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 cars 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. ACFs design won them many contracts from a plethora of railroads