The Franklin & South Manchester Traveling Hopper Car

[Zephyrus52246]

We run by a local produce wholesaler on the mainline "makin' time".

[Zephyrus52246]

"In the hole" waiting for The Morning Twin Zephyr to clear the mainline.

[Zephyrus52246]

Arrival at the Division point yard.  The North Coast Limited is leaving the station.  Our F3s will pull off and let the local switcher do it's job.

[ACL1504]

Jeff,

The F&SM hopper sure passed through some fine looking scenes. The layout is looking good.

Tom

[S&S RR]

Jeff


Great pictures.  I especially like the scene with Bailey's.  Your layout is really looking great.

[S&S RR]

Note to all:  Jeff is sending the F&SM hopper back to the S&S RR so it can travel to a few local layouts while awaiting orders for it's next visit.  If you would like to host the FSM Hopper please add your name to the list by posting to this thread and by sending me a PM with your mailing address.

[Zephyrus52246]

The yard switcher is going to break down the train and add the F&SM car to a local going back east. 

[Zephyrus52246]

The train is made up and the next morning it's time to deliver the coal.  Due to a motive power shortage, and since all the deliveries are close to the yard, the 0-8-0 can handle the job.  First stop is to deliver an empty refer to Stuffy's Brewing.  Looks like Stuffy had to call in the men in blue to help remove an over imbibed customer as the hopper passes by.  Could that be our friend Bob P. in the red truck?

[Zephyrus52246]

Yep, it's Bob all right, he's staked out a spot to watch the reefer being spotted.

[Zephyrus52246]

Just chuggin' along.

[Zephyrus52246]

Next stop is to deliver a box car of supplies to Forley's. 

[Zephyrus52246]

Need good communication between the switchman and the engineer, don't want to back it to far and go thru the building.

[Zephyrus52246]

The crew went to beans, and by the time they got back and were delivering the car to it's destination, it was too dark for photos.  No O. Winston Link here!  The next day the near empty was picked up.  The initial destination, run by a man with a white beard in a red suit didn't need all the coal (rumor was the local kids were good this year), but another local industry, Zepeda's heating could use the partial load, so the hopper was spotted there.

[Zephyrus52246]

The next day, the empty hopper was returned to the yard.  It was placed in a special train of cars from some of the greatest railroads ever, a "heritage train.  This was run over the entire property.

[Zephyrus52246]

Alas, it was time for our hopper to return east.  Shunted into a train of empty hoppers, it was sent back to Chicago with connections to Michigan for further adventures.  It was quite an honor to have an F&SM car on The Empire, and I want to thank George, Thom, and John for making it possible.