The cars operated in service until 1927 when numbers 618,
633, 636, and 638 were retired. Remember these numbers,
as you will see them again in a different configuration. 616,
619, and 637 were retired in 1931; eleven more were retired
in 1934, leaving 22 of the cars remaining on the roster until all
were retired in 1943 – a 41-year stretch.
The only model of this car, or one similar to it, was in HO, and it
was a brass import from Overland in the early 1980s. This leaves
the only option of scratchbuilding the cars in all scales. The
Timber Transfer
published plans for this car, and
Railroad Model
Craftsman
published a similar car used by the Quincy and Torch
Lake in May, 1987. The following month, June, 1987,
Railroad
Model Craftsman
published a construction article for the Q&TL
cars by Wayne Wesolowski.
Model Railroader
published an
article by Jack Work in October 1958 on a wooden hopper car
used by the Canadian Collieries Ltd Rwy in British Columbia that
would also be useful. All of these articles are out of print.
The 800-series two-bay steel cars
1913 was a pivotal year for the East Broad Top, as it brought
the beginnings of the fleet modernization in the form of the
first steel hoppers arriving on the property. Steel hopper cars
weren’t new – the first cars were constructed for the Pittsburgh,
Bessemer, and Lake Erie in 1887. The mighty Pennsy started with
their famous GL class of hoppers in July, 1898, and had more
than 20,000 on the roster by January, 1904.
The East Broad Top took delivery of 10 steel hoppers from
Pressed Steel Car Company in 1913. The cars were 25’ 9” long
and 30-ton capacity. They were numbered 800-809. Then in
1914, the railroad again took delivery of 30 more cars from
PSC numbered 810-839, and produced an equal number of
Lite and Narrow Column - 5
Atlantic purchased the railroad and standard-gauged it, making
the cars surplus equipment.
When the cars arrived on the East Broad Top property, they were
equipped with arch bar trucks and hand brakes. They probably
had link-and-pin couplers as well. The cars were 20’ 6” long and
7’ 7” wide with two hoppers. They had a 40,000 lb. capacity and
were the largest cars on the roster until the advent of steel cars
in 1913.
In 1914-1915 the EBT rebuilt the cars with steel liners inside
the wood bodies, Vulcan trucks, automatic couplers and air
brakes. These upgrades also increased the load capacity to
60,000 lbs.
6
6. On3 model of Hancock and Calumet car in service
on David Crement’s East Broad Top layout. The car is
scratchbuilt. This is an updated car with steel lining
and Vulcan trucks. David Crement photo.
MRH-Dec 2014
