NYC "Flexi-Flo" hopper

I'm trying to find info on these odd cars and would like to know who built them and what kind of Service the New York Central, Penn Central, and later Conrail used them for. The first 7 photos show the flexi-flo cars that I am looking at. http://www.mrhobby.com/flexi.html

Originally custom built for NYC starting in 1964 by American Car and Foundry; passed to PC and successor roads. Many used in bulk cement service.

I "donated" a shot of one of these in Merchants Despatch Transit paint to the Fallen Flags site. I believe it was the last paint scheme the cars wore, and the cars were among the last in the MDT roster (well after the refrigerator cars were long gone).

I'll try to dig out the image I sent to FF and post a smaller version here later.

Some spent their last years (the newest ones turned 40 in 2006) were assigned to Specialty Minerals in Adams, MA on ST and carried FSSX reporting marks.

out of curiosity how many of these cars were built??

There were three Lots of 125-ton Pressure Differential cars as follows:

Lot 941-H NYC 885800-885824 25 Cars ACF 1964

Lot 963-H NYC 885825-885899 75 Cars ACF 1965

Lot 996-H NYC 885680-885799 125 Cars ACF 1966

885810, 885815, 885820, 885894-885896 had interior linings and aluminum discharge piping meeting FDA requirements.

These cars, at least some anyway, are alive and well under different roadnames.

Here is the SYSC version

http://RailcarPhotos.com/Search.php?Sea ... rch=Search

Thanks as well for the great researc phots and info in this thread. I picked up a few N Scale AHM models of this car and this tells the story of this model.

Thanks,
Kent

If you can find them, which is not easy, Eastern Seaboard Models did these same N Scale cars in prototypical paint schemes. Brian did NYC, PC, and Conrail if I recall correctly, in several different versions. I only have the NYC version since it's the only one close to my railroad's time period (they are "too new" for me, strictly speaking).

None of the cars AHM imported from Lima are painted for any railroad or private owner that actually had them. They are pretty decent models considering how long ago they were made. AHM also imported the same car in HO Scale.

umtrr-author wrote:I "donated" a shot of one of these in Merchants Despatch Transit paint to the Fallen Flags site. I believe it was the last paint scheme the cars wore, and the cars were among the last in the MDT roster (well after the refrigerator cars were long gone).

I'll try to dig out the image I sent to FF and post a smaller version here later.

And here they are... finally...

umtrr-author wrote:If you can find them, which is not easy, Eastern Seaboard Models did these same N Scale cars in prototypical paint schemes. Brian did NYC, PC, and Conrail if I recall correctly, in several different versions. I only have the NYC version since it's the only one close to my railroad's time period (they are "too new" for me, strictly speaking).

None of the cars AHM imported from Lima are painted for any railroad or private owner that actually had them. They are pretty decent models considering how long ago they were made. AHM also imported the same car in HO Scale.

I found 9 of these in N Scale for nearley $80.00 on E-Bay in varyed Patch jobs and lettered for Conrail/Penn Centralpatch jobs and Penn Cenral/New York Central patch jobs. I have 1 double number if anyone is intrested in it. It is in full Conrail Dress it is light gray color with no outher logos on it out side of it saying Conrail with a logo on it..

Nine for $80 isn't all that bad of a deal. According to the Eastern Seaboard Models website:

http://www.esmc.com/ProdLine1100.html

(Hover over the "1100 ACF 3500pd Covered Hopper" at the left and you'll get a pull out menu showing each release.)

the cars' price is/was $16.00 each. There were nine total paint schemes available. Based on the ESM website some are still available directly.