Model Railroading > Available now! Arrowhead Models Committee Design Hoppers!

Arrowhead Models has released Bethlehem and Pullman Standard versions of its Committee Design hopper in Rio Grande and Penn Central paint schemes. We've also developed an all-new 70-ton ACF Ride Control Solid Bearing truck that is available on the Penn Central car. These are available now as an advance order; the models are on the water now, and they ship to customers in February. See Arrowhead Models website for more information and to view our gallery of photographs.

About the Rio Grande:

About the Prototype:

In 1960, the Denver & Rio Grande Western purchased its first lot of Committee Design hoppers. These were built by Bethlehem Steel Company and assigned the number series #17500-17699. Up to 1957, the D&RGW had a well-established history of using drop bottom gondolas for coal service. Although the Committee lot was not the first 70-ton open HT class hoppers for the Rio Grande, it was perhaps the most important pivot towards HT class cars. From here forward, the Rio Grande never looked back–both in terms of the Committee Design and its builder, Bethlehem Steel. Every new HT AAR class car that the D&RGW purchased was from Bethlehem, and every new, 70-ton HT class car the Rio Grande acquired was of the committee design. In total, D&RGW would own 800 Committee Design hoppers. This car comprised 44% of the total 70-ton hopper fleet. The remainder of the fleet was divided among smaller lots of varying designs.If you want to learn more about Rio Grande’s Committee Design hopper, read Blaine Hadfield's article in the 2nd Quarter 2018, Volume 17, No. 2 edition of The Prospector, the official publication of the Rio Grande Modeling & Historical Society.

About the Paint Scheme:

Meticulously researched, industry leading paint and graphics.This release represents the original October 1960 delivery. The paint scheme differs from our previous offering, and typically of an Arrowhead model, the artwork is spectacularly rendered with completely accurate lettering styles and colors. In total, 18 road numbers are available through Arrowhead Models; 12 road numbers are available from Arrowhead Models or any Arrowhead Models retailer. An additional 6 road numbers are available only from Spring Creek Model Trains. See www.springcreekmodeltrains.com for more information on these cars.

About the Model:

Arrowhead’s Rio Grande Committee Design hopper consists of 167 parts per car. This family of hoppers are the most detailed, part intensive open hoppers in HO Scale. We have matched the specific details of the Bethlehem Steel built cars, including the obvious details, like: Wine gate appliances, Wine hand brake and brake layout, and less obvious details, like: the combination 1942-design hand brake and 1955-design brake wheel, the unique retaining and release rod configurations, and the Pullman defect card holder.That’s right: everything down to the correct styles of defect card holders are accurately matched.

How does the Bethlehem Rio Grande model differ from our Pullman-Standard Penn Central model, you ask?

70-ton ASF ‘Ride Control’ roller bearing trucks
L-shaped AR/BL superior grab iron
Wine double door locks
Wine hopper doors and frames
Miner 1942 handbrake
Retaining valve location
Retaining and release valve rods
Brake rod and lever arrangements
Bethlehem defect card holder


About the Penn Central cars:

About the Prototype:

The Committee Design hopper is the most important open hopper on the Penn Central railroad. The car was developed as a joint effort between the Pennsylvania, Norfolk & Western and Chesapeake and Ohio railroads. Production was between July of 1958 and September of 1962. Although it happened to be the case that all three of these railroads owned a version of the Committee Design car, the Pennsylvania Railroad married it.Across 15 lots and 5 builders, the PRR rostered 16,160 hoppers. These cars passed through Penn Central in massive quantities–such that: when Penn Central became Conrail in 1976, 15,087 Committee Design cars went into Conrail ownership! The magnitude of this lot was so large that Conrail abandoned early attempts to standardize around 100-ton conveyances. If you model the railroads of the Northeast from 1958 through the 1980s, the Committee Design Hopper isn’t an important hopper car–it is THE important hopper car. If you want to learn more about this prototype, read Arrowhead's / Blaine Hadfield's article in the 2nd Quarter 2018, Volume 17, No. 2 edition of The Prospector, the official publication of the Rio Grande Modeling & Historical Society. Also, see the book Pennsylvania Railroad Steel Open Hopper Cars by John Teichmoeller, and the article in the September 1990 Mainline magazine by Andrew Dow entitled 'The 70 Ton Standard Car of 1958'.

About the Paint Scheme:

Arrowhead Models is offering the Penn Central Committee Design hopper in 14 road numbers and 4 unique paint schemes–all of which are a subtle variation of the standard diagram: black cars with standard reporting marks, road numbers and PC emblem. The difference between these schemes is that they have different Hollidaysburg shop dates and small variations in the COTS, ACI and capacity data.The skus / road numbers from this paint scheme set are organized so that each have: double COTS, ACI and Hollidaysburg 11-75 Shop stencils.Penn Central's Committee Design cars are of Pennsylvania Railroad heritage, and each car bears the correct PRR road number near the trust stencil per the Penn Central’s practice of documenting original ownership.Official lettering diagrams were procured, and then we didn't rest on those laurels, we compared data against our own field notes of extant PC Committee Design cars. Additionally, we worked with the Penn Central Historical Society and procured our own photographs and data of PC cars over a period of 4 years!

About the Model:

The design of every part of this model is driven by dimensional data. There is no part where the designer looked at a photograph and "eye-balled" it. No part of the design is scaled from a photograph. There is no guess work and no derived measurements. We had fabrication prints; we had the actual parts in hand, or we meticulously field measured it.Arrowhead’s Penn Central Committee Design hopper consists of 187 parts per car. It is the most detailed, part intensive open hopper in HO Scale. We have matched the specific details of the Pullman-Standard built cars, including the obvious details, like: Miner gate appliances, Miner hand brake and brake layout, and less obvious details, like: the combination 1942-design hand brake and 1955-design brake wheel, the unique retaining and release rod configurations, and the Pullman defect card holder.That’s right: even the correct styles of defect card holders are accurately matched.

For more information, please see Arrowhead Models webspage, and thank you to the organizers of Trainorders for allowing us to post.

Blaine Hadfield
Arrowhead Models

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Need some UTAH RSDs and about 30 of the Grande cars!

Thats a beautiful hopper and the detail is fabulous. In this long dissertation there isn't one mention of price. I guess if you have to ask, you cant afford it.

$58.95 on the website.

Posted from Android

I hope you're doing ok Blaine.  Great product!  It's just difficult to get a company going smoothly the first few years, I hope life is treating you well.

Thank you. Between factory closures in 2019, Covid in 2020-21 and a demanding new factory partnership in 2022, it has been a challenge indeed. Honestly, I appreciate the voice of support. I hope to land some good projects for you and our customers.

My best,

Blaine Hadfield
Arrowhead Models 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/24/23 16:11 by choochooboy.