their family layout had to be dismantled. They will be busy in limestone gravel service from Federal Materials in Cape Girardeau.
     
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  4. meteor910

    meteor910 2009 Engineer of the Year Staff Member Frisco.org Supporter

    Re: SLSF 91600-92099, 92100-92399 series two-bay hoppers

    Glad this kind of information is of value! I love this detail stuff - I have assembled a large collection of SLSF freight car diagrams and pics, and love to refer to them. The devil is in the details, and the Frisco always gives us a workout on the details!

    Given that Keith and, no doubt many others in frisco.org, own and run a bunch of Frisco 34 ft 2-bay offset side AAR hoppers ..... the Frisco obviously liked them a lot ..... here are four more car diagrams to cover the earlier, and later, car number series of what is essentially, with one big exception, pretty much the same car as I posted info on above. Anyone who has questions, just ask. BTW, the RPCyc series (now up to Volume 26!), authored by friends Pat Wider and Ed Hawkins, has published a bunch of excellent articles on these hopper cars, and is a great reference.

    - SLSF 90000-90499, built 1948 by Pullman-Standard. These, like all the others, rode on ASF A-3 trucks, used Ajax brake wheels and Enterprise door locks. But, this series was an exception in that they had peaked hopper end sheets. This was done in an attempt to get more capacity. Apparently the Frisco didn't think it was worth it, as none of the following cars had peaked ends.
    - SLSF 90500-90799, built 1948 by Mt. Vernon Car
    - SLSF 90800-91599, built 1949 by Pullman-Standard
    - SLSF 91600-92099 & SLSF 92100-92399 ..... info posted earlier, see posting above
    - SLSF 92400-92899, built 1957 by Pullman-Standard.

    Also included are pics of SLSF 90249, a builder pic clearly showing the peaked ends, and SLSF 91223, taken by me in Rolla while I was at MSM, and SLSF 92462, a builder pic from the final series. Note that the décor of the cars did vary - was it red oxide, box car red, or black color, and did it carry a white outline Frisco coonskin logo, or one with a black background? Only a pic of the car you are modeling will answer these questions!

    Enjoy!

    Ken
     

    Attached Files:

    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 8, 2013
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  5. tmfrisco

    tmfrisco Member Frisco.org Supporter

    Ken, this is so timely for me because I am involved in renumbering all of my 91736 Athearn two bay hopper cars. Unfortunately, Athearn misnumbered their peaked ends cars as your roster number and photo (91735) clearly shows. I thought I was going to have to change only one number to get a roster of non duplicated numbered cars, but now I see I will have to change from 91... to 90000 to 90499 to be correct. The subsequent Athern, and Atlas cars I have in the flat ends are numbered correctly which is a relief. Thanks for this information, because I like to be correct as much as is possible.

    Terry
     
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  6. meteor910

    meteor910 2009 Engineer of the Year Staff Member Frisco.org Supporter

    Terry - I'm glad you found the information to be of use. That's one thing I enjoy the most about the hobby - making the model as close to correct as possible. I am constantly referring to diagrams and rosters to get the correct numbers, details, trucks, brake wheels, etc.

    But, I must admit, as I'm getting older, I'm becoming more and more relaxed on some of the fine details!

    Ken
     
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  7. tmfrisco

    tmfrisco Member Frisco.org Supporter

    "

    Ken, I know what you mean. My hands are getting a little bit shaky to do some of the things I want to do:(. I just finished painting a 1950s Studebaker, and when I was painting the chrome, I kept shaking and getting chrome paint on the body:mad:. However, I finally got the two colors looking good for the six inch test:). As the Bible says, "the spirit is willing, but the body is weak." Anyway, I have started the renumbering process thanks to your information.

    Terry
     
  8. Oldguy

    Oldguy Member Frisco.org Supporter

  9. meteor910

    meteor910 2009 Engineer of the Year Staff Member Frisco.org Supporter

    Neat pic! Thanks for posting it.

    Ken
     
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  10. William Jackson

    William Jackson Bill Jackson

    Great photo, and now that, their is a reference to what the inside looks like "Time for another story"
    Those type cars were used some for company chat. We were unloading the cars on the West End one time.Very hot and everyone was tired. When the doors were popped, a small hole would cave in on the top of the rock and get bigger as rock flowed out of the cars. When most of the rock was dumped 'Snipes" or Trackmen would go down in the car and shovel out the last on the rock in the cars. Well we got to the last car and being the lazy dog I was, said " just stay in the car" another good guess, the guy's on the ground shut the doors and they kicked the string of cars down the lead. I jumped up about the time they collided with the cut of cars already in the bowl track. POW everyone rolled to the floor of the car. No one was hurt, but, Oh Dick Dobbs lost, a few pounds that day, climbed up the side of the car just in time to see him racing to try to catch the cars. Dobb's was a great guy, really worked the men. No slacking on his territory.

