These cars did not survive much past 1893, when the furnace
closed down and the Billmeyer and Small eight-wheel 10-ton
self-clearing hopper cars replaced them.
Modeling these cars in the larger scales is easy with avail-
ability of the “Buck Jimmy” cars in On30 from Boulder Valley
Models. While based on Mann’s Creek prototypes, they
are very much usable for the similar designs the East Broad
Top used. The Grandt Line car seen in the photo could be a
substitute. The BTS mine car could be the starting point for
the car, but these are stationary models and a lot of work is
needed to get them to run.
The eight-wheel dumps
In 1874, the East Broad Top received the first cars from
Billmeyer and Small that became the standard hopper car until
the advent of steel cars. These were eight-wheel, 10-ton all-
wood hopper cars. They were 23’6” long and 6’ wide with a
light weight of 9,500 pounds, and a capacity of 10 long tons
(22,400 lbs.). The cars were so popular that the railroad pur-
chased 132 of the design by 1882. In addition to purchasing
the hopper cars, the East Broad Top began to build their own
copies of the car. Apparently there were some deficiencies
with the design, as the EBT began to beef-up the cars, increas-
ing their light weight to 11,400 lbs. or more, yet retaining the
same 10-ton capacity. This particular design became the stan-
dard East Broad Top hopper, with the number of cars in service
growing to 366 by 1913.
While the majority of these cars remained the 10-ton size,
the railroad built 94 of the cars with a capacity of 15 tons and
10 with a 20-ton capacity. During this period the railroad also
scrapped or retired 117 of the 10-ton cars.
