Athearn 8488 N Scale ACF 46003 Bay Covered Hopper Ex-GTW AEX 389

The 3-bay CenterFlow covered hopper first entered service in the mid-1960s, built by American Car and Foundry. The cars handle loads such as grain, corn and similar bulk commodities. The Centerflow design relies on the car’s rounded body to provide structural strength – eliminating the traditional center sill, and making gravity unloading easier.

This 3-bay car represents the common 4600 cu.ft. capacity version. The railroads looking to replace their aging 40′ box cars in grain service needed a modern hopper design – one that could operate within the tighter Plate B clearances for light branchline and industrial service. ACF’s design won them many contracts from a plethora of railroads. One can find these cars still in revenue service today in grain trains and other similar service.

FEATURES:

• Three body styles:
• Early – High side ladder & brake wheel, single side stiffener
• Mid – Low brake wheel, short side ladders both ends, single side stiffener
• Late – Low brake wheel, short side ladders both ends, double side stiffeners (post 1971)
• Round or trough hatches
• Photo-etched metal roofwalk
• Separately applied wire grab irons and stirrup steps
• Detailed outlets
• Multiple roadnumbers
• Fully-assembled and ready-to-run out of the box
• Accurately painted and printed
• Highly-detailed, injection molded body
• Separately applied brake wheel
• Screw mounted trucks
• 100-ton trucks with 36″ machined metal wheels
• Body-mounted McHenry® operating scale knuckle couplers
• Weighted for optimum performance
• Minimum radius: 9¾”