    The conversation went, "well where are we going now" looked up "they kicked us down the track"
    "GET READY, WE ARE GONNA ---"

     
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 9, 2014
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  11. magistrate

    magistrate Member

    Bill, I love your stories of things that happened on the job back in the day.
     
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  12. yardmaster

    yardmaster Administrator Staff Member Administrator Frisco.org Supporter

    I recently pulled out an old Atlas Frisco Hopper #90801 that I'd picked up some 16-plus years ago, when I was - to quote former Coach Frank Layden - I was "ignorant and apathetic" about rolling stock. In other words, "I didn't know and I didn't care."

    It's a nice model and one that will find its way into 1950s-1960s operations as we move forward with operating, but it does have an unusual "double-gusset" vertical support in the middle of the car. They're roughly in line with a double-row of vertical rivets.

    Looking at the drawings of #90800-91599 along with any photos of the series, I don't see this feature on the prototype. I also do not see any references to this feature in Ed Hawkins' article in Railway Prototype Cyclopedia.

    Would this have been a feature added later in the car's life for extra strengthening? Or, was it a figment of Atlas' imagination?

    As an aside, the reweigh locations are "JX". Any thoughts on where this would be? Jacksonville, FL would be my guess; I did not locate a JX on the Steam Era Freight Cars list of reweigh locations, and it's not included in FMIG Newsletter #44 for Frisco locations.

    Best Regards,
     
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  13. William Jackson

    William Jackson Bill Jackson

    Check the photo from oldguy. Frisco turned several cars into ballast cars. Don't know about the particular car you have. I have dumped cars with a center partition though. They was especially hard to get all the rock out. Most of the engineers though would help, they would knotch the throttle up and then slam on the independant. We used to call that "shaking the car" course these cars were not laced up and had no train line air. Yard or some Branches.
     
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  14. Coonskin

    Coonskin Member

    Wow, those Frisco two-bay hoppers were common as dirt around these parts (Ft. Smith and the coal fields south) for several years when I started learning this trade. (1970). So many things are gone.

    We still have to rattle the ballast cars in some conditions. A few ballast cars can add slack action to the process as well as notching out, pre-loading with the independent, then slamming the throttle shut.

    Speaking of dumping rock. Our former Superintendent started out as a MOW worker. They were dumping rock, so he hopped over to the next car and broke loose the lock, then de-ratcheted on the handle to start the rock flowing out. As it did, a leg popped out. At first, he thought one of the guys was messing with him and had stuck a manikin in there. Well, it wasn't a manikin. It seems that transient had climbed in the empty car and boozed himself unconscious. Too bad the car was spotted for rock loading.

    Some weird stuff happens "out there" on the rails.
     
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  15. William Jackson

    William Jackson Bill Jackson

    We had that issue in Gurnsey, Wy, they stripe align the coal hoppers their. Sometimes "Bo's" climb down to some type cars and can't get out. Makes for a rather bad day, when your headed for the coal flood loaders.
    You must be talking about the Ft. Smith Ry, yes I know him, he was a snipe for UP
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 19, 2015
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  16. Coonskin

    Coonskin Member

    No, talking about the A&M's former Superintendent.
     
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  17. William Jackson

    William Jackson Bill Jackson

    Sorry, I ment the A&M.
    When I was Roadmaster for KCS, we derailed on the switch going into OK foods. The one going off the A&M main. The curved closure pushed out. We had quite the talk, about who maintained the switch. As I remember it was less than six cars, so just a little one. Trying to think, the GM, was a little on the heated side. They didn't want the blame for anything. Well it was A&M responsibility, my supervisor, though said I needed to check it anyway. Their was a mess of tracks in their.
     
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  18. adams

    adams QLA-QSF

    Hey Guys, I was reading through these older posts, but one point I didn’t see addressed: Did any of the older, high-end hoppers get repainted with the big black/white coonskin? In other words, will the Athearn be accurate if simply renumbered? Thanks
     
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  19. Iantha_Branch

    Iantha_Branch Member

  20. That’s a busy paint scheme!
     

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