I just picked this 1974 Lionel Corning hopper and I've had the other one for a few years. I don't know much about the 1974 one, but wasn't it for a convention? Also, are there any other Corning hoppers besides these two?

Look in the upper right corner. It was made for the LCCA (Lionel Collectors Club of America).

Stu
http://www.LionelNation.com/
All Lionel, All The Time

Cool, thanks! Is it known how many were made?

Corning Glass Covered Hoppers had a great paint scheme, but now that Cathode Ray Tubes have been replaced by LCD Displays, the movement of glass materials inside Covered Hoppers must now be history.

Andrew

Not so Andrew. Corning Inc. (as the company is now known) diversified some years ago and put much of their effort into fiber optical cable made here at the Photonics plant. The plant making the famous line of Corelle dishes was sold to World Kitchen, who owns many other kitchen product companies.

When that market bottomed out around 2002, there were layoffs here in the thousands, which eventually included me. Rough times in this area... many business closings as a ripple effect.

Things have rebounded. While Corning Inc. has plants around the US as well as overseas, they still manufacture here. The latest locally made product is a line of ceramic diesel emmission filters.

World Kitchen (Corelle) has also been very busy with a new line of square dishes. Raw materials are still shipped into the Corelle plant in covered hoppers by rail via Norfolk Southern.

Yes, long gone are the actual real colorful hoppers (which have been made by MTH, Lionel and K-Line). On the siding heading into the plant, you typically see a host of private owner hoppers as well as CSX, NS, N&W, BNSF, Conrail, Southern and yes even at this time I've personally seen B&O hoppers still in original pre-Chessie paint.

Going by memory here, there are hoppers with a NAHX marking, but on the side of those reads a user agreement that the cars are leased by Corning Inc. - and those are still around.

Just to add to Brian's feedback, you can usually find a few parked at the filter plant which is just down the rail line from the "Corelle" plant and there will occasionally be a string parked in the Gang Mills yard.

Poppyl

Good to know that the dire and disimal articles and news stories about the bad times at the Corning Plant were incorrect.

Custom company paint schemes on most cars are now faded and not applied again with the constant changing of car owners and new cars being built often.

Andrew

Falcon Service

So did Corning really have hoppers painted like these?

MTH also made C0rning Hoppers.

Greenbergs Guide to Lionel Trains 1970-1991 Lionel Vol II list 1500 of the 1974 cars being produced.

PRRfan

In answer to your question, Yes, Corning did have 2 bay hoppers painted exactly like the model pictured. I grew up just South of Corning and used to see them through the 70's; however, I never saw anything that looks like the 4 bay hopper.

In addition to the cars shown, the 2 bay has been done in N scale by Atlas, and recently in HO scale by Athearn; before that Herald King offered a decal set for this scheme in HO.

Maybe it's a hometown kind of thing but this has always been one of my favorite freight car paint schemes.

Mr Z

I love the Corning area, it's a great town. We used to vacation in Wellsboro as a kid and my dad has worked for Corning for years, so we use to go across the border.

That's great Corning had their own cars, I didn't think they were prototipical. I believe K-Line made a two-bay in the early 90's, but I'm not sure if it was open or covered.

quote:

Originally posted by ed h:
Greenbergs Guide to Lionel Trains 1970-1991 Lionel Vol II list 1500 of the 1974 cars being produced.

Thanks Ed, more limited than I guessed.

Somebody has to round up the MTH Premier Corning Covered Hoppers for one photo.

I have both of the MTH hoppers.I will look for them and take a photo.
K-Line also made one.

I found the Corning hoppers on MTH's website. There nice looking, but are they grey or green?

http://www.railking1gauge.com/list4.asp?qwest=0&cat=any...with+Advanced+Search

The MTH photos show their versions as cool gray while the photo of the real cars show them as a shade of green. Somebody might be blue-green color blind at MTH.


Andrew

Andrew;

The most "recent" version of the real hoppers was gray with blue lettering. Except for the lettering, they look just like any other covered bulk hopper in terms of their shade of gray. Even those hoppers may be a legacy of the past as most of the hoppers at the filter plant, for example, are of the plain vanilla gray type.

Poppyl