The AAR had a standard 70 ton rib side hopper, however New York Central made changes to the AAR design in 1956, and their variation became popular with more railroads than the original AAR standard. These cars were lower and shorter than later 90 and 100 ton cars but had more ribs (making for 14 full length panels.) Thirteen of the fifteen ribs were welded in place instead of riveted. These cars were built by a number of builders from 1956 through the late 60s with many serving through the 1990s and perhaps beyond...

  Boston & Albany 14-Panel 3 Bay Hoppers. This fleet had been delivered to B&A parent New York Central with NYC numbers as part of their massive 7,000 car 14-Panel hopper fleet (see Bluford’s previous releases of 14021, 14023, 14026,and 14020 with a total of 20 road numbers.) With just a few years in service, NYC renumbered 650 of these hoppers for subsidiary Boston & Albany. They continued to wear NYC oval logos however. The reason for the renumbering is unclear although “tax reasons” would be a possible culprit. Some of these cars wore these numbers into the 1980s under Conrail ownership. This design of hopper car was developed by New York Central in 1956 as an alternative to the AAR standard9-Panel 70 Ton 3 Bay hopper. NYC really hit on something because their 14-Panel design became popular with more
railroads than the AAR version. These Boston & Albany hoppers will be available in 6 road numbers

Features:

►Friction bearing or roller bearing trucks as appropriate for each road name
► fully molded air tank and valve with piping, slope sheet braces
► body mounted brake hose detail
►separate brake cylinder, rod and lever detail (a first on an N scale open hopper!)
► body mounted magnetically operating couplers
► coal load
► diecast slope sheets and center sill
► and injection molded plastic sides, ends and hopper doors

All runs will be available in multiple road numbers (a single and one of each of the multi-packs gives you one of each road number available.)

Reserve Before March 31,2011 

Delivery Expected September 2011