There's a Larry Goolsby article in Lines South, 3rd/1994 pp 4-11, on ACL and SAL freight cars from the Standard Steel Car Company. He identifies the Ambroid model as ACL 8075-8174, class U-4 (SSC, 1920), and shows a builder's photo of ACL 8174. This photo also appears in the 1922 Car Builder's Cyc, p 174, and Train Shed Cyc 62, p 220. Mr Goolsby has another article in Lines South, 1st/2002 pp 4-13, on ACL phosphate hoppers in general; the U-4 class is listed but not shown.

Hth,

Al Brown, Melbourne, Fla.

Probably has come up before, but I’ve got a question for the ACL types (Uncle Joe, etc.).  Has anyone seen photos of the prototype of the Ambroid 1 in 5000 phosphate covered hopper?  I’ve searched and searched, bought two books on ACL freight cars and no luck.  There are tons of photos online of the model and I’ve found some photos that are similar, but none dead-on.  I also cannot find an ORER with them listed as-built.  I bought two kits that were already built and have a third unbuilt kit but would like to know more about the prototype.

I think they might have originally been built as open-top ballast hoppers (Rogers?) then had the wood superstructure added to them with the unusual side loading doors.  The other unusual feature is the center discharge hoppers.  Finally, I suspect that these cars may have had the wood tops removed later, since there are similar open top hoppers listed in the 1954 ORER but mostly with saw-tooth outlets.

I think the correct series for these cars may be 8100-8199, but am not even sure of that.  Help!!!

-- John

Ted,

I wouldn't worry about it too much - Same thing happened to one of mine way back in the early days - a phone call to BlogSpot tech support took care of the problem.

Marty