Athearn #8491 N ACF 4600 3-Bay CF Hopper, C&NW #180053

Detailed Information
MODEL FEATURES:
Three body styles:
Early – High side ladder & brake wheel, single side stiffener
Mid – Low brake wheel, short side ladders both ends, single side stiffener
Late – Low brake wheel, short side ladders both ends, double side stiffeners (post 1971)
Round or trough hatches
Photo-etched metal roofwalk
Separately applied wire grab irons and stirrup steps
Detailed outlets
Multiple roadnumbers
Fully-assembled and ready-to-run out of the box
Accurately painted and printed
Highly-detailed, injection molded body
Separately applied brake wheel
Screw mounted trucks
100-ton trucks with 36″ machined metal wheels
Body-mounted McHenry® operating scale knuckle couplers
Weighted for optimum performance
Minimum radius: 9¾”
PRIMED FOR GRIME MODELS FEATURE
Duplicated look and feel of “In Service” equipment
Faded base colors matched to the prototype
Perfect starting point for adding grime and rust
PROTOTYPE AND BACKGROUND INFO:
The 3-bay CenterFlow covered hopper first entered service in the mid-1960s, built by American Car and Foundry. The cars handle loads such as grain, corn and similar bulk commodities. The Centerflow design relies on the car’s rounded body to provide structural strength – eliminating the traditional center sill, and making gravity unloading easier.

Our 3-bay car represents the common 4600 cu.ft. capacity version. The railroads looking to replace their aging 40′ box cars in grain service needed a modern hopper design – one that could operate within the tighter Plate B clearances for light branchline and industrial service. ACF’s design won them many contracts from a plethora of railroads. One can find these cars still in revenue service today in grain trains and other similar service.