2023 O Gauge RailKing 4-Bay Cylindrical Hopper Car Announced

August 29, 2023 - M.T.H. Electric Trains will be releasing the 2023 RailKing O Gauge 4-Bay Cylindrical Hopper Car in five unique liveries this Winter. Each of these offerings are limited in production and expected to begin shipping to M.T.H. Authorized Retailers in February 2024.

Check out each of the offerings in the list on the left.

CUSTOM RUN 4-BAY CYLINDRICAL HOPPER OFFERINGS

In addition to the M.T.H. releases, you can find all the 2023 Custom Run models of the RailKing O Gauge 4-Bay Cylindrical Hopper offerings that M.T.H. is producing for M.T.H. Authorized Retailers by going HERE.

PROTOTYPE HISTORY

Until the advent of the covered hopper, bulk commodities like grain and cement were packed in sacks and loaded into boxcars. Loading and unloading was a tedious, time-consuming affair. In the 1930s, a few railroads took the basic coal hopper design and added a roof with loading hatches, enabling bulk commodities to be loaded from the top and unloaded from the bottom. In 1953, Pullman-Standard’s 70-ton PS-2 became the first mass-produced covered hopper to be widely owned by U.S. railroads.

But these pioneering covered hoppers had one problem: Like other cars of their time, they were built on a frame with a center sill, or support beam, that ran down the middle. Some of the load would cake or collect on the beam, making it difficult to fully unload the cars. In 1961, American Car and Foundry solved the problem with the first center-flow covered hopper, with its support beams on the outside of the frame and unobstructed, full-width unloading doors. Today’s cylindrical hoppers are all descended from that ACF innovation. Our model represents a modern 100-ton, 4-bay car designed for lighter density loads like grains and plastic pellets; denser commodities are generally shipped in 2- or 3-bay cars.

Check out each of the offerings in the list on the left.