Eastern Railroad Discussion > ECGX Hoppers

Today I was thinking it would be nice to model a few of the ECGX 5 bay rapid discharge hoppers I used to see back in the early 90s. They were aluminum with a small box painted yellow covering two panels with black lettering and data. Is anyone else familair with these cars? Who do they belong to and where do/did they go? I haven't seen anymore in a long time. I used to see them on CSX U230 back in the 90s. They'd run from the mine (have no idea where) down to Atlanta, then down the A&WP to LaGrange GA, then up the Lineville Sub to Wilsonville then down to the plant. Kind of a round about way to get to their destination.
Anyway, could anyone make any suggestions as far as what kind of decal set i could use for the black data lettering?? Its just plain black lettering covering two panels for 5 bay hoppers. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance

Best Regards,
JWR

ECGX, Alabama Power Company

These are still out and about although I don't think they are really full 5-bay hoppers. They have three full center bays and two half bay discharge doors on either end. I think they are Thralls if I'm not way off base. Right now they are usually found on the Blue Creek mine (Jim Walthers(sp?) Resources) turns to Alabama Power at Gaston. When you were seeing them, they were loading at either the Elkay Mining Rum Creek Plant at Hutchinson, WV just south of Logan on the Logan Sub or AEI's Sigmon Complex near Hazard on the ex-L&N EK Subdivision. The Hutchinson trains stopped running with a contract expiration and the Sigmon trains ceased after a little old lady pissed off Larry Addington and he closed the Harris Branch surface mine that supplied Sigmon. She was upset after moving her trailer next to an existing haul road and could not keep her car clean. Usual routing for the Hutchinson trains was through Russell to Cincy and down the KY to Patio where crews had to run around the consist to get it pointing out the Old Road Sub to Louisville and south into Gaston. The Sigmon trains ran up the EK to Patio and down to Corbin and on into Georgia. Why these ran in this manner is only know to CSX! They both passed through Patio. The ECGX hoppers can also be found on just about any Southern Company train and a few are usually mixed in with GALX hoppers into Stilesboro or even SAVX hoppers into Rincon. Just keep your eyes open............

Robby