Chicago & Illinois Western 3-bay offset side hoppers. Chicago & Illinois Western was a shortline with 33 miles of track serving a number of large industries in Harvester, Hawthorne, and Gary in the greater Chicago area. Illinois Central took stock control of the C&IW in 1924 but the shortline remained a separate operation with their own locomotives and freight cars. IC influence can be seen in the C&IW’s lettering style which is very similar to IC’s pre-1967 practices. Speaking of which, the wonky spacing in the lettering is prototypical for these cars. It looks as if they had all the stencils for “Chicago,” “Illinois,” and “Western” spaced perfectly and then realized they left out the “&.” C&IW was finally merged into Illinois Central shortly before the ICG merger. Don’t confuse this line with the Chicago & Western Indiana (C&WI) which was the terminal road for Dearborn Station in Chicago. This run will be available in 3 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
• Injection molded plastic sides, ends and hopper doors

Order Deadline Nov. 29, 2011

Expected Release: July 2012