Pittsburgh & West Virginia had 1,830 of these hoppers. Just 132 miles long, P&WV formed a vital link in the Alphabet Route. Nickel Plate Road picked up traffic at Chicago or St. Louis and forwarded it to the Wheeling & Lake Erie who passed it to Pittsburgh & West Virginia thence to Western Maryland for Baltimore or they could pass it on to Reading for Philadelphia or Reading’s eastern connections such as Jersey Central for the New York metropolitan area, or Jersey Central could hand it off to Lehigh & Hudson River who would hand it over to New Haven to cross the Hudson and take it to Boston. Rather than trying to write all of those reporting marks for the car routing instructions, agents could just write “Alphabet Route.” This run will be available in three road numbers.

These ready-to-run cars will feature:

• diecast 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
• coal load
• lever-style hand brake
• body mounted magnetically operating knuckle couplers
• close coupling
• Fox Valley Models metal wheels