In a message dated 6/24/02 11:46:45 AM, brockm@... writes:

Shawn Beckert writes:

Someone mentioned that one of the Sunshine mini-kits was
a replacement roof for the Kato ACF 70-Ton hopper. I'm
afraid to ask this, but: what was wrong with the Kato roof?

Mike Brock's reply:

I'm not going to address problems with the roof, but I do believe that
the Kato car more closely models the General American car rather than ACF.
Here's a message I sent out a yr ago on this subject:

<SNIP>

Shawn and Mike,
In addition to the ATSF cars built by AC&F, there were quite a few other 1958
cubic foot covered hoppers with ribbed roofs (compared to smooth roofs with
no carlines). These included CB&Q/C&S/FW&D, CIL, D&RGW, DMIR, EJ&E, GN, GTW,
LS&BC, M-I, MP (and subsidiaries I-GN and StLB&M), MKT, SL-SF, and some
private owners. The roof configuration had absolutely nothing to do with who
built the cars, although some builders (like Pullman-Standard to my
knowledge) built cars using smooth roofs with no carlines. For example, Santa
Fe ribbed roof cars were built by both AC&F and GATC. Mopac ribbed roof cars
were built by AC&F, Mount Vernon, and their own company shops.

The design for the 1958 cubic foot car was ACF's and they held patents on the
design. I'm not sure what arrangement was made for the other car builders
that produced cars of the ACF design (probably some royalty agreement), but
the basic design was the same. AC&F first built the cars in 1936, while the
other car builder's didn't produce any until 1940. Having said that, there
were numerous variations on the roof, hatch, and locking arrangements.
Virtually all the P-S and GATC cars had double tines on their locking devices
for cars with hatches hinged next to the running board. Only one AC&F order
(for Western Maryland) had double tines. Also, there were variations with the
side panels with many cars built with "closed sides." Nearly all, if not all,
of the Pullman-Standard built cars had the opening. Whereas, GATC preferred
the closed-side arrangement on cars built after World War II. AC&F drawings
of the 1958 cubic foot car (located at the Museum of Transportation) show
many variations in the configurations. Hope this helps.
Ed Hawkins