Model Railroading > Southern Hog head tobacco Car.

A friend of mine was given a Southern Hog Head Tobacco car at our clubs annual meeting. He was wondering what company m might have made it. It has no marking on the car to ID the manufacturer. Any help in ID the manufacturer is greatly appreciated. By the way it's a HO scale car.

Paul B
Canton, GA

IIRC Ambroid sold something like that.
It was a wood kit.

The Ambroid kit was #6 in the Second Series of One of Five Thousand limited edition models first advertised in November 1965.  The kit was made for Ambroid by Northeastern Scale Models as Ambroid was an adhesives manufacturer and included a small tube of glue in each kit to promote their product.  The hogshead car length discouraged many modelers because of radius concerns.  The Ambroid name appeared on the box and instruction sheet.  
jb
p.s. prototype car was 84 ft long



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 03/26/24 07:55 by boejoe.

Can you elaborate on that? Was is track radius or radius on the car construction? 

Victor Baird

boejoe Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> T.  The hogshead car length discouraged
> many modelers because of radius concerns.  

Quality Craft also made one that was available for many years. Roughly 1965. Quality Craft evolved into Weaver and finally closed in 2015. Quality Craft sold the paint they used on their models as Scale Coat, which started changing hands with the closing of Weaver.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/26/24 03:11 by Lighter.

wabash2800 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Can you elaborate on that? Was is track radius or
> radius on the car construction? 
>
> Victor Baird
>
> boejoe Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > T.  The hogshead car length discouraged
> > many modelers because of radius concerns.  

Victor et al;  the prototype was 84 ft long.  Lengthy for a freight car in those days - model railroaders in the mid sixties were accustomed to 40 ft and 50 ft boxcars.
jb

Many of the HO wood kits under the QC name reappeared as Gloor Craft out of Ohio for a period of time.
jb

Lighter Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Quality Craft also made one that was available for
> many years. Roughly 1965. Quality Craft evolved
> into Weaver and finally closed in 2015. Quality
> Craft sold the paint they used on their models as
> Scale Coat, which started changing hands with the
> closing of Weaver.

I assembled many of the Quality Craft HO kits.  I have a list of 87 models that they offered under the QC label.  In addition, they offered Prestige (limited edition) kits in silver packaging from 1970 to 1980 (20 kits).  They also made kits for private label firms: JMC, Pro-Custom, Empire City, Bev-Bel, Custom Trains in Canada.  They produced the Heritage Series for Ambroid: 26 different models from 1969 until late 70's in O as well as HO scales.
I do not remember, nor have a record of a tobacco hogshead car by Quality Craft.  I think that was proprietary to the Northeastern Scale Models version sold under the Ambroid name.
jb

> I do not remember, nor have a record of a tobacco
> hogshead car by Quality Craft. 

Different prototype from the Ambroid. 60 foot rather than the eighty-four plus. There are photos of the parts and box on eBay and other internet places. I found a note on a Trainorders discussion from 2007. Here's a quote;
"The car was designed by Southern Railway. It has an inside length of 84 ft. -4 in., and a width of 9 ft. -6 in . . . Over-all length is 92 ft. -11/2 in."

That would make a model more than a foot long. 1960s layouts used 22" as broad curves, and 15" curves were still common.
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/26/24 09:22 by Lighter.

Thanks Folks. I'm sure he will appreciate the background info.

Paul B
Canton, GA

When not carrying tobacco, they could be found carrying other bulky items
- furniture
- cotton bales
- appliances
- tires

They made it as far as San Francisco with furniture loads. So one of these could be found on any layot

Tom Daspit
Morgan Hill, CA
Tom's Trains