Good Morning Clark,
What we were trying to say is that the RI mostly used GS gondolas for coal hauling during the steam era, having only wood Seeley type cars
that were off the roster in the 30’s scrap drives and two small groups of steel two bay cars built in 1940 and early 1942.
RI 89600 – 897490 (150 cars) were built in 1940 by Pullman. In RPCyc 25, they are described as part of 900 Pullman lot 5610 hoppers that
had some unique features. Accurail’s new car carries numbers in this series. The most obvious difference is on the prototype, the two inner posts on the ends should be inward facing channels that terminate at the bottom of the end panel. The location of
the crease in the side panels, which parallels the slope sheet, is slightly different. There is a very nice builder’s photo and comparisons with the Accurail model in the Remember the Rock magazine, Volume 8 numbers 3&4, which is recently published.
RI 89400 – 89599 (200 cars) were built in 1942 by ACF. According to RPCyc 25, they are AAR standard 50 ton cars. They had heap shield
ends, as shown in our book. There is a builder’s photo in RPCyc 9 along with one showing how about 129 of these cars had roofs added around 1950. So, your choices probably are finding the Athearn car with heap shields, which are not exactly correct as the
RI car has no notch in the heap shield. Sunshine made a mini-kit for the hopper cover.
I hope that this is what you need. Please let me know if need something more specific.
Regards,
Steve Hile
From: STMFC@... [mailto:STMFC@...]
On Behalf Of cepropst@q.com
Sent: Friday, November 29, 2013 12:24 PM
To: STMFC
Subject: [STMFC] Question for Steve Hile, or whoever answers : )
I’m considering modeling RI hopper 89456 from series 89400-89599. I’m confused (what else is new) by the caption in the Morning Sun
color book. It lists different builders in this series, but but not much else.
So, my question is: Which model do I use for this car?
Clark Propst
Mason City Iowa
